Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-06-10

backgrounds awakens such tumult OF ad-
miration and pity in your heart that you
kiss the finger and never notice the worn
fair hands OF the dutifui plain-face
daughter doing the family sewing and sit
ting up nights to construct fnery for her
pretty sister to be admired in. Then the
German girl is provokingly, tiresomely,
phlegmatically good. Too good to enjoy
herself. She is economical, Industrious, and
persevering. She never can know the dear
delight of spending whole months allow |
arce on one bonnet and the ecstasy of wear
Ing it and never telling how much It costs.
She is too prudent. She falls in love some-
times, but she is dutiful in hearing and
needing the caution of parents who have a
habit of interfering in love affairs on general
principles, just to exercise their prerogative
as parents and not because they know any
more, or half as much, about it as the girl
herself. If she manages to get married the
legal foundation of marriage in Germany
rests entirely upon the superiority of man
and the aubordination Of women. The Ger-
man husband isn't as amenable to discipline
as the American spouse. The wife has
something to do besides read novels end eat
bon bons in the morning, shop in the after
noon, and go to theaters in the evening.
Little Carls and Gretchens come tumbling
along every twelvemonth with astonishing
regularity, and German husbands refuse to
rock the cradle -whife wives eat Sorosis
lunches, write interviews for the newspapers,
and lecture on the rights of women. Ger
man housewives must look well to the ways
Of their households, and have altogether too
many rights at homs to find time to discuss
them in club meetings. A good half of the
girls remain unmarried, and congregate in
womens boarding houses without even the
solace of higher education or the interests of
professional life to console them. If the
American maiden makes up her mind that
''he" isn't coming she doesn't spend any
time sighing in ''moated graneesn like the
poetical and malarial "Mariana." No; she
studies medicine or art, goes into the law or
literature, and in little while is.taking bet
ter care of herself than he could if he would,
or would if he could. But the German univer-
sities will have nothing to do with the Ger
man girl, and are supported by eminent spe-
cialists who are inclined to believe in a GER
tain inferiority of the female brain for some
branches of mental discipline. Spirits of
Harvard Annex, Columbia and Pennsylvania
university girl students, listen and avengel
In literature or art the German girl has pro.
duced nothing indicative of genius or talent.
As for the mysterious something including
all graces and charms which we call attrac-
tiveness, the German girl knows lees about
its first principles than she knows Of the So
luton of the endless calculus; but she Is
honest, faithful, obedient and dutiful, and
she finds great deal Of consolation for such
WOES as disturb the tranquility of her we'll
regulated mentality in having enough to eat
and drink, for which she has an absorbing
passion.
The Empress Frederick endeavored to IN
fuee some of the sensible Epglish ideas into
the German intelligence and used her power
full influence in the cause of intellectual eman'
cipasion with passive success. Her Victoria
Lyceum at Berlin gives to women such lee
lures as are supposed to be suited to their
weak and inferior intelleets; another institu-
ton of which she Is a paSroness teaches them
the mysteries of cooking dinners and wash
| ing, and Victoria house, Berlin, due to the
initiative of the dowager empress, trains
| nurses to relieve the ills of ths nation of
warriors and professors. The German atate
| tolerates, but does not naturally encourage
| these institutions, will not employ women in
| it's postal service, and it Is said that what
| ever popularity the English princess may
| have gained among her own sex by these et-
| forts has been won at the expense OF her
consideration by the men Of the nation. In
deed, the fortunate lsssie is she who Is born
under the Star Spangled Banner, is Graded
| beneath the eagles pinions, crowned when
| she is christened, and queens it over every
one by right divine from the time she can
| hold a rattle box for a sceptre.
| It was at a great woman's club meeting In
Boston, the other day, that little slip of a
| girl Of eighteen was entertained as an honored
guest and representative of the Oldest wom-
ans club in the world, and in the ~aaas Of
| her society fastened it's badge upon the
shoulder of no less a parsonage than Julia
Ward HouB making her presentation speech
with the grace and ease of an Athenian ora
| tor. Some one said as che sat down, swell,
| they must take them out of the cradle in
that club" And that was the typical, win
some, cultured American girl-prettY and
witty, nice and gracious. confident and capa-
ble-the product of democratic training,
i education and common seGse.