The Mineral argus., 1884-01-24
BOSTON WOMEN.
A New View of Femininity at the
Modern Athens.
Letters to San FranciscD Argonaut.

study OF women Ii TWO or Jnreo cOun-
tries, says that when he IS at liberty to
choose his second wife he will come to
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 a blending of Philadelphia quiet
ness and Partisan taste; they are affec-
Tomato as southern girls, without their
vicious temper; they hIrt 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 after they have passed
into the region of neuralgia and white
shawls. 1t takes courage to assert such
IN opinion in a 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 oil the pei ceptives, and the ICON
jugation 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 pervasive 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 IN
his toe-nails. Her horror of good fare
was unutterable as her dread of
heresy, and who prescribed "healthiul"
desserts of rice and West India molasses
or corn-staTch 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 a lot of money,
and when she dies, if you please her
she'll leave you some.' at was she
whom l heard say to q young arthor
happy over his new book just out: 81
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 a relic: Are you sure it
wasn't a livery coat instead of a 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-
sheraton, and held spite with a rancor
and canker you wouldn't believe. This
bind nf n - - - 4ba lr1.1
of feudal malice and vice. She came of
the families that hung the Salem witches
and drove Quakers into the wilderness,
and isthe unlovely physical result of
cramped distorted ways of living, of sap
less, stiugy fare, cold, aguish bedrooms
in stuffy, smelly houses, the godiessness
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 Bostorf
girls. One style embraces a luxurious
sort OF daEasel, 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, but
you will find more of these large, glow
ing, imperious black eyes in and around
Boston than you will in any city of the
south. 1t comes of a strain of rich, hot
cavalier blood, that is responsible for
most of the daring and the nan of
New ENGLAND stories, and a good deal of
the latter undenlies the decorous surface
of New England To-Day, especially among
the old families. 1t is the romance of
self-will and rivalry-there is little love
omance left in the world. One dark
eyed, old-school lady know, had a 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
at the grave. she hunted up the note
among the dead mans papers, tore of
the signature, and defed family in
%dignation with the cool remark: '.1here
was no use making a fuss about it." l
know OF a woman with the profile of lib
erty on the coins, who, tired OF her old.
overload husband, went off to the sea-
! q In summer, passed herself as a Wild
ow and he husband in briefvisits as her
uncle, actually married a young second
husband out of a Boston family, and
lived within fifty miles of her old home
for iwo years before the trick was found
out. The the hussy contIived to make
the hrst husband mortgage his property
and give her half he was worth before
he MAS done with her. She had some
shameful secret of his money-getting 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 tte
court, not long ago, was a firm believer