Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-12-23

content and happy with such life oh- ject; for the social and domestic graces are those which touch existence the closest; which sweeten it's bitter griefs and brighten it's dreariest hours.
 1t would be foolish to assert that the American girl is without faults. Physic- ally and mentally, she may stand on her merits with any woman in the world; morally, she has the short- comings that are the shadows of her excellencies. Principally she is accused, of want of reverence, and, setting aside for the present her faults as a daughter, it may be admitted that in general she has little of this quality. But it is largely the consequenceofh of her environments. Reverence is the virtue of ignorance; and the American girl has no federation for ignorance. She is inquisitive, speculative and inclined to rely on her own investigations; while the spirit of reverence demands, as it's very atmosphere, trust and obedi- ence. It is therefore more just to say, that she is reverent in great things but not respectful in small ones. And there is much excuse for this attitude, for she is so alert and eager herself, that when she meets old men and women, who have learned nothing from their last fifty years of life, and who therefore can teach her nothing, she does not feel any impulse to offer reverence to mere years. But if gray hairs be honorable, either for matured wisdom, extensive information, or practical piety, she is generally in- clined to give that best of all homage the reverence which springs from knowledge and affection; and which is a much better thing than the mere forms of respect, additionally offered to old age.
 It is also said that the American girl is a very vain girl, fond of parading her beauty, freedom and influence. But vanity is not bad quality if it does not run to excess. 1t is the ounce of leaven in girls character, and does a deal of good work for which it seldom gets any credit. For a great deed a great motive Is necessary; but how numberless are the small social and domestic lSindnesses, for which vanity is sufficient force; and which would Dc chcSltclcu OT lll-uOUG without lLS1nH encel As long as girls vanity does not derive it's inspiration from self-love, there is no necessity for her to wear sackcloth to humiliate 1t. We have all known women without vanity, and found them unpleasant people to know.
 1t is however, doubtless. this vanity or self-appreciation which leads the American girl to her extravagant love of fine dress. She likes to make pie lures of herself. and if she has the means to do so without injuring others she has the right to accentuatc all her best points, and wear the garments that are most becoming to her. The wonder is, that with all her self-suf- ficiency, her originality, and her strong common sense, she does not see that one style for dark and fair, big and little, lean and stout, plain and hand some women, Is destructive of all that individuality which in other respects she prizes so much. If this fact ever should appeal to her sense of the fitness of things. she has the will and the power to eurtail in gigantic propor- ti0ns our present extravagant kaleido- scopic system of dressing
 There is one fault of the American girl which is especially her fault. and