The national leader., 1889-01-26

WOMAN'S KINGDOM.
The American Girl as She Appears
in Fiction.

Seeing ourselves ''as others see us''
has long been regarded as profitable,
II not pleasant exercise. Women may
be benefited, therefore, by the remarks
of an English lady on American Girls
in Fiction" in recent English maga-
zine, Won1e1aS World. We must ad-
NIT that she analyZes the American girl
which she finds in the pages of James,
Howells, Fawcett and other popular
noVelists, with skill and correctness;
what she does not know, however, and
what we cannot teach her, Is that this
girl OF the modern novel is not the only
type of the American girl. If she were,
there would be poor prospect for the
coming race in this glorious republic.
Three peculiar characteristics this
author notes in the girl life of Ameri-
can novels, especially noticeable by
their contrast to the traditional ideals
of the English novels. They are, first,
an amazing frivolity; second, the want
of anything like an ideal of home-life,
and third, the absence of due parental
influence. AS to the first, remarks the
writer, Londoners might be supposed
to know what frlvolity means, but they
have much to learn from the American
novel. 1.-The London season, as its
name implies, is the matter of a season :
when 1t is over country life is resumed,
and period of, at any rate, compara-
tive quiet ensues, which-wlth certain
intervals for autumn and Christmas
festivitles-is continued over seven or
eight months Of the year. Her "fun''
over for the season, the English gill
goes to her country home and thel g
vegetables and takes a rest generally
contentedly enough. But the Ameri-
can girls fun is never over, and every
season is ''seasOn" to her in a social
sense. There is town season, which
Is evidently whirl of festivities by day
and by night, wild dream of balls and
dinner parties, of supper parties and
luncheon parties, of theater going ard
driving, Of triumphs, and bouquets ard
beaux. Then there is no exodus to
some fashionable seaside or mountain
resort, where this same round OF gave.
ties-with few variations to suit the
season and locallty-is resumed at a
rate faster and more furious than ever.
Fun" IS not the mere affair of a few
weeks TO the American girl, it IS a
matter Of all the year round; and when
she is not driving or picknicking with
her numerous male admirers she is
skating: or sleighing, or yachting, or
Theater going In their company.
This brings the writer to her second
point, the lack of an ideal home life in
the American novel. The English girl,
she says, when she tears herself away
from London, naturally falls back upon
home pursuits. When she is young the
sense of the minor responsibilities OF
life Is forced on her. The writer finds
that duties and responsibilities, if they
form any part of an American girls
education, have no mention In the nov
Ell. She is also stuck with the fondness
OF American novelists for choosing
European scenes as background for
their novels, which she ascribes to the
lack OF home ideal. She notices that
in the fashionable novels OF Fawcett,
even where the heroines live in the
homes of their parents, they seem to
have no fondness for their homes, and
she goes on to say: ''Even the humber
heroines, the charming young girls.
fresh from New England villages. of
whom Howells especially is so fond
even they are singularly deficient in
what may be called home sentiment.
though they have lived at home all of
their lives. When the time comes for
them to go out into the wide world
they seem to leave the old homestead
with. but little compunction or regret,
and plunge into the unknown with a
pathetic eagerness for change and pleas
ure. a pathetic ignorance of disappoint-
ment and danger" Here the writer
mistakes characteristic of youth the
world over for that Of a peculiar type
of youth.