The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-01-04
WOMEN AND NEWSPAPERS.
sBAB' SAYS WOMEN ARE BETTER
NEWSPAPER READERS THAN MEN.
How She Proves It-what Women Read in
the Papers and Why They Should Read
Them-America as a Nation for Women
What They Enjoy and Their Power.

very mean way of scorning the way in which
woman reads the newspapers. He believes he
is the only animal capable of comprehending
them, and he says she devotes herself to the
advertisements and the marriages and deaths
This may be partially true but l doubt it, and
even If she did, fail to see why she would be
doing any HARM 1t is much decenter to read
the advertisements than to read accounts of po-
litical speeches where personalities are abomi-
nable, and where the grammar must make
the Queen shudder--I say the Queen because
we always refer to good English as the exclu-
sive possession of the Queen.
HOW WOMEN READ NEWSPAPERS.
AS for reading the marriages and deaths, she
is certain, after she has done that to get herself
thoroughly posted in regard to peoples position,
and she doesn't meet some man on the street and
ask him how his wife is when his wife has been
dead three months, nor does she Jest about
babies who have gotten married to some young,
innocent chap who has made his debut on the
sea of matrimony for the first time in the past
two weeks. To my way of thinking women
read the newspapers with a great deal of intelli-
gence, but then, of course, look at it from
woman's standpoint. Nothing gives one
greater amount of information than the adver-
tisements, and no essay, no history of muir
der, no glowing account of dance was ever
more lucid in its description than is the story of
how lady, after suffering for years for the lack
of a silk gown, bought one on the installment
plan and has since become good wife and
good mother. They are at once full of imagina-
tion and harmless. But women do read other
things, and, funnily enough, woman will find
more in the newspaper than any man. She
seems to have sixth sense that makes her dis
cover the paragraph that nobody else finds
that is, nobody masculine-and she can exploit
the story of her favorite actress her near friend
the last new book, or what they are doing in
Ireland, while man wonders where she heard
It, and cannot believe that she got it out of the
very newspaper over which he has pondered
for two hours.
SHOULD WOMEN READ THE PAPERS?
Personally, regard the newspapers as the
great educators of to-day, and am devoted to
them to such an extent that one-half my income
goes in buying them. Could one prove devo-
tion more firmly than this Somebody wrote to
me and asked me if l would advise women to
read the newspapers, and answered them, Yes,
Yes, Yes. l said it three times, and each time
mean it more emphatically than did the first
vi course, there are good and bad newspapers,
as there are good and bad women, and would
just as soon advise you to get acquainted with
the wicked of your kind as l would to read
newspaper that catered to all that was mean
and low in the world. But, after all, 1 think
the bad ones are few and far between The
average American editor knows his audience,
and he knows they would rather hear of good
things, of happy times, and of ways that can
help other people along than almost ANYTHING
else. Then, for fear he will make his clientele
all angels, he puts in between some chatter or
babble, or similar gossip that's as frothy as the
white of an egg, but which never did anybody
any harm, and is warranted not to lie heavy on
the stomach
UNDERWEAR OF SMART WOMEN
SO very much attention is being paid to the
sort of underwear worn by the smart woman
OF to-day that she may be interested in knowing
that her most severe judge is her laundress. One
DIT OF machine sewing simply sends her swiftly
to the bottom of the sea, and the young woman
who has decorated her belongings with tucks
done by the machine had better do her washing
at home and develop the muscles of her arm if
she wishes to retain the position which is hers
by right. Her underclothes are few in num-
Der but fine Of kind, and whether she chooses
to wear linen cambria or silk, the sewing must
be that fine kind that is done in the convent. or
elsei must be equally fine and the work of some
decayed gentlewoman who is paid very good
price for it.
WHY WOMEN PREFER SILK UNDERWEAR
Linen cambric is the protest made by some
women against silk, which they argue has grown
vulgar; but the people who wear silk are quite
convinced that there is nothing SO pleasant to
the skin or that looks as pretty as the fine fabric
itself, and that cambric, even if it be as fine as
that warranted to go through wedding ring
has not the same charm, nor does it look as well
as the daintyhued silks. The very latest silk
petticoat, which is, of course, drawn and tied
in the back, SO that it permits glove-ftting
skirt over it, has the entire front and sides en-
broidered in fleur-de-lys in white silver or gold
thread. To say that this skirt is expensive is
speaking mildly in regard to it, for in reality it
is worth almost as much as is diamond ring
Every stitch of the embroidery is done by hand
and the feur-de-lys are SO thick together that 1t
seems as II they were heavy brocade rather than
sewn on the stuff. most fetching night-gown
has broad sailor collar and deep cuffs embroi-
dered in the same way, only the flower of fashion
is in silver thread These are extremely pretty
TO look at, but one must be careful they do not
get near the face, as undesirable scratch
would certainly be the result
WE ARE NATION OF WOMEN.
man who was talking the other day said,
''Do the people never get tired of hearing about