Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-11-24

4 Visit Abroad Does Not Easily
Spoil the Sensible Amer
lean uiri.

! Lnuepeltteut creatures on earth. tie
might nave extended his observation
and added that they We're quite the
most independent creatures at sea.
A few wears ago Two girls from Chi
| casO went 10 Hurupt, alone. ami, COLI
sidering that they had accomplished Il
most marvellous feat, they wrote a book
about it. Nowadays it is a very com
! mon occurrence for two girls or one
girl TO 60 10 Europe or around the
| world or anywhere she likes alone. No
! body considers it remarkable; least of
all, the young ladies themselves.
! Standing on the deck OF that magniti-
| cent steamship the City of New York
rs she lay anchored at Liverpool,
| unused myself by studying the women
who came on board. They We're nearly
! all Americans, for this is not the season
| when Europeans visit the United States
| There was one English girl, however,
! evidently taking her first trip away
| from home. Her sole companion was
| her violin. | afterwards learned that it
was likewise her only capital.
/ She had heard the ancient and thread
| bare fable of the universal wealth of
| America and Americans. She had also
absorbed the faQacy that the musical
curriculum of America was exceedingly
small. Evidently there was not The
| slightest doubt in her mind that her
playing would attract large audiences
| and win for her wealth and fame in the
| new country. She was only eighteen
ia III ~.
board forgave her for inquiring it there
really were opera houses in New York.
I've heard there are" she said, and
there really are, aren't thereY'
A young American girl just returning
from Paris, where she had been for two
years studying art. was quite ready to
undertake the artistic education of all
her fellow passengers. The desire was
prompted by purely missionary spirit,
no doubt. But she Overrated the ca
pacity at her pupils. They could not
assimilate. during the six days voyage,
all that the civilized world has been
able to find out about art during the
ever that the young American was III
possession of it ALL and her persistent
wish to disseminate this knowledge was
certainly commendable.
There's one thing about the American
girls that's always interesting. No two
of them are ever alike. English girls all
seem to have been modelled after the
same plan. French girls are examples
of demllre propriety. In Germany the
girls are carefully protected from any
contact whatever with the world.
An English professor of Greek art
who was on his way to America to lee
ture before the great Chautauqua con-
ventiOn, asked a clever American law
yer who was returning from his vaca-
lion why it was that American women
were always so bright in conversation
and so wellinformed on various topics
They're never awkward" said the
Englishman. 'They's never at loss
For answer the lawyer pointed to
young western girl who at that moment
was walking UP and down the deck,
perfect type Of Daisy Miller"-She
fresh and and innocent and pretty, full
of delight at what she had seen in the
was now going home. She made the
acquaintance of everybody on board the
second day out, and everybody was
glad TO know her. She talked with a
staid and solemn caEOn in a most cler-
ical coat about what she had seen In
the vatican.
How old are you, my child" asked
the reverend man.
I'm sixteen" she replied
well, how does it happen that you
have so much knowledge regarding
these things?"
Then Daisy opened her blue eyes
wide and answered: ''Why, what do
you suppose I went to Rome for if it
wasn't to see things and remember
about them?"
She talked an hour to an eminent art
st about the pictures in the Paris Salon,
and when she said good humoredly,
You know all about it, don't your
she Immediately detected the satire and
replied: ''Well, | know what [ think,
and that's all anybody knows, isn't it?'
''Now, you see that girl said the !
lawyer to the professor.
Yes" replied the professor.
''Well, what do you think Of herr"
ooh. she's an amusing little body. !,
She came to me the other day and !
asked the difference between Greek art :
and any other art. She said she thought !
art was aIt the world over, whether it !
was in Greece or America. She seemed |
to think that purely Greek art must be
that pertained to the con
struction Of Psyche knot"
An English girl said the lawyer,
would hardly have said that to you,
would she?"
IAN English girlH' quoth the professor
In amazement. why, an English girl
Of that age wouldn't be out of pima
fores. She wouldn't be allowed to say
anything to anybody on any subject"
And there is the answer to your
first question: said the lawyer. 1T is
this very contact with the world from
her childhood that makes the American
woman the delightful and clever COM
panion that she is"
The professor looked doubtful. But S
1on't you tbink?'' he asked, that it
rather brushes the bloom off S
the peach? Now that girl won't be so
sympathetic and womanly as she would j
f educated in more conservative /
way" I
9TH answer that question later" said {
he lawyer. And he did, two days later, t