Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-09-12
Fem ale Washers.
From the London 7 ruth.

She was inevitable: and she has come The
''female masher," dimly foreshadowed during
the last London season, has become a very un-
comfortable fact at the seaside. She is to be
| seen in all the glory of her shame and the SUBJ
Unity of her impudence on the Spa at Scarbo-
rough. on the pier at Ryde, on the Lees at Folke-
stone and in Devonshlre Park at Eastbourne
Woman delights in contradiction, and conse-
quently the female masher is in all her charac-
teristcs the exact opposite of her male compan-
ion. He, poor fellow. takes conscious pride In
his effeminacy; she, silly soul. is masculine from
the OF her billycock hat to the point of her
laced-up. double-sOied boots. The masher male
is washed out and walks delicately; his linen is
spotless. his manners feeble, his demeanor limp,
his iewelry respondent, his appetite un-
| wholesome, his thirst satisfied with lemon or
| milk. his smoking confined to cigarettes of the
| mildest brand. his conversation ''yea. yea," or
| 'nay, nay" He has lost all desire for exercise
and is a stranger to activity. At the seaside he
does not walk desperately as his forefathers did,
or boat, or fish, or play cricket. or even lawn
tennis. He never earns health meal BY honest
exercise or healthy perspratiOn. He dresses and
he dawdles. His costumes are contained in half
dozen trunks, like those OF Saratoga belle 1t
is his fancy to vary his attire at least three times
day, and to display change even in his VARIETY
The coat, trousers and vest, according to seaside
etiquette, are never Of one pattern. He is great
III SoiolCu WdistCOdtS. Ike tlc young OXI0r0
| undergraduate of a quarter of century ago. II
it were not for the pier, or the espanade, or the
spa, or the winter garden the maSher male would
die OF self-impOsed fatigue. He does not go
healthily out to bathe these lovely mornings
from boat off the beach. The bathing boat
men complain at the various watering places
that their trade is gone. He does not get sum
burned and Drowned, but carefully preserves
his complexion under the shade of huge hat
with an abnormal brim. 1t is his fancy to walk the
do in rJar 10 n
for admiration on the morning pier; he courts
applause for his distinguished folly on the after
| noon parade. He puts on a miXed-always
miXed-medley of evening dress and cutaway
jacket. and dawdles away the evening looking
on while others sing, or appearing stupid while
Others dance. The intervals he fills up at the
bar of the seaside hotel, which serves him as
convenient club lounge. and where once more
he attitudinizes for admiration, careless of the
humOr he prOvokes, and too dense to appre-
ciate the cynical sneers OF the philosophizing
barmaid.
Conscious of the presence of this strange in
dvidual the masher female has apparently
determind to take upon herself the duties and
inheritance of lost manhood. She has be-
come little swell In petticoats. If she only
dared she would appear at the evening seaside
dances in the knee-breeches and black silk
stockings Saving her pettcoats. retained ap-
parently out OF respect for the law that pro-
hibits interchange of cOstumeby the sexes. the
starch, well set up and all over buttons. Her
hat is made at mans shop, SO is her trim little
Jacket, so are her innumerable waistcoasts, so
apparently are her boots. She is essentially
tailor-made from head to foot. When the
weather Is gusty she covers all with q tailor
made tight-ftting coat, to which q certain
swagger is impaired by the use Of the new pre-
pOsterOus and most hideous swaying crinolette.
II manners oft prOclaims the man, costume
certainly advertises the woman; 30 the female
masher does not assume masculine attire
without initiating, parrot-like, the affecta- |
ton of her evident model On the pier and
promenade of to-day the man is not in it. 1t is |
the woman who laughs loudly, talks at the top |
Of her voice, takes the pavement and elbows the |
crowd to the right and to the left The female |
masher is neither polite In her manners nor Sc |
lect In her conversation. On a very slight &C |
Quaintanoe she will communicate suspicious |
stories to perfect stranger, and there is no |
slang or popular vulgarity with which she is |
not acquainted. In q dog-cart at the station |
she takes the reins; In the yacht she handles the
tiller. She whistles as she walks along the pier
and bitches up her clothes as If she were sailor
At dance In the assembly rooms at night she |
evidently finds the opposite sex so insipid that /
she seizes upon the first girl she comes across,
and whirls her round the room. The ordinary, F!
well-behaved and courteous man finds the Sc fe. /
male masher" ne most difficult person to con-
tend with; for when she Is rude-as she very /
frequently is-there IL necessarily no reply. She
can insult and injure without any chance |
Of "settfng- down" from any one unless 1
he be old enough to be her father. |
Such rebuff one Of these impudent minxes /
received in my hearing the other day !