The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-16
FEMALE ADvENrURERs.
A Chapter on The Achievements of the Strange
Tribe--Their Tricks and Their Names.

Adventures" is word in constant use nova
DAYS. but It's meaning is somewhat indefinite. as
its wide application shows. When o woman is
called an adventures" one hardly knows just
what to understand by it. there are 80 many and
so varied members of the great tribe, particu-
larry in this cosmopolitan capital Generally it
signifies a woman outside of society proper, who
leads wholly unconventional life, who may be
very vicious. or only very reckless The term
neutrality-suspicious.. blackmailers. fortune-tellers,
elairvoyant physicians, lobbyists feminine de-
teetives decoys. hotel swindlers, sham actresses,
demireps, and the whole petticoated army of
social sinners. But many Of these form class
CT themselves. each class bearing a distinctive
title. A female adventurer is usually a woman
who belongs nowhere. who has no restraining in
fuence who is given over to sensation pleasure,
teriously, regardless of honesty, and entirelyin-
dependent of public opinion. Principle of any
kind is not in her lexicon, and her sole thought
is the enjoyment of to-day.
The hundreds of women Adventures who live
or sojourn here seldom acquire any notoriety be-
yon6 figuring, now and them in the newspapers
They choose a narrower field than did Lola
Montez, or Adah Menken albeit they are apt to
have much in common with them. Having the
same tendency to promiscuous connubiality,
they get go involved in alliances of one kind or
another as to lose. after while, all clear notion
of their legal or illicit conditions Many of their
adventures are coniugal or semi -coniugal and
the alacrity with which they take husbands is
only equalled by the alacrity with which they
get rid of them. They grow accustomed TO
matrimoEy, or its equivalent, that they think
nothing Of entering into unions. They may go
through the form of obtaining divorces at the
outset of their career, but they soon tire of tax
ing so much trouble and wed any available man
rash enough to accept them. and needless of
their antecedents. Not only have they fear
of bgamy. they are Indifferent to
trieamy, .quadrigamy, qulnquigamy or sexie-
offense, they feel they commit a few more
offences without additional risk. Indeed, they
care very little for the law; they are a law unto
themselves and their law is !awlessness. When
a woman has violated all social canOns she is
likely TO laugh at every statutory enactment, to
be spiritually desperate Whenever any regu-
lar adventures is involved in legal case it is
pretty apt to be shown that her connnbal expe-
riences have been peculiar and manifold She
has had such an assortment of husbands or quasi
husbands as to be incapable of individuaizng
them. AS a rule, she bears herself bravey in
such trials. defying court, counsel and witnesses.
If it be her cue, however, to play the part of in
jured innocence. she does it so WELL having re-
course to tears, starts and swoons, to bring
the jury into compassion for her. Shrewd law
yers avoid impelling her to such melodramatic
tricks when they are against her. for fear of
losing their cause Regarding her most
formidable person to deal with, they are prone
site side and to make the most of her when she
is on theirs
If rich man dies unmarried. the adventurer
Is very likely to put forward u claim that she has
some time been his wife, with view to securing
portion of his property She does not hesitate,
indeed, to lay the claim even when he has had a
wife, or leaves widow. assuming priority in
that relation, and employing every means to
carry her point which is generally to be bought
OF by some of the dead mans relatives in order
10 prevent scandal, in creating which she is pro-
tcient. Such instances are very common here,
and in many of them the adventurer is handsome
ly recompensed for her audacty and falsehood by
brides to be silent. 1t is not hard for her to in
vent circumstances and suborn witnesses. and
thus alarm those concerned for the good name of
the dead. The average man Is SO vulnerable in
reputation touching women that anything said
of him in this respect will find believers So
many model citizens have been proved lcentious
after burial that there is always a temptation to
the INSCRIPTIONS to ba:ken their memory when
anything may be gained bv it. If Marcus Azure
Illus himself had been a New Yorker, and had
died with a million or two, some woman would
have appeared to antedate the corrupt Faustina,
and swear that the pure philosopher and mag
unanimous emperor had married her under
singular and fagitious circumstances. Nothing
can deter the full-hedged adventurer from at
tempting her self advantage.
But such women are holder and worse thSh
most of their class, who are content to be dis
honest in q small and comparatively private way.
THESE are not known TO De SCVenturerS except 10
the few who have had the misfortune to find
them out They have respectable outside, and
would not be suspected save by the very worldly
who have learned to see below surfaces. They
are often good-looking. despite a marked artii-
ciality and an air of being decidedly overdressed
This is so frequent fault with feminine New
Workers AS to be likely to escape notice What
a host of Adventures there must he here! They
are visible everywhere; ut the theaters, at the
opera, at concerts, on the promenades. at the
lsa hall in fnay fuc b1o
and sometimes at the most fashionable churches
They walk in Fifth avenue; they drive in Central
Park, and on the boulevards; they dance briskly
at the Academy and Metropolitan opera masoue-
rades; they visit the art-galeries and picture
collections; they go wherever the great
world goes. They are readily discernible at
the charity balls whose managers pretend to be
very strict as to admissions. and they abound at
the French balls las they are popularity named).
so aromatic and demonstrative that only the
most brazen of the order attend. At these ex-
tremeiy free entertainments they are apt to lay
aside, at a late hour and after an excess of
champagne, the external decorums they ordinarily
observe; with flushed faces rendering their
painted cheeks superfuous, with bare arms and
busts and the gitterng gems they hold high
carnival and seem like priests of Bacchifs and
Aphrodite. And when they drive home-how
unlike home it is-in the gray of the morning
they look so languid and CHASTITY as to reveal
what a bitter mockery tn cir existence is They
frequently feel this themselves; but at such
times they plunge into new excitements and so
forget the truth.
Ii is noticeable fact that the mass of ad-
yenturers have been married, legally married
at least once, independent of any doubtful
unions they may have contracted afterward.
and that they seldom have children. They may
have been, they frequently are. mothers, but
their offspring are kept out of sight and rarely
mentioned except for a purpose. They want and
need to be free; they cannot afford to be ham
pered with little folks, who would De troublesome
in many ways 1t may be conscience as we'll as
convenience that prompts their isolation. Theirs
is no doubt that children exercise conserva
tive influence, especially women. and thus
their presence is generally restraint Unwill-
ing to be restrained they naturally sever the
visible connection between themselves and their
progeny, though they may provide for them
carefully They are often good mothers. SO far
as fondness aud material comfort CO. and yet
very had women: They are full of glaring in
sonsisteneies. They will do the kindest acts one