Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-02-19

80 many times, past their sweethearts'
windows, waiting to be noticed and
firted with, and then came long period
of ogling and the exchanging of swift
chances and peeping behind fans and
waving of handkerchieis- extremely
silly in the eyes of American girls.
One day was making my way through
n dismal piece OF woodland in Canada,
on the outskirts of Montreal. B-r-rr!
how cold it was, and bow the snow lay
piled up all over the country Suddenly
I heard merry voices and the cracking
of twigs andfustling of brush. Just as
suddenly the figure of young man in
the uniform of the Tuque Bleue Snow
show Club appeared, ascending knoll.
Three girls were at his heels, followed by
other Young men and women. There
WAS a new view of the possibilities Of
womanhood. Our Yankee girls, best of
all in the best of the sexes, have liberty
enough, but how few use it to place
themselves side by side with the men
in their athletic sports How ruddy
and bright-eyed and wholesome were
these Canadian maidens. How superbly
thew were framed and how overlooking
with animal spirits they were After
ward saw them skating for hours and
covering miles of ice hand in hand with
their brothers land the brothers of other
folks). and at tobogganing, driving, and
all the other sports that interested them,
they were almost, il not quite, the
equals of the men. When 1t came to
dancing. as | was informed, the merry
ones among them took a delight in lift
ing the young gentlemen from the States
off their feet, once in while, ana
swinging around with them, as a New
York girl might do with a child-lf 1t
was small enough.
Far over on the Pacific coast OF the
same country and on Vancouver island
! found another race of women-squaws
OF some tribes allied to the Eskimos.
They were so ignorant and homely and
belonged TO such a rude order of civiliza-
ton that could scarcely expect to inte-
rest any young lady readers In them. But
they possessed an interest for the married
ladies'. and might even arouse envy IN the
breasts of some fair matrons, Tor their
customs allow each wife to have San as
sistant husband" Better yet, their hus-
bands do not select their own assistants;
this is left to the fair ladies themselves.
These assistant husbands have to do what
the New England folks call "chores
for the women-get kindling wood, run
on ermnds. and make themselves useful
in all mental ways Their only reward
and recompense is that if the real hus-
band dies in any case, or disappears, or
goes away for any uncomfortable length
OF time, they marry the womanfo Tor whom
they have been working.
On the plains, in Assiniboia, l found
little lady in the larger OF the only two
stores in the place, who told me that the
Indians on a reservation close by had
begun to grow restless and were mani
Testing the fact by unusual insolence.
Only the day before a dozen OF the
braves had come into the store, when she
was stark alone in it, and had demanded
whiskey. commodity they were not al
lowed TO touch and no one was permit
ted to sell. She told them she had none,
and they sat, as Indians will, for
long time. as if to show her they
would not go away until they got 1t.
Curiously enough, no one came to the
store from the settlement. BY and by
the Indians proposed to search for the
whiskey. She laughed at them and
told them they could search. They did
so. peeping and poking everywhere that
they could think Of When they offered
to 20 upstairs to her living apartments
she stood in the doorway and told them
they must not venture there. She
flattened her back againt the door and
defed them. She was less than the
ordinary height, and did not weigh over
100 pounds, but she quailed them With
the eve of brave and determined wo-
man, and when, presently, some white
men came to make some purchases. the
Indians took themselves of. Only few
nights before that this same woman had
seen a wolf in her back yard and had
gone out and "shooed " it away with
her apron and her scolding, just as one
of our girls might do with a cat. j never
saw man that / thought more plucky
than she. Perhaps, though, what no In
dian or wolf could do might be done by
mouse. But it is beyond all reason to
expect the bravest not to fear mouse.
In our southern States one gets still
another view of woman. Invent through
the Virginia mountains and learned that
south OF Mason & Dixon's line every
white woman is queen, idolized by
brothers, husband, sons, and fathers re-
spected as if sainted by her neighbors.
When poor old woman entered a rail-
road depot that was crowded by men at a
time when it was not expected that any
woman would be travelling, every man in
that assemblage rose to his feet in order
that she might select what seat she
wished, and those men who were smoking
went ont and stood in the rain rather
than chance to offend her. One of the
men who did this was Fitzhugh Lee, now
Governor of the State. That was only
one illustration OF chivalric Difference
toward women everywhere observable
and everywhere rejecting honor on the
men who maintained it.