Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-02-19
Sugar and spice.
And every thing NICE
and young ladies of


Sugar and spice.
And everything NICE
and young ladies of
Flowers and rings.
And all pretty things
eve go on being sweet aud nice and
making music wherever we go, and a
tinkling sound as we walk, with our
rings and bangles, and jet dingle-
bangles, and being admired for our
pretty things and ways, until the
dread Of losing admiration makes us Ill
up crows feet with rice powder,
and shade angles with lace, and
train false fronts and Thompson
waves over wrinkles. Then we are
howled upon as artificial and rldlcu-
lous, and admonished that we should
have cultivated solid qualities IN our
youth. The woman who never thinks
Of her looks in her loyalty to solid viz
tues who cuts her hair instead OF dress
ing it because she can save ten minutes
a day from her toilet by wearing a
crop who stalks abroad in all weathers
in abbreviated petticoats and common
sense shoes, No. 6 who has practical
faith in loose plain clothes, and despses
convcntiOnaitics- gets leN!
"Ihat Is not slang, but gospel truth
for sitting III a corner at parties, and the
liberty 10 devote all her at home eve
nings to serious literature, and never be-
ing asked to 90 anywhere even with SEN
sible men. There are such girls, young
enough to know better, and not bad
looking, if they knew how to set looks
at their true value by becoming gowns
have one III my eye nova tall, rosy
girl, more English than American
In physique. Fine teeth. fine eyes,
straight as a poplar-one OF the
Junocsque school, You know. She
went in at Nasssr for the exact
sciences and physical culture reads
DO novels except, perhaps, Daniel
Deronda and Aliddlemarch, and really
comprehcnds Browning without PROBES
sor Corson and footnotes Incredible,
but true : for she says so, and she would
rather die than perpctrate so much as an
evaHon-sees no difference III the COM
Dlexions Of lies. She would as soon lie,
however, as to wear corset ; Out-Jen-
pesses Annie ,Jenness-Millcr in the mat
ter of clothes. She suspends every
thing, even her hose. from the shout
ders wears kilt skirts in the street under
wide iackets, with room to let III neck
and sleeves, and blouses at home with
gatherinQ-strines AZ the waist Her hats
are round and soft, with broad brims {;
her gloves are dogskin. two sizes too
biz: her skirts show her ankles, and DO
not impede her free stride IN her ten
mile walks. There is no aifectation IN all
this. A more honest, great hearted,
modest. and loving woman never
breathcd. Breathing is another fad So
many inspirations per minute deep,
slow. and long, with respirahons to
match. A finer creature was never made
the laughing-stock Of fools and wise peo'
pie alike. supple, iaunty girl might
carry off even this sensible rig, but
Candida. being cut out on q liberal scale,
and never having worn stays, needs a
thirty-inch belt. and has broad hips from
which her hangings (she eschews
'drapery) stink to her heels with no
one redeeming thread OF crinoline.
Now. here is one genuine, rational
woman. earnest in her desire to act up
TO the best lights OF the wisest and
humanest civilization, self-forgetiui,
merciiul. eweet-tempcred, without u
spark Of vanity, and guW! J,
who know all the good that IS
in her. and absolutely revere her
mind. heart, and soul. WIS ashamed
when she Joined me in church
last Sunday, and walked four or five
blocks with me-people stared SO hard
If hadn't been vain I wouldn't have
cared; but | did care-horrjbiy!
Candida enjoys intellectual conversation.
hut nobody braves invidious criticism by
talking TO her nj dinners or receptions,
except her hosts who apologize for her,
righ and LETT, behind her back. as clever
and amiable, and rich, but 50 eccentric
that doubts are felt AS to her sanity.
"She Is saner than you and | put to-
qcthcr, yet failure and burlesque. \
lively intorfusion Of vanity IS all she
needs to make her beauty and belle.
With it she would study fitness in cos
tune. dread to be OUtro, learn that the
first commendation Of ones self to those
she would please is through the eyes
pccially. always, and in all circumstances
whatsoever, il the those be OF the mas
cuhHe gender.
81 recollect-" with pensiye penitence
that is amusing -" making fun OF a man
when [ was "a great deal younger ' (she
is lust twenty-one) for saying that he
believed most of his sex were endued
with iqu9abie degree of vanity.
Since | have known Candida, | have
learned that moderate degree Of CON
ceit-vanity- self-esieem-cau it what
you like, in woman, is laudable and
indispensable. -
The shadow Of the betrayed head and
futtering hands passes from my Ms.
Is the butterfly more reasonable than
dress. reformers, more practical IN her
day (which is now, and her generation
(Which is ours, than Die Lewis and the
honorable counsellors, lay and licensed,
whose sermons On I'dnit0s Panita-
hi,0 draw all their illustrations from
Papilia's class?
Very slowly | lift my pen; very So
berry l write title and tentative subtitle,
Arc Women Vain!
or,
Blust Women BE J'Ginf