The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-29
OUR GIRLS In EUROPE.
HOW THEY DIFFER FROM FRENCH
AND ENGLISH MAlDENS.

The Charm OF the American Girl Abroad.
! Her Life in France, and How She
| Adapts Herself to Her Surroundings.
| Her Sphere in England.
Certainly our daughters cannot pretend
| to reign in France and in Europe as the
] young girls reign in America. There they
are queens, ard sometimes more. though
it is very hard to apply to such bewitching
| persons the words ''merciless tyrants"
| They rule in the family, and the family
| does not rule them: they rule in the soci-
| ETY. which gravitates around their pleas
ures, whose laws. customs and liberties
have for them exclusive projections, in
| dulgences and favOrs. And all this they
noisily enjoy with the same ardor dis
played by their fathers in the pursuit of
| wealth.
The great charm Of the American girl in
Europe is that she combines Ut once the
purity of the young girl and the coquetry
of the young married woman. Thus in
che Old World she is certain of attracting
all the young men who have abused life,
who are little blase and who to be capti-
waited have need of what they call du
montant
even though she should reside there long
time, still remains a peculiar being, dis
turbing the men and a source of uneasi-
ness to the women. Once married she
Immediately lays aside her eccentricities.
There are no young American married
women-that is to say, nothing in the
manner of an American who has become
madame distinguishes her from another
madame.
HER PLACE N FRANCE
The young French girl finds liberty in
marriage; the young American girl loses
it. Our daughters detach themselves from
family in marrying: the Americans enter
one. They are suddenly surrounded by
circle, By proprieties, by worldly customs,
by social duties, by the exigencies of con-
jugal fidelity, by the duty of defending a
reputation which has become common
property-all serious things which trans
form their character, their manner of be-
ing and gradually model them after the
likeness of their surroundings. Two or
three years after her marriage the Ameri-
can in France is a woman of the world,
and if she could lose her accent nothing
would distinguish her from her new circle
Doubtless formerly she commanded and
cuDying the position which she occupies in
Francel True, she did not yield to respect,
but in return she did not inspire il. She
had more personal initiative but she did
not govern others; she tormented her mo-
Their. and perhaps led her, but the men Of
her family did not deferentialy ask her
counsels
Her husband in America would seek her
HI. L -, g~.l,.
vored companion in conjugal life; she
would not be, as in France, the wife, the
friend who shares all the projects of the
husband, is associated in all his acts, and
makes Of conjugal life the noble life in
common.
And her children-how they are much
more her own; how she rules their educa-
ton; how much longer they belong to heri
1t is when married, in France. that she is
best assimilated TO her surroundings, and
it is then that with rs she is most happy
HOW SHE ACTS IN ENGLAND
In England the young American girls
come in much larger numbers, not because
they are drawn thither by any affinity Of
race for there is often less analogy Of char
acter between two sisters than between
two strangers, but because English girls
have more liberty than French first re-
sistance IS already overcome, the marriage
able men do not perform such an eccentric |
act in introducing into their families as
fancee a young miss accustomed TO indie I
pendence. Therefore the American girl |
married in England remains more Ameri- |
can than in France.
She has 70 make 10 efforts 70 lead her /
mother-in-law, sisters-in-law and cousins I
By marriage 20 accept her ways, her habits /.
contracted in girlhoOd- Fault may he
found with her education, but the method 4
Of this education viii not be discussed 1
Not having to become otherwise she re- I
mains herself, yielding only 20 what she 1
accepts n English society or 70 that which /
she finds advantageous 70 her position or /
her person.
In Italy. in Rome, in Florence. in Venice 1
she remains unchanged Tie one who 4
marries her accepts her with all her ways 4
She imposes these, almost colonies them 4
IN her circle. Everything IS a FAmeri- /
caine-the mode Of hvIag. Of keeping 4
house, the i1nmoderate luxury. the tone,
the bearing. Italian society, having be |
come cosmopolitan. accepts her as she Is /
and even al court the place given her Is 4
more American than Italian
That which i striking ID American girls.
and which induces French. English and 1
Italian noblemen 20 marry them, is that 4
they never look ike sbopkeeP.rs' dauEh- 4
te-S- They sometimes have Unbearable,
shocking ways. b1t they are never vulgar.
They may lie charged with what we call in
France airs &c cocodeItes, b1t not enc Of
them looks Ike a tradesvon,zn, though
they are mostly the daughters ot manu-
tscrurers-
The American girl has the science OF