River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-01-17
BOSTON WOMEN.
A New View OF Femininity at the
Modern Athens.

study of women in two or three coun
| tries, says that when he is at liberty tc
| choose his second wife he will come tc
Boston for her, for no where else are
| there such nice girls. He goes on to say
that the best class of Boston girls have
| the fine compilations and good manners
of English, girls without their inanity;
| they are noble and witty as French wo-
men, without their frivolity; they dress
with blending of Philadelphia quiet
ness and Partisan taste; they are affec-
| tionate as southern girls, without their
vicious temper; they filrtadofably with
| out compromising themselves or any
body else; they are charming comrades
in maturers years, and, by their taste
and piquancy, keep their place with hus-
bands and sons after they have passed
into the region of neuralgia and white
| shawls. 1t takes courage to assert such
an opinion in world of pretty women,
and it should not be given without rea.
son.
This picture is directly opposed to the
| popular idea of the Boston woman-a
gaunt female in spectacles and bright
| blue veil who has the plumpnes and
| complexion of dried goldfish; prying,
viewy, censorious; who talks about the
"values of the inexpgessible,' the ''rela-
| tivity of the peiceptlves, and the con
| jugation of the intinite.' Unfortunately,
| she is not extinct; but, like the elk and
moose, she grows scarcer year by year.
Perhaps she has the reputation of being
| IN txynr hno q
she is pervasve in society as oil of pep
permint and, for all practical purposes
of peeking and prying, one of her is as
good as a dozen. She it was who wor-
ried the blue out of youthful skies by
| anxiety about damp shoes for healthy
young people who goried in being soak
ed by summer rains, and minded wet
feet as much as duck does the sand IN
his toe-nails. Her horror of good fare
was unutterable as her dread of
heresy, and who prescribed 'healthiup'
desserts of rice and West India molasses
or corn-starch custard in place of mlnce-
pie and plum pudding. 1t was she who
instilled inro your lender mind the
duty of being dutiful to your maiden
| aunt, because she has lot of money,
and when she dies, if you please her
she'll leave you some cit was she
happy over his new book just out: 81
s'pose you paid enough to get it pub
lished, didn't your to q woman of
good descent, not so rich as she might
be, who wanted the family coat of arms
copied for relic: care you sure it
wasn't livery coat instead of coat Of
arms copied for a relic, now?" For this
kind ofcreature couldn't omit the chance
of making a brutal speech for any con-
sideraton, and held spite with a rancor
and canker you wouldn't believe. This
kind of woman is the lineal descendent
of feudal malice and vice. She came of
the families that hung The Salem witches
and drove Quakers into the wilderness,
and is the unlovely physical result of
cramped distorted ways of living. of sap
less, stiugy fare, cold, aguish bedrooms
in stuffy, smelly houses, the godlessness
and inhumanity of whose habits yet lin
ger in rank SAVIOR about their old beams
and plaster. Thank heaven, this happy
race is dying out between "liver" and
pneumonia.
There are two styles ofmodern Boston
girls One style embraces a luxurious
sort of damsel, rather dazzling in girl
hood, with peach-and creamy cheeks,
round contours, liquid glowing eyes, and
hair like black satin, apt to ripen into a
sumptuous later beauty. 1t is odd, bat
you will find more of these large, glow
ing, imperious black eyes i'll and around
Boston than you will III any city of the
south. 1t comes of strain of rich, hot
cavalier blood, that is responsible for
most of the daring and the romance of
New England stories, and good deal OF
the latter underlies the decorous surface
of New England to-oa!, especially among
the old families. 1t IS the romance OF
self-will and rivalry-there is little love
romance left in the world. One dark
eyed, old-schoo! lady know, had fond
ness for a man who WIS in debt to her
own brother some thousands of dollars,
borrowed on his nbte of hand. After
the brothers funeral while the rest were
at the grave. she hunted up the note
among the dead mans papers, tore OF
the signature, and defied family in
dignation with the cool remark: There
was no use making a fuss about Il" 1
know of a woman with the profile OF lib
erty on the coins, who, tired OF her old.
over-fond husband, went off to the sea-
side in summer, passed herself as wild
oW and the husbands in briefvisits as her
uncle, actually married young second
husband out of a Boston family, and
lived within fifty miles of her old home
for two years before the trick was found
out. Then the hussy contrived to make
the first husband mortgage his property
and give her half he was worth before
he was done with her. She had some
shameful secret of his moneygettng in
her keeping, and this was the price Of
of her silence. The wealthy old bach
elor, Ben Wright, whose ten or twenty
wills made such work for the prob tie
court, not long ago, was firm believer
in the divine right of rich people to
please themselves. He had a partially
for pretty women, especially for one
gay young married woman, wife OF q
stock broker, one of the new people;
and when the doctor ordered him down
to Florida for the winter, what does he
do but write up to her family, asking
that she should be allowed to come down
and take care of him? Down she flutter-
ed with trunks and toilets bewItching,
installed herself at his side, and a t
last got him to make viii in her favor,
giving her the bulk of his millions. The
family threatened to put her letters in
court, and compromise was made by
which she got hundred thousand or
So Her husband is remarkably pleased
with the financial ability of his wife, and
both move in the gayest OF gay society.
Liz NOIlu 10 WluCy sit1Ns dc OisC Aid Va
irreproachable notions said, ''ifyou shut
sinners out of society you don't always
know whether it is they or you that are
outside the most. | don't make such
persons my bosom friends, or ask them
10 my house, neither when | hleet them
do | feel obliged to sit as judge and jury
on my fellow creatures" which express
es the amiable sentiments of society to-
ward pleasant people in general.
Leaving out the hawed peaches, there
is another sort of Boston girl, delicate
of complexion, with bright, expressive
eyes, and lace all gay, with quick intelli-
gence, swaying figure, dancing step, and
style more simple and perfect than that
of any other women made. She does
not transfx you with repartee, like
your clever Californians; she hasn't SO
much OF the bouncing manner OF the
New York girl. Away from the men,
she isn't sentimental as the AIabamlan,
who is quite capable of quoting "MarnI-
ON to you at any time, nor does she
, tolerate poems of the St. Louis Milwau-
kee order. She Is the kind of girl her
father takes comfort in talking TO, and
never needs snubting from her brother
| to keep her in order. She isn't turned
out to order by the dozen, like those in
sipid model young English ladies who
come over travelling with their papas
and mammas. and who give you the
| idea of needing ID be kept in boxes all
( 1,.--a MI, n1e4nta mi VI ic Y,,aI 10 q