The Pascagoula democrat-star., 1894-03-23
THE FORTY DOLLAR GIRL,

The talented and unmarried young
edltress Of the Hattiesburg Democrat
says: THE reason a great many
girls don't get married is because they
have the good sense to prefer $40
salary to Il $40 man."
The above from the DEMOCRAT
STAR, is alluded to at length and in a
serious vein by the polished and hand
some unmarried editor Of the Meri-
dian News. who grants that as pert
and fippant drawing-room remark it
would Riss unchallcnged, if it did not
indeed, win his smiling assent, but
deliberately printed, it is a contribu-
tion to that demoralizing literature
with which society is flooded to-day
for the attaining OF the girl mind.
IL is one of those smart things that
are truth gildcd, useful for cOllOquial
small change, but which are Inherent
ly base and not legal tender in the
discharge of any obligation to the
ycrities that endure.
"The $40 girl who measures her val
ue by her earning capacity and esti-
mates herself no higher in the social
scale than the money grubber of the
opposite sex, who earns the same. Is
no whit better than the $40 man.
Both are abnormal eXcreSscnce on the
social trunk that are an incumbrance
and d nuisance and should be cut away
forever, AMI II the doctrine OF cohes.
ion Of like unto like was universal,
they would be pretty apt to find their
aflinities in each Other-and get mar
ried.' The News pictures the two
as occupying trumpery rig-the wo-
man holding the reinS, the man be-
hind holding on to her, as they move
down the social lanc-the kitchen
sculliOus laugh, the gamins jeer. the
dogs bark and people of sensibility
are glad when they have passed out of
sight. Yoke them together and let
so, and turn to "the woman we all
love-" as the News expresses it, "the
girl in whose presence we intuitively
stand with heads uncovered, because
she Is the embodiment of something
finer, higher, better than ourselves,
unconSciously feels that there is no
market place for the appraisal OF her
worth, and no standard for it's meas
urcment, save in the love and conf
dcnce Of some good man, whose per.
ceptions refined and appreciations cx.
allied in the alchemy Of love, has learn
ed to read the scale Of the heavenly
estimate"
While there is much theory and SEN
timent versus the practical in the es-
innate Of this and kindred phases of
social life, we are ready to favor the
News side of the proposition, and ac-
knowledging the claims of chivalry
and allegiance to women, we can but
dcplOrc the influence and tendencies
that belong to the sentiments com.
planned of by the News. Such are not
God-given, neither congenial to any
impulses Of ones higher senses. Mrs.
Lease is but the embodiment and pro.
duct of the spirit and tendencies of
the $40 girl as she is considered in the
light OF the above, and to quote the
News further: "Whcn they vOlunta.
rily throw down the sceptre, dof the
purple, and divesting themselves OF
that divinity that doth hedge them
take their places among the mob of
men, nothing claiming for their sta
tion, nothing exacting of accustomed
homage, and measure their stature by
the pigmy standards of man measure.
ment, we are apt to turn away from
the scene with a poignant sense of the
incongruity of offering any tribute
here. 1t is like an effort to cxalt
something that is leadcn and keeps
to the centre Of gravity. Whenever a
girl puts the money value upon her.
self she repels all nature save such
mOnstrOSities as her ten-dollar alter.
nate, and the reason she does not mar.
ry him will come to read, because she
is not asked"