The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1885-05-28

The 1Iannish British Maiden.
The women who copy the ways OF
men, says the Pail Mall Gazette, at
best succeed in resembling boys. The
special habits and interests of men,
their athletic and sporting tastes,
their melancholy experiences OF whal
they call "life," can no more be appro-
priated by girl than our top-boots and
riding breaches. She only appropriates
that unnatural monster, the boy who is
aping man. I am not so old, or such
misanthrope. but that find myself at
times among young people at dance or
a garden party. I see handsome young
fellow from Aldershot talking to fine
girl, the picture of youth and grace.
"They are flirting, I hope, as they
should be-" saysa match making old
thing. Flirting! my dear lady, he has
been telling her about that awfully
jolly run with the Quorn, don't you
know. And now she is asking him,
with an anxious look, if it is really true
that No. 7 is not fit. For an hour, as l
sat within hearing on the bench, she
had patiently committed to memory
She merits of barrack after barra.k 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. "Alder-
shot," says he, is such an awfully jolly
place to get away from" And she
knows who is bound to win the mile
race unless jigger Mowbray can stand
the training, which is not to be though
of, don't you know. And so they &c
on, from mere habit, talking the talk of
the smoking-room, or so much of IL as
can be dribbled into the ears of a pure
young girl. By all that is sacred I glow
with shame when 1 see beautiful woman
thus put off her sex, when she certainly
can never put on ours.
What are they to gain, these favor
ties of the regiment and the hunt. that
they thus humble themselves, that they
so distigure and weary themselves in
laboriously ceasing to be woman? 1t
is not husbands, assuredly, they are
seeking. Our young friend from Alder
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 thinking of fascinating him
at all would, indeed, that she WERE
Marriage IS an affair of carriages and
horses but for these she must look to
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 10 have
to do it, and SO must she.
I wonder if she knows how little men
really care for this strange receptlvity of
hers. To the young fellow, this girl with
her manly requirements just SO fa1
ceases to be woman without advancing
a step toward man She listens to him.
as the fag at school listens to the big
fellow in the boat or the eleven. 1t is
pleasant to him that the young 'un
wears skirts and has lips ruddier than
fag. 1t is pleasant to him; but not
wholly to us elders and fathers.
Girls in my time expected us to treat
them on the same assumption that they
were women, or that they very soon
would be. If we would not entertain
them as women all the world over love
to be entertained, they turned to one
another 0n1 op,1,Cn1 ,ho,,oco1xyoo
we sat with sweet young thing in the
as the band played the last
notes of kathleen Mwoureen," we had
something, I vow, to talk about be-
sides cricket averages, the club cigars
and the right way to cut bull dogs
ears. And as we never saw cigarettes
in the lips of our partners, it never &C.
CURED to us to smoke between the
dances.
I have no turn for satire; but I love
to watch our social moods, and trace
them to their causes and effects. 1 sup
pose the work began with that wave of
athleticism which of late has ewept over
the land, turning the heads of not few
lads, and importing some laughable
customs; but if It's effect upon men were
more or less manly and wholesome, its
effect indirectly on women was perhaps
a more doubtful gain. When the gym
nastic idol was set up, and the muscu-
lar type of virtue became the whole du-
ty of man, there were found English
girls to suppose it was the whole duty
of women, Physically, it may be, it
those whom it did not
slaughter outright. But as the girl
could, after all, only join in the new wor-
ship as proselyte of the gate, she fell
into the social position of the clover
school" at cricket match. The jolly
girl, in fact. became 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 triumphs of the famous American
beauty? This fascinating being, 1
doubt not, on her own side of the At
lantic, has planted the germs of new
feminine epochs. There was nothing
Of the playground or hunt about her;
her discovery was the freedom of her sex.
It may be doubted if our ancient sys-
tenn on this side of the ocean is duly
for such dash, such originality.
such angelic self possession. The type.
however brilliant, is perilous one to
adopt, for the American girl, who star
les us, at home has her own traditions
md habits. When she shook from
Ter airy skirts the conventions
the Old World, she founded
he conventions of the New. At
home she reigns still, and imposes
Ter law on men concerning herself, hut
title about mess rooms and gun clubs.
Young ladies you who think of adopt
ng her adorable freedom of manner, be
ure that you also Adopt her shrewd and
original spirit.
But, be the causes whatever they may,
he result is curious social inversion.
The relative place of men and women
$ reversed in this rapid and dazzling
world. Of Old, the idea was that in
Kings social the woman was mistress,
Lueen and leader. Men in her presence
we're to study her tastes and to submit