Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-23
ElirtS.

From an English Book by E. c. Gren Vile Murray.
Most persons possess some good qualities,
know this and wish others to know it, The
process of making them known to ones own sex
may be characterized under various names,
while the endeaver to attract the opposite sex
by them-and at the same time towing, as it
were, with the passion Of lOVe-constitutes fir
tatiOn.
One can obtain the appreciation Of ones own
sex by doing ordinary duties well; but to gain
the goodwill of the other sex, who may not be
in position to judge Of our genuine merits re-
quires manner more or less artificial. Flirta-
ton is therefore forced means of making ones
self agreeable to person of the other sex. In
the greater or less transparency of the artifice
lies the science Of flirting which has infinite
shades. from unblushing coquetry to the most
delicate power of fascination. Society would be
a dull thing without this science. Ii it We're
possible That women should cease for short
time to care what men thought about them,
most OF Us. mOrasts or not, would be glad to
see that short time ended.
Men and women flirt, but women more than
men; and they also show it more. Women are
less able than men to live without admiration.
and have less other work in life than the labor
of securing praise. At the same time they can
not SO well keep their frtations out of sight A
man travels and is in very few places really
intimately known, woman is in some few
places at least, closely watched. None of
mans friends know precisely with how many
women he fiirts; a wCinans friends keep an
exact account OF the number of her admirers.
man to be called a flrt must fiirt to the point
of abandoning all other occupation; but a very
little atfability, squandered under the form of
smiles, prOcureS the title for a woman.
A girl is a flirt who exchanges COY glance
with middle-aged eligible bachelor who picks
up glove she has dropped; she is something
worse than flirt-a minx-if she makes herself
pleasant to another girls betrOthed. The iron
rule of mOdesty, which men have imposed upon
women as protection against their wiles,
leaves young women scarcely free to move or
speak IN the presence of the trOusered sex
without risk of being thought forward" but
women themselves are much sterner in their
definition of fOrwardness than men. In femi-
nine judgment every girl or pretty young woman
is forward and, consequently, q firt, who
mOnOpOlizes the attention of males in social
circle. This she can do by being too modest as
we'll as by being not modest enough; for her
own sex will rot account as mOdesty the grace
which charms without attempting to do So
Men never speak so ill of the worst women as
women do OF the best among their sex who have
the art Of pleasing. There are men whom all
other men join in praising: but there has scarce
ly lived woman, wife. virgin or saint-WhO has
not had detractOrs among other women. Should
there have been some few exceptions which
prove this general rule, they will be found to
have fiourished in the ranks Of the fearfully and
Unutteraby ugly.
Every woman has firted; but we are not con-
cerned with the women whose innocent flirta-
lions are but the gush of youthful spirits. or
with those who owe the title of ti!rt to the mere
malignity Of their own sex. The fiirts Of whom
We propose to treat are those who fiirt of malice
prepense. In these flirting is the art OF sexual
rehabilitation.
1t may also be termed. less phlosophicallv
the ali Of playing with fire and getting scorched
more or less often. All fiirts burn themselves
once at least. Some squeal when they but SINCE
their hDSer-tips and retire straightway from the
game with their eyes full of tears. These are
third-class flirts, having no real heart in the
play. The recollection Of their first smart makes
them redden and tingie till they become old
women, when perhaps they smile and wish the
burn could come over again. 1t was a third
class firt who, on the strength Of short and
sharp acquaintance with the ways Of the other
sex. invented such sayings as Man is per-
fidioUs."
The second-class firts get frequently burned
without ever quite inuring themselves to the pain
They resemble dullish boys who play at football
De cause they must, but never surmOunt the fear
of being Skinned. Sometimes the secOnd-class
flirt gives up playing and learns to laugh at her
burns; more often she goes on till she can play
no longer. and YEARLY sums up her experience
of the sport as ''all burns and no pleasures"
But the iTst-class flirt cares not q pin for scOr-
ches. She is the salalnander who lives in the
fire. Sparks fly round her and she reves in
them; She is all over scars and surveys them
conplacently as soldier does his wounds. Flrt
from the nursery, fiirt in her teens flirt in her
prime, she continues flirting when she Is an old
woman and flrts ON her death bed wthth doc
tor. IL she could come to life for moment in
her coffin. she would fiirt with the undertaken
Commend Us to this class of fiirt for making the
heads of men flame like the tops of lueifer
matches She sets quiet households afire; every
thing turns to finder on her passage. and when
she is buried an odor of birthstone hoyers over
her tomb. Her old lovers would be afraid to
lift up the grave slab that covers her lest they
should see little blue-forked flames leap out
diabolicAlly.,