Morning journal and courier., 1889-02-15
THE AMERICAN GIRL.
Some ConsideratiOn of Her DIspOsi- ton and Manners.
 rlrr

Some Consideration of Her DIsposi-
 ton and Manners.
 From Munsey's Weekly.1
 Since one cannot see and admire all the facets of the diamond at one hurried glance, it is clear enough that we may only notice here two or three of the most prominent types among all the girls in the land.
 There is a fearful and wonderful species of girl who is protean in her forms. She is now the athletic enthusiast; next week pilgrim to the shrine of the latest literary god, be he Buckle or Browning; next she is transmitted into the horsey girl, and diffuses the spirit of the stable and even of the race track. She becomes Anglomaniac for awhile. and then flies off at tangent to the osophy or the labor question. She is bright and many pointed through it all; she is hard to corner and is lots of fun-for awhile. But after you get used to her she is so evil dently shallow that she barely escapes being bore by her sudden changes.
 Heinrich Heine somewhere reflects bitter ! ly that, after all, women are necessary to the happiness of men; "but, alas" he groans, ''women have unfortunately only one way of ! making us happy, while they have thirty thousand different modes of rendering us miserable" Well, maybe the German wo-
 men only know "one way" Their AmeTi- ! can sisters have more than that But when ' ! given is very conservative.
 The gossiping girl is painful fact. She lives and ravages, it is sad to observe, just as she has done in the past and will doubt less continue to do in soecula soeculorum. She is most dreadful in country towns, where her daily food is the rehearsing of her neigh bors' business. She may not be an ill-dis- posed girl naturally, but this greed of gossip grows by what it feeds upon.
 It may not be malicious chatter at the first, but the unresisted inclination to talk constantly of people rather than of things l brings about habit of thought which ren- ders the talker almost as wretched as her un- fortunate friends. She reaches st last state of mind wherein she is of all women most miserable, unless she has the latest and most minute information concerning her friends affairs, from the name of her tailor to the state of her affections. And sieve is to her wall of beaten brass. She passes her days in inquiry, and the still watches of the night in putting two and two together, and usually succeeds in making the result five. Like the men of Athens, to whom St. Paul gave such 8 dubious charac ter, she only lives to hear or to say some new thing.
 And this habit pervades many city circles. It is a fungus of provincialism which clings | surpassingly. There is girl in this town to whom the practice has become such @ see- | ond nature that she cannot resist the temp tation to gossip about her own brother. She ! lately told one of her ten thousand dear and | intimate friends, under the strictest seal of ! secrecy, which she knew perfectly we'll was as fragile as spun glass, all about this un- \ lucky brothers latest love affair, and specu- | lated sapiently upon the chances of it's ever I amounting to anything serious. And this ! interesting creature is only one of class Her greatest misfortune is that she hasn't | enough to do. Regular and worthy work | of any kind is as necessary for the we'll | being of woman of man.
 l Such girl belongs to the species of people noticed by that most discerning woman, Mrs. Poyaer, whose gems of | of Adam Bede: 'Some folks tongues are l like the clocks run on strikin', not to tell | you the time O day, but because there's sum-
 mat wrong r their inside.'
 l The early home training of American girls tends to make them the most independent of | womankind. Speaking generally, a great l degree of freedom is allowed to them in their studies, their amusement and in choos- l ing their friends. And all this is good inss-
 much as it goes to build up the self reliance
 which is Sc strongly marked as national
 trait. Natural bent and education go togeth' I CT like the cord and bow in making charac.
 ter. The majority of our girls start with
 pure, sweet natures, and the loose rein guides
 without hampering. They go where they
 like, read what they choose and learn early
 to decide for themselves. Exceptions prove
 the rule, and occasional bad results justify
 the popular approval of this American meth
 cd.
 A striking figure of late years is the gir
 whose self-relianee end adaptability have | been put to the test of earning her own liv. ing. In some cases the need is greater thar
 in others. Where hsr parents die and leave
 no provision for her support she goes tt | work as 8 matter of necessity, and her sue ! n ph0s6n hOainaaa ia
 consequence of her persevering, and tn l measure of that success an evidence for O l against the wisdom of her choice of occupa
 tions. But in cases where the sternest ne
 cessity has not arisen to drive her to person , ] al effort there do the Yankee traits of self
 reliance and originality show themselves. If this sort of American girl finds tha
 her father cannot afford to pay for quite a l many comforts or pleasures as she coulC
 wish or even if no darker cloud appears ol
 her horizon than a slight stringency in th
 pin money market, she forthwith sets her } self about earning a little money for her
 self. She is fertile in resources and coura
 geous in the face of difficulties. She turn a fad into an employment. And, moreover
 she goes away from home sometimes to d. it. She does not feel that she is in danger o l unssxing herself by going into the world t do little fighting side by side with men. | Indeed, she does not unsex herself be cause she does her work in her woman's way , which is very different from the methods o man. She is acute, clear headed, patient
 tactfuI; and she skates over meny an air hol in business where man might easily blun der in and get very wet indeed. Of cours there are those girls who make the great nis l take of trying to be just like the men abou
 them; and they do lose their feminine charn F and their usefulness too in some measure l But girls of such disposition would mee 3 with the same loss if they merely led tn ' lives of society women; for the girl who be g comes Ca good fellown among men is mos r sure to be treated finally with frank fel