Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-24


Browning which is to her credit, and use
of eyeglasses. which indicates at worst
only studious ancestry and an absence of
personal vanity, but which she wears in no
larger ratio than that of one In a hundred.
There may be girls in New England, as
everywhere, who are uncouth, ignorant
and unattractive. But 1t is impossible for
any one who knows what he Is talking
about to call them typical When we speak
of plants. according. to DIR. Gray, the high
grade must lie taken as a pattern. And
50 when / call the New England girl to
mind think In the first place Of what the
great Abigail Adams may have been as a
girl. in the earlier time of the lovely Har-
rfet Newell and of Ann Hasseltine and the
crowd Of witnesses that follow them i
think OF the whitesouled Lydia Maria Child,
of Margaret Fuller, with her spell upon
poet and philosopher, old man and young.
I think of Lucy Larcom, who, IL she lived
near heaven, held the earth and the beauty
of tie earth also close in hor heart.
think of Fanny Fern, OVERLOOKING with roll
licking fun; Of Mrs. Stowe. with the humor
that flashed In brig htness through the dark
pages of her book that turned the fate of
nation.
Fnme's broad Glare.
see Mary wilkins, the Incompatible tel
Ter of stories, that leave you .smily round
trude Halltha rosy, starry child of genius;
Sarah Orne Jewett, with her dark and
stately French beauty, sweet as any wo-
man of whom ever poet dreamed. 1 see
Gail Hamilton, most brilliant of the essay
lists of the day, with perpetual charm for
all within her personal radius. / see again
Annie Cary singing La Favorita, see Elm
ma Eames as Mozart's sad and melodious
Contessa, as the divinely beautiful Juliet,
interpreting the innocence and strength of
love in the tomb of the Capulets. 1 see
Charlotte Cushman, who in Romeo taught
Men how woman wishes to have love
made to her. in her youth, with men at her
feet, in her later life with all women there.
I see Anne Whitney, molding the clay of
Roma, little woman, perfectly modelled
herself, an antique statue, with a fire
stolen from midnight heavens in her eyes.
I see Louisa Hopkins, in her girlhood, "a
piece of pure Greek beauty, In her maturer
years with her great poem of Mother
hood" / think of Helen Hunt, with
her Cleopatra-like variety; of Maria
Mitchell living with the stars. her COM
panions: of Louisa Alcott, the friend of
how many hundred thousands of children;
of LoSise Coulton singing her troubadour
songs, beloved of every one; of Celia Thax-
ter born of the sea and the sun. / do not
need to go on with such names, to cite
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps holding the gates
of heaven ajar for SO many a grieving
heart or Grace Greenwood, or Rose Terry,
or a host of other with power, more or less:
for no one denies the New England wo-
mans talent; there Is only a doubt ex-
pressed to her personal charm. Yet, In
each one of these women, that / have
known. the personal charm has been more
than the intellectual power. These, and
such these since there has been a New
England, since Priscilla, bewitched soldier
and scholar, have been or are among the
flower of New England girls, and cannot
Imagine higher phase of womanhood than
most OF them exemplify.
As She Truly Is.
The prevailing idea of the New England
girl is a stiff piece of angular precision,
narrow minded, narrow-hearted and ruled
by an inhexible conscience. OF course,
such a young woman exists in New Eng
land, as she may in old England. as have
met her in Virginia, in Missouri, in Texas
also. But when one hears that type spoken
of as the real type, 1t makes one smile to
look around on the young girls of Boston
and the lesser towns, a generation of girls
showing the result of such nourtshment
and hygienic care, tall. broad-shouldered,
1ong-limbed. with free movements or grace,
with rich color. fine features, beaming eyes,
with long and thick tresses, well-rounded.
well-dressed. well-mannered, well-ta-ght,
moving and looking like young goddesses.
She is in this generation composite Of
all her grandmothers. If she has the Pill
RrinS firm adherence to her faith, let the
faith be what it WILL she has also the liber
ahty of the friend of Harry Vane, the
STRAIGHTFORWARD courage of the Scotch
Irish, the vivaCity of the French, and al
ways some Of the iron fiber of the Puritan
in her moral and mental and physical con-
stitution. She does not forget 1t may he,
that the nberality was of the sort that
preached against the pernicious practice Of
women in going abroad with the faces I'M
covered by yeil-a conservative LIBERAL
fly. In fact, so tremendously in earnest is
she in whatever cause or theory she es-
pouses, that she avoids bigotry only by
care.
All this. perhaps. may give her little
too much sense of superiority. If she is in
Boston, and especially If she is of the circle
of the citys chief wealth and refinement
and long descent, she does not regard a
member of the house Of lords moro than
her fathers social equal; and she feels
nearer to the English aristocracy than TO
that of her own country people, allowing
that they have one; she attiliates more with
Philadelphia than with New York; she
knows that New York considers her provin-
cial. But what matter? She considers New
York banal. With all this she condescends
SO sweetly that you do not always find II
out.
Upright Before All.
I fancy that even beyond this and even
beyond that divine curiosity which is the
love of learning. her most distinguishing
characteristic is her positive truthfulness.
"A temptation to deceit treachery would
glance off from her as an arrow from
armor of plate steel. 1t Is this upright
ness, this lofty standard of rectitude. " hich
gives her an inner pride that makes coquet-
~ Impossible to her. She will not stoop to
win by small and detestable arts. When
she loves, it is as faithfully, as tenderly,
as everlas tingly any woman ever born
of woman; but she demands respect before
she will accept love. If she is often I'M
married, IL Is not because she has not the
opportunity of marriage, but because men
who reach her standard are not plentiful
For her intellect and her taste are Culti-
vated she has fine knowledge of art, and
q deep enthusiasm for music. She paints,
she models, she sings, she sews, she cooks.
The rough east winds and sea toncs,
strengthening the throat by long selection,
till they have made such throats as Nordi-
cas- and Kellogg's. have given her a pleas
ant voice. with less of the nasal twang
than belongs to any other section of the
Country; have given her, too. by the sanla