Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-09-16
THE sElSHOaE GIRL.
MAIDENs MUCH MALIGNED BY sENSA-
TI0NAL CORRESPONDENTS.
Pictures Presented of This Much-Abused
Creature-Grace and Goodness of
the Real Seashore Girl.

-bu6 BOoo1p WlltCl WIN AiiiOoeo shN SeAA~NN-S-
resorts and writes letters for the provincial
papers alta fixed rate per gossip. He is OF
a class of gentry whose highest aim is what
it is pleased to call "piquant sensational
ism:" his stock-in-trade is a soaring imag-
ination which never becomes embarrassed
with facts, and his object is to make country
folk open wide their eyes at the wicked
abandon of society" as it disports itself
at the seaside.
The usual picture drawn of the Seashore
Girl depicts her as a cross between Bow
ery hoyden and the less fascinating crea-
ture of the variety stage, known by the
generic name "soubrette," whose chief aim
In life is to keep her heels at higher eie-
walton than her head; as girl Of presum-
ably respectable parentage who walks the
beach at all hours of the day and night,
attired in alength of gorgeous Grand street
hosiery, sash and smirk; as maiden
whose one ambition is the attracting Of
masculine attention to the lines of her
calves, and whose moral sense seems to be
inextricably shrouded in the woof of her
silken tights; as creature, IN short, whose
characteristics entitle her to enrolment in
that class of women whose peculiarities
are not often discussed in promiscuous
gathering.
This is the seashore girl as she is drawn
weekly throughout the summer by news
paper correspondents, says Rhodes Mack
right in the New York Star. A visit to
any of the seaside resorts, by the most cur
sorry or by the most thorough observer,
will prove its utter falsity. 1t is libel
on American womanhood more worthy a
1efutation brought through the agency Of a
shingle than the mild protest of pen.
Moreover, and more strangely, the most
fanciful and persistent of these gossip
writing detractors of the seashore girl are
of her own sex; masculine women and
feminine men are in hot contest as to who
may concoct the most outrageous tale.
Even though uncertain incomes be eked
out by this journalistic prostitution, the
exhibition is sorry one.
A very close acquaintance with the va
rious watering places scattered along the
Atlantic coast and a narrow scrutiny of
the conduct of the girls who patronize
them lead me to the belief that, although
differing in minor points as the complex
ions of localities differ, the American girls
congregated upon the edge of the Atlantic
have in common the points of modesty in
,demeanors, modesty in attire and modesty
In thought. Here and there you will find
exceptions-which simply proves that the
molds of nature are as various at the sea-
side as in town-and as variously good and
bad.
But as there is standard of woman
hood, so, also, is there a standard in sea-
shore girls. The type is as characteristic
as types usually are characteristic where
identical environments exist. / have a
type in my mind now which has come
under my observation more than once
Really, l find it the general type.
This particular girl was a sojourner at
Narragansett Pier, and the daughter of
wealthy family from large semi Western
city. Making allowance for the freedom
from constraint which somehow seems to
vanish with the booming of the surf, she
was the ordinary well-educated girl of
democracy, and was bred as other Ameri-
can girls are bred. She was circumspect,
reasonably lacking coquetry, and possessed
of = modicum of common sense.
While at the pier she did just as hun
-dreds of other girls did. Much of her
time was spent upon the piazza of her
fathers cottage, reading; she went fire.
quently to the Casino, chaperoned, or in
the company of party of girl friends of
her own age; shr danced as often as she
could get elaace-which, by the way,
was pretty often and was not averse to
flirting with men who had been presented
to her she prnN;~naded upon the beach in
daylight only. 49,, in street attire; she
often sought the >rf, and when she did
so it was in Lati'ug costume high neck,
elbow-sleeved a. d long-skirted. What
she did not do included about everything
which the gossip writers said she did
Whether driving, riding, sailing, bath
ing, dancing or promenading, she con-
Quoted herself as BELTS young girl of re-
finement; she was not prude, kill-joy,
nor wet blanket; neither was she a firt,
'sn idiot, nor hoyden: she was simply an
attractive girl of youthful spirits who had
come to the Pier for the purpose of enjoy
ing herself, and who managed to do so in
a becoming manner. Nine out of ten
Europeans would have deprecated her
liberty; some might have characterized
her actions as "bad FORM" Even so, the
difference between this typical Seashore
Girl and the fgments of the gossip writers
was the difference between day and night
Doubtless there are women at the sea-
side who parade their charms to the public
gaze upon the beach, just as there are
women who parade their charms in the
streets of the metropolis. But to say that
these women are typical of the young girls
at seaside resorts-as these precious gossip
writers SAYS arguing that American
womanhood has turned imbecile and
wanton, or worse, and that the hotel
lowest element Of society, ignoring the
fact that prosperity is more or less de-
pendent upon respectability. That the
daughters of people of even moderate re-
finement disgrace themselves, their families
and their sex by unbecomiug exhibitions
of themselves l utterly refuse to believe;
that they make cigarettes, drink brandy
and soda, hirt promiscuously, promenade
the sands in the costume-or lack of cos
tume-of acrobats or that they are guilty
Of any one of the myriad inanities with
which they are charged may be accepted
as fiction. pure and simple.
1t is superfiuous to note the fact that
American girls enjoy license in speech
and action accorded to girls of no other
nation. 1t is equall.r true that at the sea-
side what little constraint they are under
at their own homes is entirely thrown
aside But the stigma of transgression
does not necessarily follow. Constraint is
no more conservator of virtue than free
dom is destroyer of it, and the conduct of
the seashore girl is proof of this statement.
Her presence at the seashore. however, Of
fering better opportunities for public obser-
walton, put an entirely new light on any
,peccadiIloes of which she may be. guilty.
The gossip writers who indite derogatory
stories Of her-intending them to be merely
sensational-have chance of spying upon
her which does not come to them every
day. In the winter these same correspond
<,x>tc writa of the rnefroDolifau society oirl