National Republican., 1883-05-29
AMERICAN WOMEN.
Lady wndo,s Views OF Their Chsractcris-
tics, Vanitics, and Virtues Vividly
slxetched by an English Essoyist.
LOndOn QueCn

Sketched by an English Essoyist'
London Queen.
The first question propounded to traveller
on returning from a transatlantic tour is,
usually, "What is your opinion of American
women?" for, in truth, the American woman
is by far the most important element in the
social machinery of the states
Her reputation for beauty and smartness
has spread over the whole earth, and to doubt
her fascination would be heresy even be-
yond this agnostio age However, we are,
fortunately, not wholly dependent on the
crude Judgment Of awestruck, startled trav-
elers, saturated as they are with old world
prejudice and prisoned in its marrow, conven-
tional traditions; for the Americans, having
already interviewed and exhausted all Eu-
rope, are now laudably engaged in tho pro-
cess of interviewing each other and that
with an acuteness and insight far beyond
the observing faculty of tho bewildered for
eigner.
Every city also has it's peculiar Characters
tics, and with these we are made fully ac-
quainted through the novelists. Philadol-
phia is the Quaker City--neat, orderly, calm,
and reserved, where every one seems to go to
bed at 10 o'clock, and the ladies make no Of
fort to heighten the charm of their pretty
faces by the adventitious aid of rouge or pearl
powder But they cultivate literature, poetry,
and art, and society is elegant and refined.
Among the celebrities of tho howery city,
are Prof. Gross, eminent in medical science,
George Boxer, one of the leading poets of
America, and a distinguished Philadelphia
lady, Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, who has earned
the gratitude OF the citizens by her splendid
donation of paintings and artistic works,
valued ut more than 5000, to the new mu-
scum of art established there.
In New York there is no distinctive type
of race all races have been fused into uni
formity by the same habits, passions, and
ambitions and the influence of Europe on So
ciety. Tho women arc dressed by Paris, and
tho men by London, and life Is modelled
on the English style, but with much more
outlay and effect. New York is the true par
adise of women, whore they glow and glitter
in their gorgeous plumage, while the men
toll and work in their dusky offices, to amass
the wealth that may GOV or their wives with
diamonds to startlo Europa city of splen-
dor, luxury, and pleasure; the third great
capital of the world, and equal in wealth to
London and Paris put together.
The English girl never stares nor asks ques-
tions with obtrusive curiosity. She is trained
to seem and be negation-a dormant soul
without volition or an opinion on any sub
ject, felt or expressed. Her American cousin,
however, has an aggressive frankness, based
chiefly upon intorrogatories and bold person.
alities. Her gazo is clear and direct; not
"the stoney British stare" but with the large,
truthful eyes of childhood--the eager, inquir-
ing glance of q candid nature. Truth is in
all her words. This Puritan virtue has
indeed remanded an heirloom in the AmeriT
can family They have none of the subtle
evasions and graceful mendacities of high
life in Europe-the delicate batteries, so
charming and so false. These are stamped
out ut once by the frank, fearless candor of
the American girl. Yet one trembles little
before q candor so uncompromising for we
all shrink from the downright expression of
the actual, and the glare of an unshadowed
truth makes one nervous. But the Ameri-
cans have no mercy. Nature meant them for
race of interviewers. They generalize, de-
SCRIBE and label you after ten minutes in
spection, and send off your PORTRAIT across the
Atlantic, with all your imperfectons on your
head, for the amusement of the crowd, who
must be propitiated by a victim, and who ap-
plaud and shout "Bravo, Torow when a
Especial " has been more than unusually sue
cessful in tossing the victim from his horns,
to be trampled in the dust of the arena.
Americans like reading, not study.
Every one in thee ars seems furnished with u
sixpenny novel or the last Harper, while
newspapers cover the land like snowhakes in
midwmter; but, above ALL they like lectures,
because they can thus combine easily acquired
information with the excitement of dress and
outdoor variety, and II crowded lecture Is itiS
fnitely more amusing than u solitary Harper,
besides, It is Of Importance to them TO assimi-
late knowledge rapidly, as they eat and live,
for life with them is feverish rush of excite
ment and enjoyment They are rapid in
speech, in travel, in speculation, in every
thing. They live every moment of their
lives, in an intense, daring, crowded, audas
cious, reckless, and restless life of work.
wealth, and luxury. The present is enough
for them they take each moment as il comes
and get all the good out of it they can.
There is no girlhood or boyhood; every ono
is born grown up, and the life Of self-assertion
and speculation begins from the cradle. The
young girls have perfect freedom at an age
when Europe would not allow them out of
nursery. They receive gentlemen alone in
the evenings, and go to theaters and public
places with them, unaccompanied by any
duenna, for tho chaperon and lynX-eyed ma
tron of old world usage and tradition has
been quite suppressed in America, along with
the superauous vowels.