Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-05-10
The ssJOlly Grip in ENGLAND.

on other days. But We shall catch up sOOn
hope and expect"
The 'sJOlly Grip in England.
From The Pail Mall Gazette.
The women who copy the ways Of men at
best succeed in resembling boys. The special
habits and interests of men. their athletic and
sporting tastes their melancholy experience of
what is called ''life." can no more be appro-
priated by girl than our topboots and riding
brooches. She only approaches that unnatural
monster, the boy who is aping a man. ] am
not so old or such misanthrope but that I find
myself at times among young people at dance
or a garden party. / see a handsome young
fellow from AldershOt talking to a fine girl, the
picture Of youth and grace 'They are flirting,
hope. as they should be-" says a match-mak-
ing old thing. Flirting. my dear lady, he has
been telling her about that awfully jolly run
with the QuOrn don't you know. And now she
is asking him with an anxious look if it is really
true that No. Z is not fit. For an hour as l sat
within hearing on the bench, she has patiently
committed to memory the merits of barrack
after barrack and station after station-a form
of feminine curiosity which he has out languidly
satisfied, though he has no other topic with
which to entertain her. ''Aldershot," says he,
lis such an awfuly jolly place. don't you
II mean" says he; ''such a jolly place to get
away from" And she knows who is bound to
win the mile race unless Jigger MOwbray can
stand the training. which is not to be thought
OF. don't you know. And so they go on. from
mere habit. talking the talk of the smoking
room. or SO much of it as can be drbbed into
the ears of pure young girl By all that is
sacred. glow with shame when / see beauti-
1ul woman thus put off her SEX when she GER
tainly can never put on ours.
What are they to gain, these favorites of the
regiment and the hunt, that they thus humble
themselves, that they so disfgure and weary
themselves in labOrOusly ceasing to be women?
1t is net husbands, assuredly, they are seeking.
Our young friend from Adershot does not
trouble himself to irt with girls; he has not the
remOtest idea of marriage; nor, indeed, has his
fair partner, at least with the like of him. She is
not thinking of fascinating him at all; would,
indeed that she werei Marriage is an affair of
carriages and horses; for these she must look to
Older men. and she does not like older men.
No! she is only filling her appointed part-the
awfully Jolly girl-which her society expects her
to be. Dolly and Darling, Judy and 10, have to
do it, and so must she.
/ wonder if she knows how little men really
care for this strange receptivity of hers. TO
the young fellow this girl with her manly &C
aulrelnents just so far ceases to be woman
without advancing a step toward man. She
listens to him the fag at school listens to the
big fellow in the boat or the eleven. It is
pleasant to him that the young 'un wears skirts
and has lips ruddier than fag. 1t is pleasant
>.
Girls in my time expected us to treat them on
the assumption that they were women, or that
they very soon would be. If we could not en-
terrain them as women all the world over love
to be entertained they turned to one another
ana amused themselves When we sat with a
sweet young thing in the veranda as the band
played the last notes of Kathleen Mavour-
neen'" We had something, l VOW. to talk about
besides cricket averages. the club cigars. and
the right cut Of a bulldogs ears And as we
never saw cigarettes in the lips Of our partners
it never occurred to us to smoke between the
dances.
have no turn for satire. but I love to watch
our social moods and to trace them to their
causes and effects. | suppose the work began
with that wave of athieticism which of late has
swept over the land, turning the heads of not a
few lads and importing some laughabe Gus
toms; but. if its effect upon men was more or
less manly and wholesome it's effect. Indirectly
on women was perhaps a more doubtful gain.
When the gymnastic idol was set up, and the
muscular type of virtue became the whole duty
Of man. there We're found English girls to sup
pose it the whole duty Of woman. Physically,
it may be. it strengthened those whom it did
not slaughter outright. Rut as the girl could
after all only join in the new worship as prose-
lyte Of the gate, she fell into the social position
of the flower schOOf' at cricket match The
jolly girl in fact. became flag. When ath-
letics are the business Of life, the tone Of So
ciety is naturally set by men.
Was not a second cause at work in the
triumphs of the famous American beauty? This
fascinating being, doubt not, on her own side
of the Atlantic has planted the germs of new
feminine epOchs. There was nothing of the
play ground or hunt about her; her important
discovery was the freedom of her sex. 1t NAV
be doubted if our ancient system on this side OF
the ocean is duly prepared for such dash, such
originality, such angelic self-pOssession. The
type, however brilliant. is perilOus one to
adapt. For the American girl, who so startles
us at home. has her own traditions and habits
When she shook from her airy skirts the con-
ventiOns of the Old World, she founded the con-
ventions of the new. At home she reigns STILL
and imposes her law on men, concerning herself
but little about mesS-roOms and gun clubs.
Young ladies. you who think of adopting her
adorable freedom of manner, be sure that you
also adopt her shrewd and original spirit.
But, be the causes whatever they may, the
result Is a curious social inversion The relative
place Of men and women is reversed in this
rapid and dazzling world. OF old. the idea was
that in things social the woman was mistress,
queen and leader. Men i'm her presence were to
study her tastes and submit to her law. Ifthey
could not exist without tobacco they might 80
elsewhere; If they wanted to be killing some
thing. to shooting party; and the matches dis
cussed in a drawing room had nothing to do
with Lords.