The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-12-03
MRS. GRUNDY'S VICTIMS.
Her Imperceptible and Mysterious
Sway-Few Dare to Rebel.

Few are conscious Of how the opin'
ion of other people affects our every
act and deed. We do over and ovei
again the very thing we dislike the
most because Of what people will say
If we don't. We stav at home from
places we long to see; we deny ouI
tastes ia every way because Mrs.
Grundy might object. Particularly
we women, for men pay less attention
to this mysterious yet mighty person
| age, although they, too, are constant
ly forced to acknowledge the influence
she wields.
In the majority of cases she is q
very desirable check upon ones &C
tions, but there are times when her
influence gals and the rebellion
against her dictates are strong and
mighty.
Especially in the matter of our ex-
penses is the influence of what people
will say to be deplored. Women buy
twice as many gowns as they would
If thew were moi sure that repeated
appearances in well known attire
would excite slurring speeches. 1t Is
simply maddening to stand about and
do the agreeable when all the time
one knows that over by the window
stands a group saying with pitying
tones:-''There's poor Mrs. Blank in
that old blue again. | should think
she would be tired to death of it by
this time"
Tired of It'll Yes, no doubt, she is;
loathes it. perhaps; but would one of
that party OF scornful acquaintance
have the cougage to wear it again
and again rather than run up an ex-
travagant bill at q dressmaker's which
will add further depth to the wrinkles
on the brow of some already anxious
bread winner?
You would rather stay at homer
says somebody. Well, you can, of
course; that is your privilege, but it
is some one else's to go out and your
kindly courteous duty to your neigh
Dor to forget the old gown for the
sake OF the bright new smile and the
cheerful word O woman OF courage
will bring with her.
No matter in wha. position in life a
woman who can rise above considera-
tions of dress is to be envied.
1t seems that the special target of
the criticism of curious people in
America is the young married woman,
and she, more than any n else, must
govern all she does with the thought
OF what people will say about her. Ii
she is pretty and stylish she will find
criticism on every side, for she Will
always be observed.
When a young married woman is
plain and unattractive she may do
almost what she pleases and nobody
seems to say anything about it. She
may walk downtown with a different
maj every day and nobody will roll
her eyes and say, What afiirt she is"
She may even take a dash up the
venue with some common friend OF
hers and her husband's-friend of the
sterner sex, | mean-after his fast
trotter, and no one will declare it
perfectly shocking She may even
go TO the theatre with her brother or
her cousin, and acquaintance, who
know her and not them, will not
make the fact a subject for general
gossip.
But let a pretty woman do these
things and half the town goes mad
with amazement and horror.
1t Gems to me there is only one po-
sition in life so hard to fill as thai of
the young woman who marries and
goes away from home to live, and
that is of the young clergyman in a
new parish, and even then If he has a
wife she has about the hardest time
of it. The very things that a young
girl brought up amidst the friends of
her childhood would most naturally
do are those which excite most criti-
cism in the young matron.
She has no n to lean upon for adj
vice, for her relations with her young
husband are yet too new for her to
venture to confide in the II she
wants to think we'll of her, that peo-
pie are looking askance out of the
corners of their eyes at certain of her
doings. Poor little womanl If she
s'goes to the right she does wrong,
and if she goes to the left she goes
wrong still" and very many times
there. are when she does not know
what to do.
1t certainly seems natural to sup
pose some of this trouble might be
forseen by mothers who are giving
their daughters in marriage. A girl is
young and thoughtless; her ideas of a
married wonan's rights and duties
are vague and romantic, very rarely
colored by observation, but by a o
mantle choice of reading; her
thoughts are taken up far too much
with the things of the hour, with
loves young dream and pretty girlish
hopes for the future. and the idea
that the world which has been so
kind to her all these years is going to
frown upon her 0 is never dreamed
of.
IL mothers would only remember
their own youth and the temptations
that assailed them when the pressure
OF matronhood was yet novel upon
their brows, and talk more plainly,
frauklv and at uraarar lanOth