Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-11-03
FEMININE EPISTLEs.
Tbs superiority OF the Weaker
Sex as Letter-writers.
Letters Written by Women which for
Grace and Brightness Can NOT Be
EQuaied by the Most Gifted Orator
The Views Of some Noted Men.
[Chicago Inter Ocean. ]

rChicago Inter ocean,
Thomas de Quincy In his ESSAY on
Style." an essay still regarded as iuval-
uai;le for its suggestions to young writer's,
says: "Would you desire at tis day TO
read our noble language in its native
beauty, picturesque from idomatic pro-
priety, racy in it's pbraseology, deli
cate yet sinewy in its composition. steal
the mail-bags and break open all the let.
ters In female handwriting" The quail
ties Of the sex to which this writer as
cribes their superiority as letter. writer's
are their more excitable natures and
greater frankness IN expressing emotion.
He did not give women credit for even az
much imaginative power as men. He
thought their powers weak and heir ef-
forts at writing fiction contemp ibie U;
must be remembered, to save de Quincey's
reputation as a criticy that the brilliant
and successful female novelists of this
century are a later growth thr n his time).
He says: snow there is moi in the world
SO certain a guarantee fer pure idiomatic
dicticn, without trick or offeciation, al a
case of genuine excitement. Real stu
ations are always pledges Of a re and
natural language. 1t is in counter
passion, in the mimical situations of
novels, or In poems that are efforts of In
genui.Y, that women write i'll and affect
edlv."
Many tributes to the brilliancy and
charming diction OF women's letters
might lie quoted. Lord Eldon saws: sour
thoughts. as expressed in our respective
letters, are much alike; but comparison
will prove. what has so often been re-
marked, that female correspondence has
charm in it of which that of my sex is
always devoid" This tri' ute was not
prompted by gallantry, but was meant 10
be a simple statement of fact. A like
spontaneous tribute is that OF we'll
known American scholar, Joseph q. Goes
well, the first librarian OF the Astor Lib
rary, given in letter to one OF his own
sex.
ITO preserve the true spirit OF friendly
correspondence, conceive. requir es more
exercise of the affections of the heart than
Of the powers of the mind, and IL Is for
this reason that dies commonly excel us
In epistolary writing. l know OF no read
ing more dry and uninteresting than the
the letters of great mon; l mean par
ticularly among the mod erns, for those OF
Cicero and Pliny I never read, and, of
course, pretend not to judge of their
merits. am not so gallant Is TO ackn WI
edge that females possess a superiority of
intellect, nor so illiteral as 10 deny them
an equality; but In all the requisites nec-
essary to the attainment of pleasing AM
interesting style of letter writing they are
far above u.s."
Colonel T. w. Higeinson, In a recent
article on this interesting subject. admits
the superior epistolary talent of women
thus:
ave listen to the reading OF le. ters from
some foreign country, perhaps. If they
are letters from a man they may be very
good, perhaps, brilliant; we are rarely
surprised by finding mans letters much
better than we should have expected of
him. With women, on the other hand,
the surprise is constant; we may almost
say that every woman writes better let
ters than we should expect of her; that a
third+rate woman writes better than any
Int first1rate man. Whence Is this diff
ferencei
at may come, first, from the closer OBJ
servation of details by a woman, the re-
suit of the early training of their lives,
inal temperament Now details are what
we need In a letter; for philosophy and
general gossip we go to hook. Method,
order, combination, are quite unimpor-
tant to a letter; we need to know what
each man or woman described was doing
at a given time-where they stood, what
they wore, what they appeared to have
had for breakfast, or to expect for
l.
bring us; the logic and the
deductions may come in separate pack
ages. Now, the letters of women will vary
with the period: they may be stiff, or they
may be gushing, but they will give the
details. remember an educated Ameri-
cen. who, on returning from Egypt, could
only say when asked to describe the Py-
ramids: oh, yes; enormous things
enormous thingsv But the stupidesi
woman who ever climbed Pyramid could
at least tell you afterward, when she had
recovered her breath, something about the
Arab who dragged her up, and the terror
that took her down; and It Is by compari
son with these that we find the Pyramit
truly enormous"
Whatever the cause may be-the greater
susceptibility of the feminine nature t,
impressions, it's more spontaneous ex,
preston of emotion. warmer quantities o.
heart, OF merely its tenden y to make the
most Of unimportant detail, as Mr.. Hig.
ginson unkindly suggests-the fact re-
mains. If women can not, like our Web
sters and Choates, our Channings and
B,echers, sway audiences of thou and,
with eloquent oratory, they can write let
ters which for grace and brightness III,
most gifted orator could not equal. This
talent has within the last half century
opened to the sex a fruitful field In jour
nalism, which many have entered and err,
reaping worthy rewards therein. Woulc
not women be happier IL they were con,
tent with the laurels within their reac h
instead OF signing and grasping for thos.
which lie beyond their graspi