Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-10-25
OVERSHOOTING- THE MARK.
Too Excruciatingly Excruciating.
Helen Williams in Chicogo Express.

Helen Williams in Chicago ErDress.
To-day l saw a lady and gentleman
walking together on the street. His man.
ners were frank and manly. Hers were
the acme of affectdtiOn, simulated mod
esty and downright idiocy. And vet she
looked sensible girl enough. She was
sensible, but she had been taught from
babyhood that certain style had to be
practiced to render herself pleasing to the
male sex. She was to be modest-oh, eX-
ceedingly so; and diffident and retiring:
she was hardly to look man in the face
without blushing.
L have seen a great deal of this sort of
thing in Chicago, and cannot HELM but
note the difference between the girls here
and their sisters ON the Pacific coast.
There the manners of the ladies are de-
cidedly gentlemanly; that is, they are
natural. They meet man as a man.
They do not seem to have anything to
blush about, and they do not blush. 1t is
a rare thing to see girl here whose face
expresses that peculiar charm embodied
in the word "wOmanly." But San Fran
cisco is full of womanly girls; girls who
rest quietly on the merits of unadOrned
wOmanhOod, and who are mirrors of
nature in simplicity and frankness.
This charm is misunderstood by the
wrongly educated and shoddy idead popu-
it is only natural and spontaneous 1t is
the perfection of refinement, and contrasts
markedly with the Vulgarity of It's anti
thesis as displayed by the girl have
spoken Of. The manners of true lady
differ in no wise from the manners of a
true gentleman. Refnementis unseXed.
1t is the carrying out of a beautiful in
terror life to a beautiful exterior life. and
the result is the same in the woman as the
man.
The reason why California girls are
more natural than their Eastern sisters,
is because they have not been taught that
it was especially necessary to be uDnatu-
raj, i'll order to please the men. There
has been and still is great disproportiOn
in the number of men and women there
The men are in the majority. The girls
are so accustomed to attention they re-
ceive it as their due, and have no need of
catering for it.
Indeed, there is never such a need I'M
der any circumstances, did the girls but
know it. Women may train their daugh-
tiers in all the ways they imagine to be
pleasing to men; they may teach them to
wriggle and squirm, and reef in their
waists, and roll their eyes and lisp out in
sipid nothings between carmine-stained
lips, and yet the men will desert them to
flock about the girl who is fully and COM
pletely independent of them, and who
cares very little whether they fall III love
with her or not. 1t is natural for men to
want what they cannot get too easily.
and women cheaper themselves who thus
"stoop to conquer"
But no girl can affect independence.
She must be Independent in reality.
And in order to be so, if she has no for
tune in her own right, she must have an
occupation that renders ner self-sustain-
ing.
Now, girls, consider this fact. The day
of uselessnesS is nearly past. Young
men are not going to gobble you up for
wives on the strength of any looks or
manners you may possess. Some of
them are fools enough to do it, but they
cannot afford it. The pressure of tine
times is memorable. Use, use, use Is its
constant demand. The last generation of
women were simply wives and mothers.
The demand upon the present generation
is that they shall be helpmates-partners
and intellectual equals, and brave, strug-
Cling, independent and jOvial comrades.
Indeed, the period is here when it may
be said that woman takes her destiny in
her own hands. Very few avenues TO
wealth or distinction are closed to her at
this time. She may avail herself of what
she will. If she refuses the rut in which
her mothers life was Worn away let her
learn some useful occupation by which to
establish her own independence. There
is no other alternative. The wOrld-the
universe itself-refuses to harbOrla drone.
Women must either remain household
drudges as in the past or they must
emerge and prepare to paddle their own
canoes by learning some art or industry,
that will render them self-supporting.
Once sclf-suppOrting, all men will reeOg-
nize their value; all men will admire
them for more sterling qualities than they
now have, and they need not wait hang
ing on to the ragged edge of hope from
year to year, looking vainly for an offer of
marriage as a shipwrecked mariner for a
sail that never comes, until youth is past
and the milk of their fresh young lives has
sOured and gathered mold. Once fitted by
useful occupations for the companionship
o: useful men, they will find the men te
recognize their worth; and in such find
ing, society will begin to realize the true
and holy marriages said to be made in
Heaven.