The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-11-22
ENGLISH GIRLS.
The Effect OF Early Association With
the Opposite Sex.

/ A London letter says. speaking o
English women People do say its thii
constant companionship with men, anG
mixing with them in their field sports,
that give the fashionable English girl
of the day all her love for .mannishn
ways and make her the slangy, horsey,
rapid creature We so often find her.
Perhaps people are right, yet what real
harm, after all, if girls do wear stand
up collars and scarfpins, and hunt. fish ,
shoot, play billiards and smoke? None,
certainly, if their hearts are all right.
Besides, look what models they have.
The Empress of Austria seems only
happy when in the saddle, and no less
personages than the Princess Louise and
Beatrice smoke cigarettes. Such actions
are, of course, likely to shock the SEN
sibilities, not alone of our grandmothers,
but of acertain type of young lady
whose conversational powers are limited
to undertoned replies of Eyes and mo, :"
and whose bringing up is exhibited in a
painfully studious avoidance of either
showing her feet or separating her knees
while sitting down. But woman now
adays does not care to please her own
sex as much as the other, and it is only
too clear which sort of young lady is
the most attractive to men and which
kind of girls get the dances at the balls
and the most attention everywhere.
Men are pretty good judges of women,
and if they don't object and are willing
to make their wives out of girls who
know more of horsefesh than they do
of botany, and prefer Whit of tobacco
smoke to ylang ylang of Atkinson's
white rose, it is their own lookout and
no one else's business.
l know young lady who lives down
in one of the southern counties. She is
one of the prettiest girls in England,
has $4,000 year in her own right, is just
twenty-three. and the daughter of peer
whose pedigree goes back to the con-
quest, and whose caunry house is the
showplace of the county. To look at her
you would think her the quietest of the
quiet, and that she hadn't an idea be-
yond crochet and weak tea. But she
hunts, has her own stable, keeps four
u
chase, buys and sells her own horses
without help from any one; has her
own wine merchant, wine cellar and to-
baconist; fences, boxes, skates and
rows; has her boudoir decorated with
foils, gloves, whips, horseshoes and
hunting trophies smokes cigarettes du-
ring the day and cigars after dinner; is
g capital Judge of claret and port, and
can tell Amontillado from Marsala with |
her eyes shut; is first-class shot with |
shotgun or hook-rife draws her own |
charges and pays her own bills; and |
last, though not least has delightful |
way of letting you see her foot and ankle
when she puts one leg over the other in
sitting down, that would make prim
old dowager faint and get her set upon
directly by the sly ones. Yet she has
never been known to firt, has refused
more offers than the quiet ones ever
dreamed of receiving, and once, it is re-
lated, taught the Prince of Wales a
lesson by stopping in the middle of
waltz with him at state ball at Buck
ingham palace and refusing to go on be-
cause he held her tighter than she con-
sidered proper. You can't call a girl
like that fast. But she knows enough
to take care of herself, and if her COM
panionship with the young swells of the
day and her imitation of their talk and
ways has taught her to prefer their
friendship to their love, it is not unlike
ly she is nearer right in her estimate of
her fellow beings than are the dragon
essess of plopriety who regard her with
adherence but are willing to sell their
bashful maidens to the first libertine
Or titled scapegrace whose establishment
and rent-roll make him in their eyes a
desirable party.