The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-11

captured by him, which is well, for his
family, his prospects and his own char
acter can all be approved Of them.
The western girl, as L have said, is
I sensible. She has a practical way of
! looking life in the face. She is reared
opinions. The family discuss the ma
tons politics, the fathers business,
the mothers charities, or church or
domestic conflicts with the servant
! question, the brothers schools, and the
sisters social triumphs.
She reads the daily paper, and has
an opinion about politics. Naturally,
it is the opinion of her father and
| brothers; but she has it not so much
/ presentment Of the case is all that she
( has had. She is a good partisan, but
not perfervid; she has too keen a sense
! of humor. Perhaps, too, the family
| life and the comradeship that her
| brothers have granted her is due this
same sense Of 'humor. In any event, it
| is hers,and affects her life To it in
some degree is due another valuable
quality, namely, her exceeding adapt
! ability. Whatever her lot, she attacks
it with gayety and philosophy all her
own. Consider the surprising appear
| ance of the far western Congressman's
wife at her first social function in
Washington, and compare the portrait
with her picture, radiant, gracious.
| quite al her ease during the last year
/ of her husbands term.
FROM TOWN TO METROPOLIS.
A western woman was once trans
planted by her husbands success from
a small town on the prairies to the
most exclusive society of a great city
on the seaboard. She was a handsome
creature, with a warm heart, a quick
wit and courage quicker than her wits.
She studied the manners and speech
about her. and when / didn't know
the right thing to say, I kept STILL
said she. Finally the time came for
her first dinner party. She looked for
ward to it with a slight tremor of the
nerves, in spite of the possession of a
middle-aged, rather silent woman de-
| scribed to her as IAN actual genius in
the Kitchen When the evening ar
rived and the guests were gathered,
! extraordinary signals of distress from
the butler drew her from the hall.
What is the matter, JONES'" she
asked anXiously.
Nothing is the matter with me.
ma'am," he replied, with gloomy and
reproachfuI dignity, 'but l wish you
would just step down to the kitchen
and look at cook"
Without a word and her heart sink
ing every step, the lady followed him.
/ Cooks helpers stood in tears outside
] the kitchen door, two scandalized
maids lowered over her and told her it
was a shame. But Cook? Cook bal
anced herself on the edge of the table
with large spoon in one hand, smiling
a foolish smile.
1t did not need the fumes Of brandy
that smote the newcomer to tell her
what had happened.
For a second she stood silent. seeing
her guests faces surrounding the
startled and mortified features of her
husband, like a crowd of some mediae-
val painters bodiless angels.
It's just a little faintness that comes
over me" remarked cook, waving the
spoon amiably in the lady's direction;
1 don't be alarmed, ma'am, it only af-
/ f1icts me legs, niver me moind"'
| The lady took a few determined steps
! into the kitchen.
The dinner is going on all roight,
! don't We be consarned about the din
nerr' the cook continued with unabat-
ed geniality, tell that dumb looney of
a Swade to keep out of me road and
not pick me up onless 1 fall on the
range, and to kape her sntvelling to
/ herself and I'll be cooking yez all the
best dinner We liver et!''
The lady had been examining the
oven and the top of the range; she saw
that no harm had been done. and the
soup and the fish were safe. Jones
could be trusted with the salads and
the sweets, which were all cold. She
! laid her hand on the woman's Shout
der. She fixed a commanding but not
stern eye upon her. Put your head
under the cold water faucet" said she;
..T
one and won't scald her, and brace up!
Then you cook the dinner, and He'd
wig. you watt on her; she will be all
right directlyr'
She gave a few directions about the
dinner, saw them all at work, charged
somehow with some tingles of her own
electric confidence, and went up stairs.
She walked through the hall, frowning
with thought; but she entered her
drawing room smiling, and told her
guests the whole story They had come
to dine, with the resignation of elderly
men who dine out often, and who eX-
pect little of a new house, where nei-
Their the cooking nor the wines are IA
nous.
They frightened up a little at the
story-which she told well-perceiving
at least the prospect of some amuse-
ment for their trouble in coming. You
see'' she added, lit is an open question
whether we shall have dinner or not"
The result of her candor was that by
degrees an easy gayety took possession
of that staid and celebrated company,
and by the time the butler appeared to
announce dinner the hilarity had so
increased that his formal sentence was
greeted with applause, while each sue
CeSsiVe course of a really admirable
dinner (for the cook kept her world ex-
cited warmer and more demonstrate
i've enthusiasm. From that occasion
of peril dates the lady's fame as a
giver of feasts fit for epicures mental
and astronomical. And she did not
discharge the cook; she did better-she
reformed her.
CHARACTERISTICS
The western girl is not nervous She
is too healthy. A shattered nervous
system does not strike her as the sign
of a higher nature, neither does it so
strike her mother. who is prone to as
sociate any unusual sensitiveness with
a disordered liver and to insist on a
dose of blue mass. The modern neu-
rotic enchantress with her paid and
hectic melancholy, her languor, her
facile and transient emotions, and her
cynical flicker of wit, does not in the
least enchant the western heart; the
young men do not long to adore her,
and the young women have no desire
to like her Even after a life in cities
there remains in the character formed
in the west an ineffaceable, vigorous
simplicity of motive and view Per-
haps it is the far-reaching effect of
the youthful calomel. 1 shall not ven
ture to hint that a calm and not too
nQuisitive conscience, which is a fea-
ture of the western girls nature,
conscience incomprehensibly stupid and
lax, according to the New England
standard, owes any of its inefficient
tranquility to the owners firm nerves.
/ would only plead that if the western
conscience is good-natured. it is not all