Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-12-06

DaiIu kennettr 3ourna!.
The Spoiled Woman.

exercises a subtle sort of supremacy. So far
as the general patrons of the place are con-
cerned she has little TO saw to them. The few
with whom she is on speaking terms, are her
most ahjectly obedient slaves. and eyist sim
ply to run her errands and to anticipate her
/ wants. She has what is called a winning
manner, and herself entertans the theory
that whoever is brought within the radius of
its influence straightway becomes victim
She may be short of stature or tall and the
more diminutive her presence the more
impeIious will be her demeanor, the more
exacting her demands, and the more bound
less her confidence in the spell of her own
power. This, she is careful to explain, is
not entirely the result of any exceptional
charms of figure or of face. These charms
mav indeed be cons siderable. She NAV have
a countenance mobile with fluctuations of
expression; hazel ewes, which at one moment
shoot forth the dictator:al glance of a tragedy
queen, and at another, bestow upon the
spectator look of helpless languor which
is irresistible. OF the possession of these at
tributes she is not conscious but if she were
to analyZe in conversation the complex causes
of her power, she would lay most stress
upon certain magnetic qualities which she is
convinced are inherent in her. At first it is
rather pretty and not unamusing to listen to
tilis littie ifdttic VI idutsistI tSotisH, IL
speedily becomes monotonous. You express
a casual courteous hope that the lady is
comfortable in her apartments. This gives
her precisely the opening that she needed,
and she continues, forthwit it'll, to elaborate a
graphic account of the atmosphere of obse-
quious homage and devotion in which she
lives. The proprietor of the hotel importunes
her with suggestions conceived in the spirit
of the most indefatigable solicitude. Walters
and chambermads almost fatigue her with
their attentions. 1t is, she says, her universal
experience. Wherever she goes she inspires
sentiment of concern and affection. which
only to be explained on the hypothesis that
there is really something unaccountable in
her which distinguishes her from the rest of
womankind.
Such is one of the cOmmonest and most
characteristic varieties of the type of spoiled
woman 1t would be mistake to suppose
that she is compact exclusively of Stiffness
and frivolity. On the contrary. she is sure
to have some sterling qualities,
common sense restricted within certain limits,
and a general regard for the virtue of truth.
or at least, consistency. Whether she is mar
ried or single. whether her antecedents will
bear critical inspection, makes no difference
Social accidents may modify the impressions
formed by the world of individual character,
but do not change the character itself. Two
things are necessary for the manufacture of
the spoiled woman in any condition of life.
She must, in the first place, have been bless
ed. or cursed, with an unusual amount of
personal independence; she must have been
not only her own mistress. but she must
have been a good deal by herself. She must
have been self fcentred, and have moved round
and round, in a circle of ideas, unbroken by
any broad or general interests. Her career
must have perpetually alternated between the
excitements of a chivalrous knight errantry
and the reaction of subsequent desertion and
loneliness. A lady, who. under the roof of
her husband, has been able to command the
services of as many cavaliers as she wants,
experiences a change in her surroundings.
She is much alone; she is intensely bored.
and the only refuge from ennui is the society
of the two or three knights whom she has at
tached to her For she is a mans woman,
and not woman's woman. She has no plans
or objects in life upon which she can occupy
herself when alone. Not one woman in a
hundred honestly likes reading, and she is
certainly not an exception to the rule. She
has a prettily ordered house in which she
takes some pleasure and pride: and when she
is not thinking or talking about herself, il is
about her belongings. her furniture, her dress,
her jewelrv. Animals and children, she pro-
tests. all fall in love with her at first sight
and she has an infinite host of stories that IL
lustrate the awed attachment with which she
has repeatedly inspired unruly urchins of s,
the passionate loyalty which she has struck
into little monster of fluffy selfsbness in the
shape Of pet poodle and the mute subordi-
nation with which she has thrilled cockatoo
whose strident garrulity nothing could previ-
ously check. Then. of course, there are the
al nf tho rna1o Il.
has made. woman, to be spoiled in the
sense in which that epithet is employed now,
must have originally had certain aptitudes for
spelling, of which she is entitled to be proud.
Ladies who are unattractive and uninterest-
ng-the blameless, but commonplace moth
ers of families and managers of households
do not get spoiled but, to do the person now
spoken of, justice, her egotism does not nec-
essarily cause her to be profuse in her recita-
tions of triumphs achieved over miserable
men. So long as the topic Of talk is one
strictly personal to herself, it is immaterial
to her whether it relates to her health or her
house, her servants or her horses, the turbu-
lent infants whom she has quelled or the
strong men whom she has laid PROSTATE.
All this NAV seem very ridiculous, and
even contemplate; but nothing is more Ger.
tain than that the ways and qualities of the
spoiled woman which excite laughter or sa-
tire are very often, il themselves the result
of impulses good and even noble, but per-
verted. and TO large extent corrupted, by
the influences of an unpropitious atmosphere
and unkindly associations. One of the great
truths which George Eliot taught the world.
is the waste of human force to be witnessed
in modern life. OF this waste the spoiled
woman is a most crucial and melancholy
specimen. Some persons may think that she
is necessarily unequal to the practical busi-
ness cf life and incompetent to conduct her
own affairs. The chances are that she is ex-
actly the reverse. and that the feminine
weakness which shows itself in her conyersa-
tion is accompanied by liberal allowance Of
masculine strength. Circumstances which
it is needless to particularize, have con-
demned her to be, as already said. a
good deal alone. She has thus learnt
to fight for her own hand. and to
protect her own interests. If her contact
with the world about her had been less fit
full and more felicitous the entire develop
ment Of her character would have been diff
ferent- Self conscious she might have been /;
purely self regarding she would not. Atten-
ton and homage from men might have been
forth coming, but the natural and effective
antidote to these would have been found in