Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-07-25
THE ENGAGED GIRL.
The ABBOyRnces and Difficult
ties She Has 20 Encounter.
New York Journal.

New York Journal.
Engaged young ladies are the pro-
scribed wall flowers of society. TIE
vast majority Of them are pretty, or
they would not be engaged; but how
many of them wear cut 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 thoald one of these
doomed ones attract the attention OF
the other sex sufficiently to provoke
an inquiry as to her name and station,
it is enough to kill all interest in her
to answer: That's Miss So-and-so.
She's engaged" As for the
engaged one, if she be
faithful sweetheart, she is bound
to consider herself as somebody
labeled and ticketed, and laid by for
future use. Knowing the irrational
Jealousy of man, she devotes all her
thoughts to appearing above the
suspicion of firtation-or even
above the suspicion of taking the
remotest interest in any male human
being other than he who has laid a
first and second mortgage on her, and
may be hourishing free foot and q
fellow to it at the very moment she is
piniDg in the metsphorical but tangible
weed Of widowhoOd. If she be, on the
other hand, what is termed lively"
girl, and cannot understand why a
young lady who is engaged should make
a social mummy OF herself, and mixes
innocently, but joyously, in the ordi-
nary pleasures OF girls Of her age, she
is open to the basest misconstruction
of her own sex-and will surely in
cur it. There is not a society girl who
reads these lines who cannot call to
mind an instance in her own circle
of acquaintance where the conduct Of
fellow female of her cOtorie-innoN
cent enough in itseli-has not been
stigmatized by persons of her own age
and sex as Outrageous" simply be-
cause she had the misfortune to be en-
gagged.
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 a husband
| He is supposed to be, aud in the vast
majority Of cases is the best judge Of
what his wife ought to do and say, and
where she ought to 60 and whether he
is along or not. Any person, therefore,
who runs the risk OF offending the wife
makes a certainty Of offending the hus
band, and it is this fact which makes
the society and the conversation, and
even the presence OF young married
women so delightful to American So
clal life. With the engaged girl, who
is tied up equally as tight domestically
and infinitely more socially, the case
is very different. The mere fact that
she is engaged brings down on her ar
arrow from every female belt. She
/, is, and she knows she is, the target
= for the very sharpest weapon Of fe'
: male archery. II wounded she hal
r no husband to fall back upon; anC
9 her instinct teaches her that thu
t arrow which has pierced her owl
b breast would doubly rankle in thu
r breast of her lover if she were to cal
S upon him to pull it out. Her onl,
S safety is in the belief that it is no
e there. He, in the meantime, secur,
y Of the prize which he has Sc
T aside pretty much as he set
aside a, box of uollars-tO utilize
I" when, in his judgment, the prope
; time has oome-is pretty much OF
e privileged character in social life
, Fifth avenue and Murray Hill cal
furnish any day of the week hundred
such. There is no restraint place.
upon him in society. He is Just 8
welcome to balls and parties and t,
lead the german, while he is merel,
engaged, as he would be if he had jus
left the paternal nest. Far sighted
mothers, who know that six out of tel
engagements never come to anything
do not trown upon their daughters
who, not being themselves engaged
take delightful pleasure in showing
] themselves off to the best advantage
: before him, a pursuit in which they
!, are greatly abetted By the knowledge
! or report that some other woman ha,
= had the impudence to get lien upoI
= him.