The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-04-12
BOSTON WOMEN.

A New View of Femininity at the
Modern Athens.
Letters to San Francisco Argonaut.
A friend who has made a reflective
study of women in two or three coun-
tries, says that when he is at liberty to
choose his second wife he will come to
Boston for her, for no where else are
there such nice girls. He goes on to say
that the best class Of Boston girls have
the fine compilations and good manners
of English, girls without their inanity;
they are noble and witty as French wo-
men, without their frivolitv; they dress
with blending Of Philadelphia quiet
ness and Partisan taste; they are affec-
tionate as southern girls, without their
vicious temper; they flirt adorably with
out compromising themselves or any
body else; they are charming comrades
in maturers years, and, by their taste
and piquancy, keep their place with hus-
bands and sons after they have passed
into the region of neuralgia and white
shawls. 1t takes courage 10 assert such
and it should not lie given without rea-
son.
This picture is directly opposed to the
popular idea Of the Boston woman-a
gaunt female in spectaces and bright
blue veil who has the plumpnes, and
complexion of a dried goldfish; prying,
viewy, censorious; who talks about the
"values of the inexpressible," the "rela-
tivity Of the perceptives, and the ICON
. jugation Of the infinite" Unfortunately,
she is not extinct; but, like the elk and
moose, she grows scarcer year by year.
Perhaps she has the reputation of being
the typical New England woman because
she is pervasive in society as OF Of pep
pernlint, and, for all practical pA ~oses
of peeking and prying, one of her A.. IS
good as a dozen. She it was who wor-
ried the blue out Of youthful skies by
anxiety about damp shoes for healthy
young people who gloried in being soak
ed by summer rains, and minded wet
feet rs much as duck does the SAND IN
was unutterable as her dread of
heresy, and who prescribed "healthfu"
desserts of rice and West India moIasses
or corn-starch custard in place of mlnce-
pie and plum pudding. 1t was she who
instiled inro your tender mind the
duty of being dutiful to your maiden
aunt, because she has lot of money,
and when she dies, if you please her
whom heard say to a young arthor
happy over his new book just out: II
spose you paid enough to get it pub
lished, didn't you?"-and to a woman of
good descent, not SO rich as she might
be, who wanted the family coat of arms
Fox
wasn't livery coat instead of a coat of
arms copied tor relic. now?" For this
kind ofcreature couldn't omit the chance
of making brutal speech for any con-
sheraton, and held spite with rancor
and canker you wouldn't believe. This
kind of a woman is the lineal descendent
of feudal malice and vice. She came of
the families that hung the Salem witches
AMI drove Quakers into the wilderness,
and isthe unlovely physical result of
cramped distorted ways of living. of sap
less, stiugy fare, cold, aguish bedrooms
in stutfy, smelly houses, the godiessness
and inhumanity of whose habits yet lin
ger in rank SAVIOR about their old beams
and plaster. Thank heaven, this happy
race is dying out between oliver" and
pneumonia.
There are two styles ofmodern Boston
girls. One style embraces luxurious
sort Of damsel, rather dazzling in girl
hood, with peach-and creamy cheeks,
round contours, liquid, glowing eyes, and
hair like black satin, apt to ripen into a
sumptuous later beauty. 1t is odd, but
you will find more of these large, glow
ing, imperious black eyes in and around
Boston than you will in any city of the
south. It comes of strain of rich, hot
cavalier blood, that is responsible for
most Of the daring and the romance of
New England stories, and good deal of
the latter underlies the decorous surface
of New England TO-DAY, especially among
selfwill and rivalry-there is little love
romance left in the world. One dark
eyed, oldschoo! lady know, had a fond
ness for man who wss in debt to her
own brother some thousands of dollars,
borrowed on his note of hand. After
the brothers funeral, while the rest were
at the grave. she hunted up the note
among the dead mans papers, tore off
the signature, and defed family in
dignation with the cool remark: "There
was no use making fuss about it."
know of a woman with the profile of lib
erty on the coins, who, tired of her old.
over-fond husband, went off to the sea-
side in summer, passed herself as wild
wv anu Tic !!uSUitIlu Ill UI1el VlSIIS d. ueI
uncle, actually married a young second
husband out of a Boston family, and
lived within fifty miles of her old home
for two years before the trick was found
out. Their the hussy contrived to make
the. first husband mortgage his property
and give her half he was worth before
he Vas done with her. She had some
shameful secret of his money-getting in
her keeping, and this was the price of
of her silence. The wealthy old bach
elor, Ben Wright, whose ten or twenty
wills made such work for the probate
court, not long ago. was firm believer
in the divine right of rich people to
please themselves. He had Partially
for pretty women, especially for one
gay young married woman, wife of
stock broker, one of the new people;
and when the doctor ordered him down
to Florida for the winter, what does he
do but write up to her family, asking
that she should be allowed to come down
and take care of him? Down she 1utter-
ed with trunks and toilets bewitching,
installed herself at his side, and a
last got him to make will in her favor,
giving her the bulk of his millions. The
family threatened to put her letters in
court, and compromise was made by
which she got hundred thousand or
so. Her husband is remarkably pleased
with the financial ability of his wife, and
both move in the gayest of gay society.
The world is wide, and, as one lady of
irreproachable notions said, '"ifyou shut
sinners out of society you don't always
know whether it is they or you that are
outside the most. don't make such
persons my bosom friends, or ask them
to my house, neither when meet them
do feel obliged to sit as judge and jury
on my fellow-creatures;" which express
es the amiable sentiments of society to-
ward pleasant people in general.
Leaving out the fawed peaches, there
is another sort of Boston girl, delicate
of complexion, with bright, expressive
eyes, and lace all gay, with quick intelli.
gencr, swaying figure, dancing step, and
style more simple and perfect than that
of any other women made. She does
not trans6x you with repartee, like
your clever Californians; she hasn't 80
much OF the bouncing manner of the
New York girl. Away from the men,
she isn't sentimental as the Albanian,