Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1892-11-18
THE AMERICAN GIRL ABROAD.
Foreigners Fail to Understand. But All
the More They Heartily Admire Her.


One Of the certain and constant satisfac-
tions of Americans travelling abroad ~
the American woman. distinguishable
everywhere. known as an American wo-
man everywhere, and admired as is no
other product of what most Europeans are
pleased 10 regard as the barbarlsm on the
other side of the Atlantic.
How they are able to keep up the idea
of America az barbaric, with the joyous
presence of the American girl so often be-
fore them, is a mystery that no one can
solve. says the Sun.
There used TO be fallacy broad in the
world that only many generations OF
wealth, power, and culture could give
woman certain graces OF features, form.
and carriage. As these graces never did
exist among European women OF the lower
classes, who are so busy at ploughlng and
reaping, and at draught-horse work OF va
rious kinds, 1t is no wonder that the taila-
cy existed.
But American women have changed all
that. There is romantic notion that
princesses and duchesses and the like are
generally most aristocrattc to behold. IL
is akin TO the other idea that great men are
necessarily great to look at.
As matter of fact, which we all know
now, q high-born woman is Just as likely
to have huge feet aud hands, an angular
form, and ugly and Insignificant features
as any one else.
But they were wont to urge. granted
that nature makes 10 distinctions in favor
of long ancestry, still the hlgh-born wo-
man has the grand air, the impression, and
confident serenity of manner which the
lowly-born cannot hope to initiate.
And this has held on much longer than
the other fallacy, because it rested upon
an intangible something which people are
fond of seeing in the high-born of earth
whether 10 exists orinot.
But the American women have 6isproved
this. None of us on this side of the water
can lay much claim TO ancient and lofty
ancestry.
The Pilgrim Fathers and the settlers at
jamestown, the pioneers of the border.
and all OF the original and pure Americans
were simple, honest people, who had sim
pie, honest virtues. and were brave and
strong and self-reliant without any props
from ancestors or without any great hope
of fame.
And it is the daughters and granddaugh-
ters of these people, said daughters and
granddaughters being the first of their
race to have the advantages of the civil
zation that is supposed to refine and make
cultivated who have gone over to Europe
to see what they could see.
Now, on the European theory, those
humbly born ought to be awkward and
lacking in the grand airs that fine breeding
gives. Even if their table manners were
not positively bad they ought TO have
something of the peasant In them, some
suggestion of the pioneer settlement and
the mining camp.
But 10 and behold, the American woman
walking among the high-born women of
Europe has more OF distinction IN her sp-
pearance than the descendants of ten
generations of courts.
liz the first place, these American women
whom it is so pleasant to see on the boule-
wards or at the fashionable resorts OF
Europe are taller and straighter and more
robust-lookIng than the European women.
They have better teeth, better hair, bet
| ter eyebrows, better noses, and better
forms. Their feet are smaller and more
shapely, aud their hands are as long and
slender aud their fingers as tapering. Their
| compilations, too. are more delicately CO.
lored, and herein they most disturb their
English cousins.
AS for the manner, they bear themselves
with dignity and grace that are not ex-
ceeded by the women or any other coun-
try. They wear their gowns and their hats
as every French woman cannot. To this
Worth or any great dre5smaker of the Rue
de Ia PAX and any mllliner OF the Boule-
ward des Italiens will bear witness cheer
fully.
All this comes IN a large measure from
two things-from the youth and vIgor and
virility Of this soil of the New World and
from the liberal education and the equalI-
ty of women in America.
And the European men who first ran
after these American women because they
are all supposed to be millionaires, and
afterward because they think them trifle
rapid. continue to admire and worship
them. because their manners are so frank
and their conversation so interesting.
The American woman can do something
more than look healthy and stupid, which
are the chief points in the English girl.
She can do something more than blush
and say, "Oui, monsieur" or Mon, mon-
sieur," as the French young girl.
And the European men know that high
breeding. is not necessarily distinct from
commercial ancestors. and that moral
honor is not necessarily the result of hawk
eyed chaperons and elaborate external de-
fences.
These are good things for European men
TO learn. For generations of loose morals.
and often OF debauchery, have not been
without effect. And honest and clean ideas
about women are the rule rather than the
exception on this side of the water. SO the
American woman in Europe is pleasant to
contemplate; the more SO as she is em;-
neptly able to take care Of herself.