The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-06-19
QUESTIONS OF MODESTY.
what SbecLs SOuthern Women In the
Norfh.

What Shocks Southern Women In the
Nor1h.
ProYidense, Il. l., Dispatcb.
1t is strange how different civilization
looks upon the same matter. In Japan,
for instance, men, women and children
bathe freely together without ve5tige
of C othing, and with no thought OF sugs
gestion Uf indeney. There is, in the
United States, even, g wide difference in
the views which women of different Sec
tions entertain in respect to what con-
stitutes an insult from q man. Is is un~
deniable that at the north a degrees Of
contact and familiarity is tolerated with
out 8 thought of impropriety, which in
the south is resented as an impertinence
and insOlence. The recent tragedy at
Richmond, Va, in which Charles @.
Curtis was shot dead By John Poindex>
ter, is q case in point. The murdered
man had complimented Miss Isabella
OottTell, PoindeXter's sweetheart, on her
pretty foot, and had, as the young lady
declared, squeezed her arm rather TOO
warmly in helping her into the carriage.
With this as q pToyocstion, PoiEdexteT
coWhided Curtis and then shot him dead,
and the jury could not agree that POin-
dexter had committed q crime in taking
Curtis life.
A New York girl the other day invited
her e1nt from Savannah, who was visita
ing her, to enter Broadway shoe store
with her. Arsminta, the niece, much
to her aged relatives horror, projected
her pretty foot and ankle across the
clerks knee, had her old boots removed
and submitted interestedly, holding her
dress conveniently out of the way, while
the clerk began encasing the fair ones
neither extremities in a new and extra
| long pair of fifteen dollar 4" high. but
toner's" The Savannah aunt was shock
ed beyond expression at her niece's
strange immodesty in exposing her
steckinged feet to male gaze, and when
the shoe clerk, beginning at the lower
buttons, gradually progressed in his up
ward work, Georgia modesty and pros
| priety could no longer endure the
| shocking spectacle, and down came the
sun umbrella on the shoe clerks head
with Whack, aud her fingers tingling
with shame made busy with his hair
1t was to no purpose that Arsminta ex-
| plained that such occurrences were the
I" regular thing" in New York. That is
undoubtedly the truth, and the reporter
who has been interviewing New York
bellies, apropos OF the bloody tragedy at
| Richmond, doubtless correctly reports
the views which prevail among the
women in Gotham.
At the south, however, there Is no
immediate prospect of the adoption of
| the views or the degree of freedom from
men which is tolerated in New York and
| elsewhere in the north. Nor can it be
denied that the looseness which many
| shoe clerks, hacksdTivers, car-cOnductOrs,
policemen and others exhibit at the
north in handling women is, from the
southern standpoint, very shocking.
| They find a breastpin out of plumb, or
| q hairpin sticking sixteenth of an inch
| further out than it should, or lock of
hair astray, or watch slipping out of g
belt, or 3 gather of s dress has started
| the stitching, or a flower in the hat
droops q trife, or the shaWlpin doesn't
hang just SO. and they insist on fixing
| these matters, and keep fumbling and
paving and picking away at lady until
attention is drawn to the performance
and annoyance is the result. One OF
| these fellows will put his hand under 8
lady's elbow to lift her over q straw on
the walk or across a six.inch gutter, and,
| when going up a rise of two or three
steps, will insist upon putting his hand
upon her waist and partially lifting her
up. If he helps her into carliage, he
wants to lift her in, and, in assisting her
to alight, he makes her Jump into his
arms where he holds her as long IS he
dares. While riding with her he always
has his h8nd on the seat behind her,
ready to seize her waist every time there
is a jolt big enough to give him an ex-
| cuse for doing so. In fact, he seems to
be continually aching to paw, In one
! i
company he is thrown. It may not be
improper between people pretty well &C
quainted with each other, but it doesn't
look well, and ladies, while they don't
like to appear to be annoyed, still feel SC
and wish to he let alone.