Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-09-30
The Modern Coquette.


from the new story, "a Newport
Aquerelle''l
The mere suffering which man
undergoes at the hands of coquette
is not In its first effects so greatly to be
deprecated. 1t is in the consequences
that lies the deepest wrong which the
insincere woman does to the man who
loves her. For the dstrust Of her
whole sex Which grows upon him and
the conviction that neither she nor
her kind are worthy Of the best that
is in his nature, she is responsible.
The disdain which he may feel toward
her cannot greatly injure him. But
the spirit in which he regards the
tendency in his nature which looks
to woman for the truest support of his
life, and the systematic harden
lug OF those qualities in him which
reach out instinctively to the
feminine side of humanity are soul
hurts which are not healed when the
pain of the deceived love has passed.
Ii judgement of the whole sex can
not fail to be biased by his experience
OF the woman who has most deeplv
interested him. Thus it is that the CO.
quette, by lowering the whole stand
ard OF wonanhOod in the eyes of man,
injuries her own sex as well as the
other.
The forms of coquetry are infinitely
varied, and some of them are much
more 'e1fehensible than others. The
woman who undertakes conquests
simply for the glory of displaying at
the wheels of her chariot the captive
she holds by the rosy bonds of love,
is the commonest type. AS her CO.
quetry is of the most patent kind, its
wounds are rarely severe or lasting,
and yet there is certain vulgaritv
about this spirit of conquest which
makes this type of women dangerous
TO both men and women.
4 moresubtle and disas trous influence
is welded by the woman who is bent
on the scientific analysis of the various
effects produced by the tender passion
on men of different character and ma
ture. She has little pigeon.hoes
marked with different characteristic
names, and into these she classiies ev-
cry new specimen. The CO.
quette is apt soon to
discover that the pigeon-holes may be
very few, and that nearly all the men
she meets will fit exactly into one or
another of them. When she has ar
rived at this conclusion she is satisfied,
two or three good specimens of every
sort having been ooolly analyzed and
properly pigeen-holed. 1t Is variety
and not quantity she desires, and, hay
ing already become quite familiar with
the manner in which certain species
of the genus homo is af-
feectcd by the greatest of passions
she allows many possible victims to
pass by without an effort or desire to
add them to her collection; but if "A
specimen hitherto unclassided crosses
her path, she is ready with her little
desecting knife to peer into the
labyrlnths of a new phase OF human
nature.
Another class, perhaps the most
dangerous one Into which we are di-
vidlng coquettes, includes those
womel who fancy themselves in love
with each fresh lover. Theseare emo
tional and sympathetic women, who,
being Incapable of strong feeling
themselves, are borne along bv the
force OF passion which fascinates them,
anu which they would gladly recipro-
cate. In their often renewed disap-
pointment at finding that the new
lover cannot n AXE them forget them
serves, they feel a sense of Injustice.
and never dream that they are not the
injured ones.