Morning journal and courier., 1880-06-21
American Women. TFrOT1o tho I111xy AfIoT1fio

The men of nation inevitably make the 1 women what they will, and the women in re- ! turn impress upon their children what they | have received from their own fathers. Hence ! the existence of the American woman has be- | come almost as purely objective as that of the man. Her ideal of life from her cradle has been associated with the maximum of exer- tion. There is no quietude among Ameri- cans, and wonderfully little egotism in their social life. It is never-ending series of sen- sations and mental shocks, which keep the whole being in nervous quiver, and allows no time for any quality save that of energy to develop itself symmetricaly. The Ameri- ican woman is as unquiet in her thoughts and her duties, however light, as the man. Even when she visits she has no air of repose. Her conversation is not thoughtful, but act full. She tells you what she does or suffers, not what she thinks or feels. There is no reverie about her, suggestion of that breeding spirit which indicates a capacity for impassioned affection,-a capacity which to bachelors is always ideally seductive, how ever little the married man may appreciate or return it. Yet, Egenerally speaking, un- demonstrative as the American girl may be, she will wear her life out in working for the man she loves. She forgets all about being for him in that merciless energy which al ways drives her into doing for him.
 ! There is, again, another reason why the American girl seems cold to the superficial observer. It is because she is free. She is educated to repress emotion, because her in dependent movements expose her to contact with men of all classes, among whom there are many very ''vile persons" Her coldness of demeanor, therefore, is her armor against impertinence or even worse things. She passes, Diana-like, through crowds of men every day, not one of whom for one instant suspects her of being other than she is, be- cause her manner shows her at once to be a AmariooT1 TThoU never dream that because no one is watching her she means to go astray.
 The defects of the American girl may be done away with by giving less prominence to the purely intellectual or purely practical side of her education. For while one class of men is striving to solve the problems of life by educating women intellectually, there is another class which is shouting for education in domestic matters. While the professors at Harvard are rejoicing over some girl who can take in their philosophies or their mathemat- ics, the newspaper editor sings the praises of her who can roast turkey, bake bread, or make her own dresses. Neither gives the
 poor girl any chance to exist, but only to
 work, with either hand or brain. No one says to her, ''You are not only yourself, but
 possibly the future mother of other. beings Do not therefore allow yourself to be driven by either school or apostles beyond what you
 may do easily, comfortably, or pleasureably.
 The healthy balance of your nervous system
 is far more. important to you and your future
 family relations than all the mathematics or
 dress-making, or even roasting of turkeys.
 Occupy yourself steadfastly, but without
 strain, without hurry, and without emulation.
 As the apostle said (and it must have been
 meant expressly for Americans): avoid emu
 1ation' Find out first what you can do best
 and even if it does not come up to somebody
 else's standard learn to content yourself with
 that"