The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-02-22
III gERsEY CIR
She was born in New Jersey.

=
viewed) commonwealth to an abiding
place in any other part of the known globe.
New York city is vulgarly oyergrown.
Philadelphia is too stupid for anything"
All the use she has for either is to do a
days shopping now and then in one or the
other. and attend concerts and operas, and
visit picture galleries in the season.
"The easiest thing in the world to do,
You know, with our admirable railway
SYSTEM" she says, with proper pride in this
last feature of her State. "In fact, New
ark, Elizabeth, the Oranges, Montclair,
and fifty other delightful places are nearer
to the heart of New York than One Hun
dred and Fiftieth street. We have all the
advantages of metropolitan life without
being crowded into ruinously expensive
flats and breathing devitalized air all the
DAYS Of our life,- to say nothing of taxes,
din and fast society"
She flashes all this at you defensively.
BE You ever so mild-mannered, she is on
her guard when her native State is under
discussion. From babybood she has been
baited and bantered upon Giving out of
Of the Union.a She knows New Jersey
people who are weak and m~ean-spirited,
who write 'sNew York. in hotel registers
when travelling. During the year she
spent abroad with her parents she stood
like an armed sentry over her father to see
that he set down himself and family as
from 'tBessietown, New Jersey" at every
stopping place. No abbreviation and no
temporizing for herl Especially does she
resent the unseemly liberty taken with an
ancient and honorable title in calling her
birthplace 'sThe Jerseys.'' 1t is flippant
ILL bred --irreverent.
A New York friend of the family pro-
nounced her. at the children's party given
by his daughter, "a pretty fair article for
the Jarseys."
Oar girl was but nine years old, but she
drew herself up with the majesty of an
offended queen, and struck back with the
weapon nearest her hand.
eve hang murderers in New ~Jersey!''
her eyes blazing upon his laughing face.
"You are obliged to do it, my dear, to
keep the cuttbroats from o~utnumbering de-
cent people"
Because VT are right between New
York and Philadelphia, you see, " she re-
torted promptly. "Your city is SO full of
upon US. That is the only objection to
New Jersey. It is SO near to both Sodom
and Gomorrah."
Disarm her, if you can, by d~isabusing her
mind of suspicion as to your opinions and
intent, if you would know what an Eden
for situation and society is her beloved
State: how healthful is her air; how
groundless the aspirations anent ma
laria and mosquitoes; how glorious
her record in three wars; how pros
porous are her agriculturists; how enter
prising her manufacturers. Turn a heed
less ear to her occasional digs at Gomorrah.
of generations of gibes, the fruitage of
floutings innumerable, and inconceivable
by those who have never smarted under
them. The handiwork of New Jersey me-
tells you. Monmouth sends more potatoes
to the Gotham market than any ten New
York counties put together.
Don't forget New York champagne
cider, and beer and Jersey lightnings' you
can not help interpolating.
'If you New Workers didn't buy and
drink them, we wouldn't make them.r' is
the cut for your thrust.
Whole-souled, loyal, gallant as she is
perhaps because she is all three-she is
somewhat insular in thought and feeling.
That swe have always done" this or that,
is sufficient warrant for holding fast to Gus
tom. In her dread of s'fast society," she
mistakes prejudice for partisan conserva-
tism, a jog trot for the only safe rate of
progress. She dresses as we'll as the New
York girl, but is critical of change and shy
of innovations. In art, science and litera-
tnre, she %islet US ewn backward,
looking askance at women doctors and
giving a wide berth to isms of all sorts.
Should she, against her will, as it were,
drop into literature because the spirit with
in her is too strong for tradition and enyi-
renment, she will almost certainly remove
to New York,
In charities she is great. Each associa-
tion has its auxiliary of young women
whose zeal never flags. Concerts, operettas,
private theatricals, bazars, the Kirmess-
are SO many stations on the road by which
she fares onward to success. In religion
she is orthodox, and always and every
where a church goer. She may gossip
about her daring ~neighbor who defes pre-
eedent and decorum. but let the mistaken
creature actually fall into the mud, and
our dauntless girl is her friend and helper,
with no selfish thought of the soil her W
white gown may get by contact with dis
reputable misery.
In rccollecting this and a hundred other
traits of genuine nobility, in counting up
her bright. honest, fearless way-the pride
which is above meanness, the steadfastness
in defence of what she believes to be the
right, that ~approximates ~heroism-my
heart smites me that | have limited at mar
row views and slow methods. Her foibles
-. A. ,ne.f& 80 4la snsuSfiaa of cfhare