Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1879-04-09
Treatment and Conduct of Women Ir
- America

The Golden Rule: .'Do We unto
others as ye would that others should
do unto you," often shortened to the
homely phrase DO as you would be
done by" displays in great prominence
the fact in human nature, that what
ever we require we are under certain
obligations to supply. Continual ask
ing, with a total absence of giving,
forms that zone sided" system drolly
said to be "like the handle of Jug"
and it does not nee the wisdom of Sol
omon to understand that any such sys-
TEN, however well it NAV work for a
time, must eventually fall into disfavor
and failure.
These suggestions which may seem
to many very trite, have their origin in
fact of considerable importance-none
the less important probably, because
very many do not recognize it, and
still others who do recognize it blindly,
fail to understand the whole omen in
volved. The women of America are
gradually it is to be feared, placing
themselves in a false position. IL they
do not take heed to their steps, they
may emerge with a loss of what to
them is very dear and indeed lin their
dea) Indispensable. L~,ause we do not
wish them TO work blindly when the
light is so easily supplied, and because
we do not wish the very loveliest body
of women on earth to place themselves
too declaredly in false position from
which they can only retreat with loss,
we feel like saying few words, in
tended entirely for their benefit.
We have said that they are "the very
loveliest body of women on earth"-
the women of America. (We do not
use the hacsneyed fashionable word,
other at once conveys and covers so
much more.) There can be no doubt
of the justice of the claim here made
for them. As body, and an average,
the women of America, all classes be-
ing considered, are not only in advance
of their sisters of any other nation on
the globe, but they are actually beyond
the range of comparison. Certain
classes in some of the European coun-
tries, may claim to have very nearly
! the same standard of attractiyeness ;
| bu: To certain classes only can the
claim be applied with any hope of sue
cess. The daughters OF the aristocracy
of England, with nurture of the most
careful, health-preserving opportuni-
ties of the most enviable, and all the
surroundings of life that can be con-
sidered as advantages, certainly pre-
sent, when seen in the park or the ball
room, a wonderful array of loveliness Z;
but even they could scarcely il actual
ly, hold rank with very much lower
class of American women, if the latter
had the same advantages of dress and
personal ornamentation and their sis
ters. lower down in the scale, cannot
be named in the same connection. Old
travellers on the continent Of Europe,
say that in one place-the Jardina Co
Va, at Milan, in Italy, the array OF
loveliness is sometimes bewildering,
even to an American eye, and that
hundred upon hundred of girls and
young women may there be seen, each
capable of giving heart-ache to the
impre.sible. But the wisest of these
observers take notice, and make a CON-
ment Of the fact, that the Milan, sc girls
on these occasions of evening resort
and amusement, are never cucumber
ed with the concealing if not -disfigur-
ing bonnet that they simply wear the
Spanish mantilla, flirt the Spanish fan,
and so enjoy all the advantages tney
NAV possess in the way of hair and
shape of head, in addition to what
American girls could show of the beau
Y of eyes, play of feature. and grace
fulness of figure.
Undoubtedly, the American women
are, as an average the handsomest in
the world-beyond question, so up to
at least middle life and the changes
consequent upon maternity. Undoubt.
edly the men of America, az regards
the treatment of women, are the mosI
thivalrous of any other race now liv.
ing. not only as among the shades OF
the country, or exceptionally in the
South and the Far West, where the ro-
mantle is supposed to have a more
abiding hold than in the Commercial
East and its chief cities, New York
Philadelphia, Boston and the other:
approaching them In size and import.
anee. Nowhere else on the earth, are
women expected TO do so little i'm the
way of earning the bread to be eaten;
nowhere else are they considered en-
titled to so inevitable "front seat" in
every place of public amusement ol
mode of conveyance. More than any
where else in the world, in the Amer
lea of the closing nineteenth century
is the lifted hat or he apOlegetic wore
so common; nowhere else is the softes
; half of humanity considered so unIm
peachably the nobler half, to be guard
, ed, yielded to and comparatively wor
shipped.
And yet, the truth must be told, thu
last ten years, and even more than th'
, last ten, the last five. have witnessed ;
, notable falling off in the chivalrou
treatment accorded to women unknown
| BY those males who chanced to be hun:
into contact with them. The occupie,
seat is not so frequently given up b.
the gentleman in car and stage, as i
was five or ten years ago; the effort !
+ not so general a one, to save the lad,
: from having to lear any of the bur
thens of travel or society. Some hav
blindly recognized the fact; some hav
refused to notice it; some have deter
minedly denied it, yet the fact remains
, and the best lovers of womanhood ad
= hitting it, set themselves to discove
what it means.
1t is not, certainly, that we are as
, people, worse hammered than we wer
+ ten OF twenty years ago. By no means
The general tone of manners has ma