Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-11-03
IN W0MAN'S BEHALF.
lie AMERICAN WOMAN.
How She Strikes an English Writer Who
Has studied Her.

HOW She Strikes an English Writer Who
Has studied Her.
The American woman, as described
by writer in the London Queen. is the
most versatile of her sex. She is at
once domesticated and yet pleasure
seeking in her tastes. With a keen eve
for the material side of life, she has
no less ready appreciation of literature
and art; while exacting as she is toward
men, there turks in her sentimental
vein, which causes her TO cast halo of
romance round even the most prosaic
and dollar-gra bling of husbands. In
the middle and western states early
marriage is the rule, although the age
is rising, and girl who twenty years
ago would have been married at the age
OF sixteen, now delays until from TWEEN
ty to twenty-four. Young wives, as a
rule, have no home of their own
The girl not infrequently brings her
young husband to live in the house of
her parents. for the motAer-in-lsw is no
femme terrible as she Is supposed TO be
with US. The young people have a suit
of rooms set apart for them where they
spend their cory evenings alone, while
they join the family circle for meals or
in turn entertain their relations and
friends in their own little household
The young wife is thus spared the
worry of housekeeping for ne first
few years, while the young husband,
who would probably have remained
bachelor for ten years longer, is en-
couraged to take the plunge long before
he is ready to keep up an expensive
separate home. Other young couples
take refuge in the ubiquitous boarding
house, where an Indifferent table and
still more indifferent fellow-boarders
soon lead to promptings of the spirit to
find home at all hazards for them
selves.
The American woman Is essentially
genial She is not so anxious to know
the pedigee and occupation of every
stranger who may happen TO build
house next to hers or take the next pew
to her at church. she will welcome
the newcomer whether her husband
happens to deal in land or law,
stocks o. sugar, medicine or
morals. 1T is all business" in her
eyes and she can not understand the
delicate lines drawn between standing
behind the counter of a bank or
grocer's store. Every house furnishes
at least score of rocking chairs, and
ones first introduction to a ladies'
social circle is decidedly bewildering
one, for each individual chair rocks its
own time, and the effect upon the brain
is analogous to that which would be
produced upon the ear were each
individual Instrument in an orchestra to
keep their own time.
The tone of American conversation is
proverbially high, and the questions
discussed in London drawing rooms,
often in the presence of men and young
girls, are entirely avoided in America,
except by that limited and foolish set
who live to eat, dress and initiate moth
ing but the follies of the English.
On the other hand, the best and most
intelligent American women have a
great admiration for the English, they
are envious to desperation of their full,
mellow voices, their bodily vigor, fine
compilations and repose of manner. The
American woman has no repose-hence
the rocking chair in which she works
off the nervous energy which the ex-
hilarating climate stimulates to so in
tense a degree. She is never sleepy or
dull, but longs for the restraining fac
ulty which would give her a chance of
building up her frail body and strength
ening her nerves.
The American woman is hospitable
generous, intelligent, vivacious and
brave, but the lines which appear un-
der the eyes and round the mouth ere
she reaches thirty tell their own sad
tale What she needs to perfect and
maintain her charms is the cold morn
ing tub, less violet powder, more fresh
air and out-of-door exercise, and the ut
ter determination of the horrld furnace,
which, placed in every cellar, sends
forth sirocco-like blasts of air into
every chamber in the house, and SO con-
verts the modern American home, in
point of temperature, into a conserva-
tory for forcing plants.