The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-06-22
THE DECADENCg OF ENNUL

The other day, while waiting i'm a hotel
reception room, / was unavoidably
treated to the conversation between two
| guests. Both were Southern women OF
the most attractive type-both were cul-
tured and well-traveled. The one, in her
inimitable voice. was speaking OF her
home city whence she had but lately
come on pleasure trip to our Northern
states. 1t was of this particular journey,
| and preceding ones to other parts Of
the country, that she was speaking; and
she concluded her remarks with these COM
miserating words: "Those poor things
that live in NJ all the year round aud
never have any change OF honest Why I
should think that they would die Of
ennui, il of nothing else!" The pity
and wonder in her tone were SO sincere
that II set me 10 thinking. IL was some
time since / had even heard that once
common complaint, "ennui,n spoken OF,
and / couldn't help feeling personally
convinced that If anyone were TO die of it
IT would not be half SO likely to be the
speakers less-favored neighbors as her
self, The people who know "no change
OF homes" but are busy the year round
In the endeavor to keep one roof over
their heads, are not the people who are
afflicted with "ennui." Then it occurred
to me how exceedingly rare that disease
had lately become. Not SO very many
years ago II was actually the rage; in
difference, lassitude, an absence Of all
wholesome interest in all wholesome sub
iects, the assumption of a manner that
signified how completely earth's fruits
had turned 10 ashes at one touch-these
were the qualities of the age.
have wondered sometimes whether a
woman's gown did not reflect the charac-
ter of the wearer in even greater degree
than is commonly ascribed to It, Sure
ly when the heroines Of the novels and
the ladies of the day attitudinized in
gowns OF "soft, clinging MATERIAL the
chief feminine attribute was likewise a
tendency to cling But today / notice
that the wearer of the obtrusive sleeve
and the godet skirt, that demands space
for its stiffened expanse, seems to have
imbued herself with consider
able of the standing-alone quality
OF her gowns. But this is
merely speculation on my own part. IL
were To express my view of the matter
should say that the athletic spirit of
today had pushed the lackadaisical man.
ner OF yesterday to the wall. The tennis
racquet and the golf stick and the bicycle
have proved too powerful for the afore-
time crochet hook and tatting shuttle of
an ultra-languid ladyism.
doubt IL the "new woman, has any
such WORD In her lexicon as "eunni";
she has too much exercise and fresh air;
too much red blood In her veins and too
many advanced ideas in her head to grow
weary Of herself and the world
The woman's clubs have done marvels
In ridding society of this nightmare OF
lassitude, and the rising generation of
young women with their heads and hearts
full OF "college settlements" and "Free
kindergartens" and "working Girls
time have they to nope? |
This modern tendency among women |
oward organized self-improvement and |
is the great relief that so |
many women, suffering the monotony Of |
! self-centered existence, have been look
ng for.
And in future supplements to the die
ionary there is likely to be something
ike this: "Ennui: An obsolete word sig
lifying a mental alteration common to
he ancients."