The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-12-18
Tho English Girl.

The modern conventional London
young lady belongs to a type alto
gether distinct from other varieties of
the species. and one which is easily
distinguished from them by certain
salient characteristics, says London
Truth. On her first appearance in the
London world she is generally timid
and insipid; enthusiastic about ball 8
and parties, and indefatigable in her
pursuit of pleasure. After a season or
two, however, her timidity gives place
to singular assurance, while her pre-
vious insipidity degenerates into a
kind of young married woman's
audacity, while the society which she
affects indicates the peculiar expert
ence which she has accumulat ed dur
ing the transitionary period. No
longer keen after balls and parties for
their W sake, society, with all its
little trivial duties and details, has
become an absorbing occupation. and
her mind car scarcely extricate itself
even temporarily from its contempla-
ton.
AS a conversationalist she is utterly
beneath contempt, never originating
q AAONf AAOA SN&A ~ ~
old thought in a fresh setting; she al
most entirely confines herself to per-
sonal gossip, with an occasional resort
to ''chaff.n She seldom discourses of
things, but almost always of people.
She has apparently no inner life nor
any individual aspiration beyond
those connected with social progress,
Society absorbs, as it were, her whole
energies and intellect. If she travels
her mind does not burden itself with
the things that she has seen, but with
the people that she has met. So it is
also with the theatre: it Is not the
plot that attracts her. but the audi
ence. Thus, "Ohl yes, | went to the
Lyceum last Friday and enjoyed it
Immensely. There were lots OF peo-
pie knew there-Lady A. was in a
box, and Charlie d., with Mrs. c.,
was in the stalls"-and SO on, indefi-
nitely.
And it is perhapsfor this reason, as a
striking contrast to her, that the
American girl has recently met with
such marked success in our midst.
American girls possess individuality;
they travel-and compare; they
read-and discriminate. They wit
ness a performance and digest its de-
tails. The one collects facts and
fictions concerning a limited class and
repudiates the more important
knowledge of life, while the Other
utilities people as mere pawns in the
serious game of ambition.
Within the past fifteen years-eve
since. indeed, the London young lady
successfully battled with the then
paramount young married woman
and, as it We're, informally incor
porated herself prernaturely in the
same category-she has been steadily
degenerating both in personal wortl
and in general esteem. After two OF
three seasons she generally ~afiliates
herself to some semi-rapid married
woman. under whose chaperonage sh'
forms one of frequent parts cares t,
the play, TO suppers at night, clubs
to race meetings and excursions on TIN
river, and, in fact, soon becomes prac
tically al unrestrained and as ex
p~erienced as her married companion
The charm of a young girl is he
dissimilarity to man. and by con
forming to his natural tastes and pur
suits she loses her chief attraction
She becomes a ''pal,n but she is II
longer the idol TO be adored ant
worshiped, the ideal to be wooe'
and won.