The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-05-22
CARRIE CARELESS.
SHE DISCUSSES THE PHILOSOPHY
OF FILTRATION.

Her Ideas Are Original, II Not Correct.
She Makes Distinction Between
Filtration and Coquetry.
NEW YORK, May 21.--It ia to the United
States that the inhabitants of the Old
W orld are accustomed to ascribe the origin
OF filtration. They do not hesitate TO assert
that It is an essentially American invention,
and that 1t is carried to It's greatest per-
lection by the women of this great and
glorious country.
think that on the whole we may admit
the soft impeachment, that is to say as far
as our pre-eminence In the art OF flirting is
concerned The American woman is born
flirt, and is indebted for her success in this
particular branch of feminine sport 20 the
fact that better than any OF her foreign
sisters is she able to retain the mastery OF
her head, and Of her heart as well, when
indulging In the dangerous game OF hirt-
alton.
Now Irritation may be innocent. Its prin-
cipal and indispensable feature is platonic-
ism. The moment that the boundary line
Of the latter Is overstepped, the game ceases
/ to be filtration. Nowhere Is this 30 thor
oughly understood as in America, and the
result Is that we are able to enjoy degree
of liberty and of freedom from restraint
and conventional prejudice which is some
| times misinterpreted and rarely compre-
hended in its true light in the Old World.
am perfectly aware that there are quite
a number of persons who profess to regard
| flirting as reprehensible in the extreme.
| Alb, we'll, | should like to know what
would become Of US young girls, grown wo-
men and even old ladies If we were to be
debarred from firtingl But we would
not be the only sufferers. Men
would feel its absence and possibly In a
detrimental sense. By flirting with them
| we not only emuse ourselves, and maintain
| our intellec. ual vigor at its nominal degree
| Of strength and brightness, but we also con-
! fer a benefit upon them. There is no more
eficacious, and think that may add more
pleasant, means OF imparting tact. delicacy,
! courtesy and finesse to the naturally dull
mind and heavy manner OF men, than by
| flirting with them. Debar man for q
time from every kind OF feminine associa-
ton and observe how coarse, how unman-
nerly, and how rough-minded and even
! dull witted he will become. / always re-
! member meeting two federal army officers
| once while travelling across the Rockies to
| San Francisco. They we're on their way
! back to civilization after two or three
| years spent In some distant post,
where the sole feminine society was
constituted by squaws. During the
entire period they had not had the oppor-
tunity OF conversing with any woman of
education, refinement or even OF white color.
Both men were well born, we'll tired. and
had graduated from West Point; and a
| woman's intuition could penetrate at once
to the fact that their hearts were Of gold.
| Yet the envelope was rough and boorish in
the extreme, and their language and man
ner-well, l have never in my life heard or
seen anything like unto them. This was en-
tirely and solely due TO the absenceIof the
proper kind of feminine influence.