The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-07-07
Southern Women.
AS Described by a Northern Reprobate.

The Southern girl of to-day owes her chief
characteristics to forces set in motion 200
years ago. The delicate hands owe their dim
pies and baby-like softness to generations of
immunity from any personal labor. The small
feet have small knowledge of the uses of feet,
and falter if urged to walk mile. The slender
figures are corseted and made still more sen-
der in a fashion now happily nearly unknown
in the North, and from babyhood up delicacy,
fragility and helplessness are taught as the
proper expression of womanhood-th only ex-
preston that can insure the interest or sympa-
thy of manhood. The first duty of every wo-
man, from childhood on, is to make the most
of every personal attraction. Paint and pow
der are brought into requisition long before
girlhood is passed, and, with the love of colors
and the passion for dress in general, a set of
girls from even the "first families OF Virginia.
have slightly Bowery or shop-girl expression,
which they, however, would be the last to rec
ognize. The slender hands are loaded with
rings of varying values; gold chains, lockets,
and every imaginable possibility of gilt and
tinsel for hair or general ornament make the
breakfast table in large school more sugges-
tive of an evening party than of quiet work
or the simplicity of genuine girlhood. Each
one hears with her an immense ''slat sunbon-
net" into whose depths no ray of sunlight can
reach, and which helps to preserve the waxy
pallor dear to the feminine Southern mind.
Brilliant coloriDg, or the least tendency to-
ward embonpoint, are deadly offences against
the unwritten but powerful code under whose
laws all women must come. There are OK
ceptions, OF course, but my generalization
comes, not from the knowledge of few here
and there, but from long watching of many
representing the best blood of the South, and
gathered into great schools, in which the chief
aim seems to be to give as many snowy accom-
plishments rs possible, and rush each one
through the course of study quickly enough to
allow graduation at 16 or II. The course OF
study is often the same as the most advanced
Northern school, and many heads of Southern
ones deplore the haste which makes thorough
ness impossible, and urge slower methods.
But in this mad race toward early marriage as
the one only goal of life, there is little room
for long-continued, steady work. A large pro-
portion of girls are engaged from 10 to II, and,
if unmarried at 20, are set down as hopeless
old maids Young men from 25 to 80 found
often the fathers of half dozen children, and
marriage before the first vote had been cast
not at all uncommon. AS to the mental cali
bre of the Southern girl, a Judgment has al
ready probably been formed. Sweet-voiced,
supple, graceful creatures, the most of them,
with curious self-possession, and yet with
certain timidity and shrinking which gives an
indescribabe charm. There is little or no
self-relance-none of the sturdy qualities, the
ownership of which,is stamped upon the North
ern, and especially the New England girl, in
effaceably. To reason with a Southern girl is
useless and hopeless undertaking. The emo
tional nature, strong in any case, is cultivated
to the highest pitch. They are full of sweet
and generous impulses; affectionate and de-
monstrative to excess; passionate, and enjoy
ing their own capacities for storm, and the
calm that follows storm. Clinging, dependent,
conservative in thought, so far as they may be
said to think,-loving old ways simply because
they are old, and with wild and passionate
loyalty to every Southern belief and practice,
simply because 1t is Southern, you may know
what type of women these girls become, and
how slow must be the process which undoes
the work of generations.
With motherhood the gayest girl subsidies
into the devoted slave of the fast-coming flock,
and lives only in them, transmitting her own
passions and prejudices, and living her life
over again in the babies, who choose little
sweethearts at 2, and at play at getting mar
ried. So the world goes, each one crowding all
the gayety possible into the first sixteen years,
knowing that practical retirement from the
world is likely to be the story of all years to
come. Sixteen rules. and sixty looks and gos-
sips over old times-sighs little at the short
ness of each ones reign, and takes refuge In a
discussion and knowledge of personal detail
beyond the widest imagination of New En-
gland sewing society doings in the same di-
rection. There is often a degree of reserve,
and curiosity at least wears a veil and seldom
discloses her real features. But in the South
ern village, gossip is the order of life, and from
the groups OF men on every corner, 10 the Gu
rious faces looking from window or balustrade,
there is the undlsguised expression of unadul-
terated 81 want to knowl'' Why not, when
all interests centre in their narrow round, and
the wide world of knowledge of endeavors of
achievement is not only unknown, but unde-
sired; even scorned as something destitute Of
Southern refinement, and wanting in Sonth-
ern grace? Given broaderj outlook, and,s in
time, the Southern woman, with her grace,
and affectonateness, and gentieness, may rep
resent finer fruit Of civilization than her
colder Northern sister, but until clear head
and thoughtful brain are added to loving
heart and gentle nature, we are likely to
find her more a disappointment than salts
faction