The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-01-18
BOSTON WOMEN.


a New View of Femininity at the
Modern Athens.
Letters to San Francisc, Argonaut.
A friend who has made a reflective
study of women in two or three 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. Hegoes on to say
that the best class of Boston girls have
the fine complexions and good manners
of English, girls without their inanity;
they are noble and witty as French wo-
men, without their irivolity; they dress
with blending of Philadelphia quiet
ness and Partisan taste; they are affec-
tionate US southern girls, without their
vicious temper; they fllrt a1orably 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 a world of. pretty women,
and it should not be given without rea-
son.
This picture is directly opposed to the
popular idea of tine Boston woman-a
gaunt female in spectacles and bright
blue veil who has the plumpnes and
complexion of a dried goldfish; prying,
viewy, censorious; who talks about the
"values of the inexpressible," the "rela-
tivlty oil the petceptives, and the icon.
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 reeking and pryins, 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 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-starcli custard in place of mlnce
pie and plum pudding, 1t was she who
instilled inro your tender mind the
duty Of being dutifnl to your maiden
/. aunt, because she has a lot Of money,
she'll leave YOU some.' cit was she
whom heard say to IL Young artllor
happy over his new book Just out: II
s'pose YOU paid enough to get it pub
lisbed, didn't you?"-and to woman of
good descent, not SO rich as she might
be, who wanted the family coat of arms
copied for relic: ''Are you sure it
wasn't livery coat instead of a coat of
arms copied. for a relic. now?" For this
kind ofcreature couldn't omit the chance
of making brutal speech for any con-
sideration, and held spite with a rancor
and cankcr you wouldn't believe. This
kind of n woman is the lineai lescendent
of fe,ldal malice and vice. She came of
the families that hung the Salem witches
and drove Qnakers into the wilderness,
and isthe unlovely physical result OF
cramped distorted ways of living, OF sap
less, stiugy fare, cold, agush bedrooms
in stuiiy, 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 u luxurious
Sort of damsel. rather dazzling in girl
hood, with peach-an(i creamy cheeks.
round contours, LIQUID, glowing ewes, and
hair like black satin, apt to ripen into a
snmptuous later beauty. ii is odd, but
Won will find more of these large, glow
inc, imperious black ewes in and around
Ros,nn than Won will in any CITY of the
south II comes of A strain of rich. hot
cavs,;sr , blood. that is RESPONSIBLE for
most n the daring and the romance of
New @ England stories. and a GOOD deal OF
the latter mderlies the decoro,,s surface
fNcw England to-oay. especially among
the old tamiies. 1t is tile romance Of
self-will and riyalry-there is little love
romance left in the world. One dark
eyed. old school lady know, had Il fond
ness for a man who WIS in debt to her
,wn brother some thousands of dollars,
borrowed on his note of hand. After
the brothers funeral, while the rest we're
at the grave, size hunted up the note
among the dead mans papers, tore of
the Signature, and deiied family in
dirnation with the cool remark: "Ihere