St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-01-10
AN OBSERVING WESTERN GIRL.
Life i'm New York, as seen Under the
Stimulus OF a Very Cay season.

Life i'm New York. as Seen Under the
Stimulus OF a Very Gay Season.
NEW YORK. Jan. dear Grace: i sup
pose you thought the gayeties of country
house on the Hudson at this season would
make one forget everything else. But if
you know me thoroughly YOU will under
stand that nothing starts me TO thinking
quicker than seeing lot of people who
make amusement the business OF their lives.
And this New York society is such a wild.
wierd thing. / tell you, my dear, what are
called society girls have opportunities for
studying their own kind which are absO-
lutely unsurpassed in ancient or modern
times. Now, for example, here / am "a
commonly called lucky giTl-and the longer
l live the more l am convinced that the Chi
nese are right in certain customs. When a
girt child is born in China the father retires
10 his private chamber, goes 10 bed, groans,
and weeps, and mourns, and laments for four
days, The household wears mourning, and
all say to sympathizing inquirers: "Woe TO
this house; girl child is born" In the
lower ranks of life simpler and more COM
prehensiye action often takes place. The
baby is quietly dropped into the nearest
river, and so its troubles are ended. But
for us. with our boosted civilization, there
is nothing for the luckiest of us but fever
ish existence of pleasure which is half pain.
And, Grace, American women are better
off than any i'm the world. Don't forget
this. Now you'll probably want to know
something of what has made me a weeping
philosopher. Ii is the extraordinarily gay
time I'm having, dear. First comes the
house party. You know 1 was invited to
this charming country place to spend Christ
mas week according to fashion first started
in New York. There are nine of us. in
Guiding the host and hostess. These last.
which should be first, are very nice. but
spoil everything by trying to make it more
English than it is in London. AS the lady
is of Irish extraction and her husband one
of the old Dutch families of New York, YOU
may imagine the thousand incongruities
that result. Then there are two more girls,
one young married belle, her husband.
and two society swells-all from New
York. L won't bother about the girls they
are well enough. But the men, Gracel
declare / could almost weep. Here l
have trunkful of Paris dresses, and YOU
know look much better i'm house dress
than street dress-and / never had a
chance to show myself in one of those
drawing-roOm gowns TO a man of sense vet.
My dear, it's dreadful thought, but l am
afraid men of sense in this country don't
frequent dTawing-rOOms. Indeed, the
great want of American society is men of
sense who are men of leisure. Well, L was
to tell you about the party here. They all
condescend to me, as L am Western. But
my ignorance OF the East ought not to be
any drawback to me, for they talk of moth
ing but London, Paris and Vienna, and you
know very well, dear. that folly is con-
tagious-and am fast becoming as great a
snob as any of them. What do YOU think
of my telling them last night at dinner
about Sir James Savile sending me those
flowers to the steamer when i sailed? And
you know he is the most senseless little
puppy living, and ought to be ashamed to
be seen talking with him. And they talk
about the ''hunt balls" and how various
men look in pink, and the fox they hunt is
an anise-seed bagl told them one evening, in
burst of honesty, that they ought TO go to
Virginia to see real English fox-hunting,
and they fairly jumped out of their chairs
at my presumption. The men have very
good manners, but they studiously repress
everything like originality, and it always
strikes me as if they were playing an elab-
crate part. We dine at 1880 and the men
are very particular in always wearing even
ing clothes. One night the host brought a
man out from New York to dinner and
spend the night. He was New England
manufacturer of some kind, and at the table
he told the most delicious stories about his