The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1881-09-02
THE SOUTHERN WOMEN.


Contrast between the Ladies' or she
South and Their Northern Ststera.
Helen CAMPBELL in the Boston Herald.
1t Is useless to bring Northern stand
ards to bear in such Judgment The
Southern girl of to-day owes her chief
characteristics to forces set in motion
200 years ago. The delicate hands owe
their dimples and baby-like softness to
generations of immunity from any per-
sonal labor. The tiny feet have small
knowledge of the uses of feet, and falter
If urged to walk of mile. The slender
figures are corseted and made still
more slender in a fashion now happily
nearly unknown for the North, and frou
babyhood up, delicacy, fragIlity, help
lessness, are taught as the proper ex-
preston of womanhood-the only ex-
preston that can insure the interest and
sympathy of manhood. The first duty
of every woman, from childhood on, Is
to make the most of every personal at
traction. Paint and powder are brought
into requisition long before girlhood Is
passed, and with the love OF colors and
the passion for dress is general, set OF
girls from even the "tirst families of
of Virginia have slightly Bowery or
shopgirl expression, which they, how
ever, would be the last to recognize.
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 suggestive of an evening
party than quiet work, or the simplic-
ity of genuine girlhood. Each one
bears with her an immense "slat sun
bonnet" into whose depths no ray of
sun can reach, and which helps to pre-
serve the waNg pallor dear to the fem
mime Southern mind. Brilliant color
ing, or the least tendency toward en-
6onpoint, are deadly offenses against
the unwritten but powerful code
under whose laws all women must come.
There are exceptions, of course, but my
generalization comes not from the
knowledge of a few here and there, but
from long watching of many represent
ing the best blood of the South, and
gathered into great schools, III which
the chief aim seems TO be to give as
many snowy accomplishments as rossi-
BILE, and rush each one through the
course of study quickly enough to allow
graduation at 16 or II.
These gentle, emotional women have
few or no interests beyond their own or
their neighbors' houses. What the
world is doing means TO them nothing
and less than nothing. Their religion
is that of their fathers fathers. Their
mental food is in magazines like Frank
Leslie's or PetersOn'S. They glory in
Al ..x...
make up Miss Evans's novels, and buy
them from admiration of her learning,
and because she is daughter of the
Sunny South" And these daughters y
are providing more and more furniture
for book-shelves, some 800 names being
found in adictionary of Southern authors,
unknown save in q few notable instan-
ces, beyond Mason and Dixon's line.
The life thus far given is that of the
country alone. The city holds much the
same type, modified by different condi-
tons. The Southern woman OF society
is very charming, often finely accom-
plished, and always with n cordinal
grace and courtesy, even to her own sex.
They pose little, it is true their love
of appreciation is a passion; they
ueVOuT cOmpluuenIS Will VIC uuOlS'
guised relish of child for sugar plums,
as with their country sisters, the main
spring of all thought and life is mar
rage marriage early, and marriage
often, if widowed at an early enough
date to still be fascinating.
in short the faults of Southern women
are precisely the faults of uneducated
and undeveloped women the world over.
"To be coquette in every movement
and action is the study of three-quartert
of the female population of the globe;'
and if coquette be too strong word fol
the mass, their own adjective ranks
next as distinctive of all the Southern
desires in man, woman or child. 81
sweet is the characterization one hears
of everything desirable, and the woman
who thinks of something else than hel
foot or her hands, or the prettiest thing
to be said next, runs the risk of hearing
"Yes but somehow she isn't sweet
you know"