The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-08-16
THE JOLLY ENGLISH GIRLS.
lYankee Blade.l

sa.-s the Pal Mall Casekkk, at best sue.
 ceed in resembling boys. The special
 habits and interests of men, their athletic
 and sporting tastes. their melancholy ex.
 periences of what is called life,o can no
 more be appropriated by a girl than ou,
 top-boots and nding- -breeches. She only
 appropriates that unnatural monster, the
 boy who is aping a.msn. l am not So
 old, or such a misanthrope, but that l
 6nd myself at times, among young peo-
 pie at dance or garden party. I see
 a handsome young fellow from Adersho,
 talking to me giri, the picture of youth
 and grace. They are flirting, I hope,
 as they should be, ]" says match-makinR old thing. Flirting! my dear lady, he
 has been telling her about that awfully jolly run with the Quorn, don't you know. And nov she is asking him with an anx-
 ious look if it is really true that No. , is not fl. For an hour, as l sat within hearing on the bench, she has patientiy committed to memory the merits of bar rack afteT barTack and station after station-a form of feminine curiosity which he has but languidly satisfied, though he has no other topic with which to entertain her. "Aldershct," says he, (" is such an awfully jolly place to gess away fom.n And she knows who is bound to win the mile race unless Jigeer Mowbrsy can stand the training, which is not to be thought of, don't you know. talking the talk of the smoking-room, or so much lof it as can be dribbled into the ears of pure young girl By all that is sacred, glow with shame when l see a beautiful woman thus put of her sex, when she certainly can never put on ours.
 What are they to gain, these favorites of the regiment and the hunt, that they thus humble themselves, that they so dis figure and weary themselves in labor iously teasing to be women? It is not husbands, assurediy, they are seeking. Our young friend from Aldershot does not trouble himself to flirt with girls he has not the remotest idea of marriage :: nor, indeed, has his fair partner, at least with the like of him. She is not think ing of fascinating him at all would, in- deed, that she were! Marriage is an af- fair of carriages and horses but for these she must look to older men, and she does not like older men. No! she is only filling her appointed part-the awfully jolly girl-which her society expects her to be. Dolly and Darling, Judy and To have to do it, and 90 must she.
 l wonder if she knows how little men really care fer this strange receptivity of hers. To the young fellow this girl with her manly requirements just so far ceases to be woman without advancing a step toward man. She listens to him as the flag at school listens to the big fellow in the boat or the eleven. It is pleasant to him that the young 'un wear skirts and has lips ruddier than flag. It is pleasant to him ; but not wholly to us elders and fathers.
 them on the assumption that they were women, or that they very soon would be. If we could not entertain them as wo- men, all the world over, love to be enter tained, they turned to one another and amused themselves. When we sat with . sweet young thing in the verandah as the band played the last notes of Kath- leen Mavourneen we had something, VOW, to talk about besides cricket aver ages, the club cigars and the right to cut of a bulldogs ears. And as we never saw cigarettes in the lips of our partners, it never occurred to us to smoke between the dances.
 have notun for satire; but love to watch our social moods, and trace them to their causes and effects. l suppose the work began with that wave of athfeEic- ism which of late has swept over the land. turning the heads of not a few lads, and importing some laughahle customs; but if its effect upon men were more CT less manly and wholesome, its effect in- directly on women vas perhaps . more doubtful gain. When the Rymnastic idol waS set up, and the muscular type of vir- tue became the whole duty of man, there were found Enelish girls to suppose it the whole duty of women. Phyically, it did not slaughter outright But as the gih could aiter al only join in the new wors hip q a pEoselyte of the gate, she fell into the social position of the lower school" at . cricket match. The jolly girl, in fact, became a fag. When ath- letics are the business of life, the tone of society is naturally set by men.
 Was not second cause at work in the tYiumphs of the famous American beauty? This fascinating being, l doubt not, on her own side of the Atlantic, has planted the germs of new feminine spochs. These was nothing of the playground or hunt about her her discovery vas the freedom of her sex. It may be doubeed if our ancient system on this side of the ocean is duly prepared for such dash, such originality, such angelic seif-pos- session. The type, however brilliant, is . perilous one to adopt. For the Amer ican girl, who % starfles us at home, has her own traditions and habits. When | she shook from her airy skirts the con- ventions ofthe old world, she founded the | conventions of the new. At home she | reigns still, and imposes her law oe men | concerning herseaf, but little about mess- rooms and gun-cluba Young ladiea, you i who think of adopting her adogable free- | dom of manner, be sure that you also | adopt her shrewd and original spirit.
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