The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-10-19
GIRLS,
The Discovery at Chicago and Its Eject on
the Matrimonial Market.

The Discovery at Chicago and Its Eject on
the Matrimonial Market.
New York Times.
A remarkable story comes to us from Chicago.
1t appears that a few weeks ago a beautiful
young lady of seventeen years of age was at
tending school in that city when it suddenly oc-
CURED to her that she was a boy. She there
upon discarded feminine clothing, put on trou-
sers, a high hat, and a paper collar, and began
the cultivation of a mustache-a course of con-
duct which has excited a good deal of remark in
Chicago and not q little indignation in the fe-
male seminary of which the recent young lady
was a pupil.
This occurrence will undoubtedly have an in
furious effect upon the popularity of Chicago
girls. 1t infuses an element of uncertainty into
the Chicago matrimonial market. If a young
lady of whose feminine character there has
never been the slightest doubt during a period
OF seventeen years can suddenly become a boy,
what confidence can any one feel in the perma-
hence Of other Chicago girls2 The girls of st.
Louis and Cincinnati are never guilty of aban-
doning their sex. Surely Chicago young mon
will prefer the lasting and, so to speak, indie
structible girls of st. Louis and Cincinnati to
the merely transient girls of their native city.
The st. Louis people, while affecting to pity
the Chicago girls, do not hesitate to assert that
the alleged young lady who became a boy was
never anything but a boy, and that there are
very few genuine girls in Chicago. They pre-
tend that no person with really feminine instincts
Of propriety and delicacy would dream of being
born in Chicago, and that 80 per cent. Of all
Chicago births are boys. The inhabitants of
Chicago have attempted to make up this def
cheney in girls by dressing one-half of their
boys as girls and by carefully educating them to
believe that they are original and unquestion-
able girls. In proof of this theory the st. Louis
public appeals to the Chicago shoemakers. The
latter, it is sail, are ready to testify that the
average Chicago girl wears shoes of masculine
size. This fact is regarded in st. Louis as I'M
Improbable evidence of the real character of
alleged Chicago girls. The st. Louis press will
not fail TO make the most Of the argument, and
the st. Louis Ministers Association is said TO be
arranging a course of sermons on the Sin of
Deceit as Illustrated by the So-called girls of
Chicago" which it is thought will fill Chicago
with the keenest anguish and humiliation.
1t is but fair to point out that the opinions of
st. Louis people on any matter in which Chicago
is concerned are to be taken with many grains of
allowance. Granting the original charge that a
habitual and lifelong girl residing in Chicago has
suddenly become a boy, it does not follow that
she has accomplices among other Chicago girls.
Granting, too, that the girls of Chicago have the
good sense to wear shoes large enough for their
feet, instead of manning themselves by wearing
shoes ridiculously small, that fact does not fur
nish the slightest reason for doubling the authen-
ITCHY Of the girls in question. In all probability
the girl who has deserted her sex and gone over
to the male enemy glands alone. Still, it must
be confessed that her conduct will give rise to
uneasiness, and that, for some time to come,
there will be a lack of entire confidence in the
permanence of Chicago girls.