National Republican., 1882-12-21
OUR GIRLS AND OTHER GIRLS.
The American Woman Compared with
the Women OF Other Countries.

The American Woman ms Compared with
the Women OF Other Countries.
Men certainly have occasional sparks of
generosity, and in the praise which is lavishcd
on American women they have kindly--if
not ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to mention the ex-
ceptionally good conditions under which
American women exist. 1t is not in the as
tonishing liberty which they enjoy for par
adoXical as it may seem, French women
that is, French married women-have an
equality in society and in the law which is
beyond that allowed their American sisters
but in the nice adjustment of their privileges
Miss Kate Field, Miss Emily Faithful, and
innumerable others, have testified that the
| wife of the American laboreri Is better house.
wife than the wife of any other working
man; that she is better fnancier
| than other women of her class elsewhere.
| To lay aside the sentimental aspect of the
question, the atmosphere of respect and ap-
probation in which an American woman
lives, and to take the most practical, if not
sordid view of 1t, the spending of money, it
will be seen that American women know how
to spend money more judiciously than any
other women. She is intrusted with much
greater proportion of her husbands income,
and consequently she is not child in the use
| of money. In France in the bourgeois classes,
band, and indeed a greater domestic influence,
as the French woman's business instinct is, as q
rule, superior to the Frenchman's. The statis-
tics of business failures in Paris show a much
larger percentage of men, allowing fully for
the greater number of shops kept by men.
Women are conceded to be more prudent than
men when they are prudent at all. In France,
even when the proprietor of a shop is ac-
counted wealthy, madame sits at the book
keepers desk, in o faultless toilet, and is gen.
orally the most efficient member of the firm.
She keeps a sharp lookout on monsieur as re-
CARDS cigars and theater tickets, and takes
principally upon herself the task of providing
Therese and Marie with dots, and Jean and
| Adolphe a nest egg for business venture. In
the upper classes singularity is observed that
is common also with English women of rank.
French women of the best class have
unlimited credit, but little cash. Money is
power, and the French and English husbands
appear to realize it, and to keep their wives
hands off of it very successfully. The priv
ilege of buying 800 franc costume is nothing
to the actual possession of 800 francs. Then
comes in the servitude of relationships-the
considering the opinions of the uncles and
auntS and cousins on both sides, q tyranny to
which no American man or woman of sense
would submit for day. A close investiga-
tion of French society shows that the Won
derful liberty of French married woman
is more apparent than real. In the higher
classes it is the liberty of a child to
buy toys, and in the lower classes
the liberty of doing the best part of the work
In England something of the same nature is
seen. An English woman little removed
from the class where q wife beating is con-
sidered trivial affair is an upper servant.
Still higher up she is held in bondage to her
maid and housekeeper and her establishment; !;
and here comes in the wonderful helplessness of
English women in regard to their children.
They have no voice in the education of their
sons or daughters any more than they have in
regard to the number of servants they shall
! keep. An American mother, wishing to give a
son or daughter some extra advantages,qui
arranges it, and announces that she will keep
one servant less, or practice some other form of
economy which is acquiesced in as matter
course. But let an English woman suggest
such thing! She will find it is master, not
mistress, that settles the economies of the es-
tablishment. The bill system exists in all its
pristine beauty among English women of rank.
When English women are extravagant, they
are the most violently extravagant women in
the world. The average share of an English
woman out of her husbands income would
appear ridiculously small to an American
woman, and occasionally resenting the
amount spent on keeping up family places, on
hobbies of various kinds, on yachts and
grouse moors, on armor and bric-a-brac,
they launch out and contract even more
debts. The tradesmen, especially in London,
understand this credit system perfectly. The
courts have decided, owing to the frequency
of such cases, exactly how much and how far
husband is liable for his wife's debts and
the tradesmen takes his own risks and makes
his own profit. In Germany, a wOman's lot
is slavery to thalers and plennigs. The
stinginess of German husbands is proverbial.
German woman scarcely buys her own hair
pins, so rigidly is she held in the matter of
money. Naturally, when she has money she
fools it away-and thus furnishes specious
argument against her having any more. In
Italy. something like the condition of things
in France prevails-with this addition, that
in continental Europe wife beating is COM
mon in all classes-and as an instance Nine.
Adelina Patti was thought to be hypercritical
in objecting to a little conjugal correction
from the Marquis de Caux.
/ If American women realized the difference
between the domestic status of woman here
and in Europe, there would be considerably
less eagerness to many foreigners with titles
The only way they can make good husbands
of them in the American sense is to Ameri-
: canize them, wi lich requires time and good
] back bone. Men in all ages have been found
who were willing to marry poor girls
r but the United States is the first and
, only country in the world in which
the custom prevails of q man marrying the
5 daughter of rich parents and getting nothing
i with her. But this dowerless wife enjoys
, privileges and distinctions hitherto un.
known to women and the liberty
: allowed her, though large, is judi.
ciOus. The result of the system must be
r sought for in the great working class, where
, indeed, the final illustration is always found
, and it is conceded that, in return for the good
treatment she receives, the wife of the Ameri.
can laborer is the most capable and industrious
l. housewife of her class in any civilized or un
civilized country. In the cultivated classes in
the United States there appears to be good
deal of pink and white tyranny, but American
men seem to thrive upon it, They have al
, last, after three thousand years of slumber
awaked to the great fact that having their own
way too much is not good for them.
No Trace OF Chipp's Party.
The following news from Lieut.. Harber's
searching party, dated Yakutsk, comes
through our minister at ST. Petersburg: oar.