The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-01-18
BOSTON WOMEN.
A New View OF Femininity at the
Modern Athens.

A friend who has made a renectiVe
study of women in two or three coun-
triea, gays that when he !s ct liberty 70
choose his second wife he will come to
Boston for her, for no where else are
there such nice girls. Hegoes on to say
that the best class Of Boston girls have
the fine compilations anu good manners
of English, girls without their inanity;
they are noble and witty as French wo-
men, without their friyOlity; they dress
with a blending of Philadelphia quiet
ness and Partisan taste; they are attec-
tomato as southern girls, without their
vicious temper; they alrt adorably 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 alter they have passed
into the region Of neuralgia and white
shawls. 1t takes courage to assert such
an opinion in 3 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 inexpressible," the ''rela.
tivlty OF the petCeptiyes, and the con
iugation of the infinite" Unfortunately,
she is not extinct; but, like the elk and
moose, she grows scarcer year by year.
Perhaps she has the reputation of being
the typical New England woman because
she is p~ervasive 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 gloried in being soak.
ed by summer rains, and minded wet
feet as much as a duck does the sand III
nis toe-naiis. her horror Of good fare
was unutterable as her dread of
heresy, and who prescribed "healthful"
desserts of rice and West India moIasses
or corn-starch custard in place o fmInce-
pie and plum pudding. 1t was she who
instilled inro your tender mind the
duty of being dutiful to your maiden
aunt, because she has q lot of money,
and when she dies, if you please her
she'll leave you some cit was she
whom | heard say to a young arthor
happy owe his new book just out: II
s'pose you paid enough to get it pub
lished, didn't you?"-and to a woman Of
good descent, not SO rich as she might
be, who wanted the family coat of arms
copied for q relic: "Are you sure it
xvaon1f a luory coat ;uoIaaI &C ,oa& -
arms copied tor a relic, now?" For this
kind ofcreature couldn't omit the chance
of making a brutal speech for any con-
sheraton, and held spite with a rancor
and canker you wouldn't believe. This
kind of a woman is the lineal ~descendent
of feudal malice and vice. She came of
the families that hung the Salem witches
and drove Qnakers into the wilderness,
and isthe ~unloyely physical result of
cramped distorted ways of living, of sap
less, siiugy fare, cold, agnish bed o
in stutfy, smelly houses, the godlessness
and inhumanity of whose habits vet lin
ger in rank 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, aud
hair like black satin, apt to ripen into q
sumptuous later beauty. lit is odd, bat
you will find more Of these large, glow
ing, imperious black eyes III and around
Boston than You will in any city Of the
south. Ii comes of a strain of rich, hot
cavalier blood, that is responsible for
most OF the daring and the of
New ENGLAND stories, and a good deal OF
the latter undenIies the d~ecorous surface
of New England to-Oay especially among
the old families. 1t is the OF
self-will and rivalry-there is little love
manic left in the world. One dark
eyed, old-school lady know, had fond
ness for a man who WIS in debt to her
own brother some thousands of dollars,
borrowed on his note of hand. After
the brothers funeral, while the rest were
ut the grave. She hunted up the tote
among the dead mans papers, tore OF
the signature, and defied family In
dignation with the coolremark: "There
was no use making q fuss about it, /
know of q 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 q Wild
oG and the husband in briefvisits as her
uncle, actually married q Young second
husband out of O Boston family. and
lived within fifty miles of her old home
for two years before the trick was found
out. Then the hussy contsiyed 20 make
tbs irst husband mortgage his property
and give her half he was worth before
he mas done with her. She had some
shameful secret Of his r,nnpv.Vpffiuv IN