The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1883-08-01
The Daily Bulletin.
The Engaged Girl.

The Engaged Girl
Engaged young ladies are the pre-
scribed wall-Ilowers of society. The
vast majority of them are pretty. or
they would not be engaged but how
many Of them wear out their beauty in
the vain hope that engagement will
mean marriage, and that marriage will
mean happiness. Every girl who goes
TO balls and parties, TO the opera and
race meetings. to Saratoga, or on one
OF the fashionable steamers to Europe,
can tell you that should one of these
doomed ones attract the attention of the
other sex sufficiently to provoke an in
quify as toname and station, it is enough
to Kill all interest in her to answer
"That's Miss So-and-so. She's en-
gagged !" AS for the engaged one if
she be n faithful sweetheart, she is
bound 10 consider herself AS somebody
labeled and ticketcd. and laid by for
future use Knowing the irrational
jealousy OF man, she devotes all her
thoughts to appearing above the suspi-
cion OF flirtation-or even above the
suspicion Of taking the remotcst interest
in any male human being other than
he who has laid a first and second
mortgage on her, and may be flourish
ing free foot and fellow to it at the
very moment she is pining in the meta
phorical but tangible weed of widow
hood. II she be- on the other hand,
what is termed "liycly" girl, and
cannot understand why young lady
who is engaged should make social
mummy of herself, and mixes nno-
Gently, but joyously, in the ordinary
pleasures of girls of her age, she is open
TO the basest misconstruclion Of her
own sex-and will surely incur it
There is not society girl who reads
these lines who cannot call to mind an
instance in her own circle OF acquain-
lance where the conduct Of fellow fe-
male of her coterie- innocent enough
in itself-has not been stigmatized by
persons Of her own age and sex rs
Outrageous" simply because she had
the misfortune to be engaged. "
Even the wife is more free from es-
pionage than the engaged girl. The
wife, at all events, has the fact to fall
back upon that she has husband. He
is supposed to be, and in the vast major
ity Of eases is, the best judge of what
his wife ought to do and say, and where
she ought to 90, and with whom,
whether he is along or not, Any per-
son. therefore, who runs the risk Of
offending the wife makes certainty OF
offending the husband, and il is this
fact which makes the society and the
conversation and even the presence of
young married women so delightful
in American social life. With the
engaged girl, who is tied up equally as
as tight domestically, and infinitely
more so socially, the case Is very diff
fercnt. The mere fact that she is
engaged brings down on her an arrow
from every female belt She is, and she
knows she Is the target for the very
sharpcst weapon of female archery. If
wounded she has no husband to fall
back upon and her instinct teaches
her that the arrow which has pierced
her own breast wou,d doubly rankle in
the breast OF her lover il she were to
call upoL him to pull il out Her only
safety isin the belief that it is not there.
He in the meantime. secure OF the prize
which he has set aside pretty much as
he sets aside a box of collars to utilize
when, in his Judgment, the proper time
has come is pretty much Of priyl-
legged character in social life, Fifth
avenue and Murray Hill can furnish
anv day Of the week hundred such,
There is no restraint placed upon him
in society He is just as welcome to
balls aud parties, and 10 lead the Ger
man, while he is merely engaged, IS he
would be if he had just lett the paternal
nest Far-sighted mothers. who know
that Fix out Of ten engagements never
come to anything, do not frown upon
their daughters, who not being them
selves engaged, take a delighted plea
sure in showing themselves of at their
best advantage before him, a pursuit in
which they are greatly abetled by the
knowledge ~ report that some other
woman hl, had the impudence to get 8
lien uDou him. Mem York journal.