Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-07-22
ENGLISH JUSTICE TO OUR GIRLS

Sir Edwin Arnold Tells Englishmen Their
ideas OF American Women Are Absurd.
From the London Daily Telegraph.
In England men OF letters and humorous ar
lists are accustomed to treat the American girl
from too widely differing, but in either case
unjust, points Of view. "Mr. Punch's" artists
confess graphically that the American girl is
often sumptuously beautiful, but they rarely
present her to public admiration without put
ting in her mouth utserances which are either
grotesquely ''outres' or downright vulgar
II she is asked to partake Of refreshments she
declines on the score that she ia ''pretty well
crowded already" and if the Chicago exhibi-
ton is alluded to in her presence she Incl
dentally remarks that the worlds fair 10 ''too
big a chunk to be chewed" without difficulty.
As for the English novelist, the American girls
they depict are in most instances Handsome
and more or less interruptions young persons,
who complete their education by the intense
study of Burke and Debrett, and who embark
on board the ocean steamship which 10 to bring
them to Europe with a Arm resolution to
marry very high up indeed in the English
peerage.
We shall never have thoroughly artistic So
ries OF studies Of the American girl from En-
glish pens and pencils until our countrymen
recognize the fact that American girls differ
physically and Enthusiastically among them
selves quite a. widely, il not even more widely.
than English girls do In the Union multitudes
Of girls may be met with who are almost Ger
mans or almost Irish in blood. Half Swedish,
half Spanish South Americans, half italian
types Of femininity are also continually met
with. and, indeed there are skillfuI students OF
American character who declare that the genu.
inc American girl ia only to be met with in
Navw nelo nd hat 10 N f,x ha az. -
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont Massachu-
sets. Rhode Island and Connecticut. In those
states the original English blood has with
scarcely any foreign strain in 1t, descended from
the time Of the immigration Of the pilgrim
fathers to our own days. They are the true
ready to typify the New York, or the Philadel-
phian, or the Baltimore, or the virginian
young lady as yankee" girl.
New York city is, perhaps, one OF the most
cosmopolitan cities in the world, and the French,
the German and the Irish types have been
freely mingled with the Anglo-Saxon ones
while some account must be taken Of the
Knickerbocker Naristocracy-that is to say. OF
the descendants OF the old Dutch settlers
The expert in character will at once be able to
distinguish between young lady from Man
haitian and one who halls from Pennsvlvania or
another type Of American girlhood makes her
self manifest in Ohio and Michigan and SC
soon as the Rocky mountains are crossed and
the descent OF the Pacific slope Is begun We,
another wholly Independent type Of the femi
nine American makes its appearance. Nor,
finally, would the study Of the American
daughter Of Eve be complete by even the
minutest observation Of the girls Of the eastern
the middle and the western states. There re.
mains the southern girl to be dealt with; and
when we approach that charming type OF
feminine humanity it will be found that the
girls Of Kentucky. those OF the Carolinas and
the bellies OF Louisiana. Alabama and Georgia
differ among themselves quite as widely as does
Parisienne from a Provencale.
On the whole. if the American girl IL to bs
thoroughly studied, the European student
should live long in the states or make many re.
curing visits thereto. The existing and most
current types Of the American female are
either stupidity conventional or wildly exagger
ated, and in most cases are altogether mis-
understood.