Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-12-25
THE AMERICAN GIRL.
How an English Gentleman vis,ws Her II

How an English Gentleman vit,ws Her I'm
Miss Baylor, in her very clever and
entertaining novel, :"On Both Sides"
gives us some fine, spirited, pen pict-
ures, in which she contrasts English
and American character, and be it
said to her credit, with entire fairness
to both nationalities.
Mr.. Heathcote, and elegant and &C.
compllshed young Englishman, who
having safely eluded the wiles of the
match making British matrons with
eligible daughters, comes to America,
and In g. charming family of Baltimo-
reans, where he is received with genu-
inc hospitality and allowed to ride,
walk and talk ad libitum with the
daughter of the house, finds himself on
the other horn of the dilemma.
F'The weight of excessive eligibility
suddenly slipped off him (Mr. Heath
cote), like the albatross from the neck
OF the ancient mariner, leaving him q
thankful and happy man. In a week
he had established himself firmly at
Mr.. Bascombe's declined to accompany
his uncle to Virginia, and definitely
settled in his own mind that he would
take the step matrimonial-the step
from the sublime, we'll not always to
be ridiculous. With this resolution
he naturally thought that the greatest
obstacle to success had been removed;
but he was soon disillusionized He
had already come to see that Ameri-
IAN girls were very much inthe habit
Of being gracious to everybody, aid
saying pretty and pleasant things,
with no thought Of an hereafter; also
that they did not live with st. Georges,
HanoverSquare, or it's American equiv
a]ent, Trinity Church, New York, stamp
ed on the mental retina. Miss Bias
combe was very nice'to himself, but she
was quite as nice to g. dozen other men,
1t was quite clear that if there was
to be any wooing done, he would have
to 40 lt-go every step of the way
himself, with no assistance from Miss
Bascombe. How on earth am I to
show her that I care for her?' he
thought. Other men send her dozens
Of bonnets, and box after box Of ex-
pensive sweets, without end, and they
come to see her continually and take
her about every where, and are en-
tirely devoted to her. I wonder what
fellows do over here when they are
serious? How do they make them
selves understood when they go on this
way habitually? 1t is q most extraor-
binary state of affairs! 4
Nothing seems to mean anything
here, it is worse than being
in England, where everything means
something No, it isn't either.
I vow that when 1 am at the
Clinton's, in Surrey, scarcely dare
offer the girls 80 much as muffin,
and if ask the carroty one, Beatrice,
the simplest question, she bushes and
stammers asifI were proposing out of
hand. But what am i to d.? can't
sing and take to serenading Edith on
moonlit nights with a guitar and
blue ribbon around my neck. I can't
push her into the river that I may
pull her out again. l dare say there
is nothing for it but to adopt the
American method-enter with about
fifty others for a sort of sentimental
steeplechase, elbow or knock every
other fellow out of the way, III the
running, work awfully hard to please
the girl. and get in by half length if
one wins at all. There Is no feeling
sure of her until one is coming back
from the altar, evidently''
To have even unintentionally drawn
this soliloquy from a rather conceited
young Englishman, whose attitude
toward the gentler sex had hitherto
been, to say the least, evasive, was no
small triumph for Miss Bascombe, who
had succeeded in bewildering and as
tonishing Mr.. Heathcote even more
completely than Miss Bijou Brown
had done his sister, when she called
young man Of her acquaintance "a
perfectly lovely fellow" pronounced
his nose 80 Dream" and finally &C
knowledged to corresponding with
twelve of his ilk, adding that she gen.
orally read these letters to "Pepper,
who laughed fit to kill himself over
them"
1t is pleasant indeed to see the Amer
lean girl placed before us in a proper
light, in view of the many caricatures
in both English and American fiction,
in which she has played a prominent
part Miss Baylor places the English
daisy, Ethel Heathcote, besice one of
our own American wild roses, and
demonstrates quite clearly that, with
all the freedom that our social GUS
toms permit, the American girl is quite
as modest, ingenious, womanly and
true hearted as her English sister,
whose every action is hedged in by
conventionalities, and whose every