Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1895-08-02
WOMAN'S WORLD.
A FRENCH NoVELIST'S OPINION OF
THE AMERICAN WOMAN.

One Of the Coming Women Women No,
Dcsired"--Mrs. s. s. Lcwis-rhe New
Woman Crusade-Mrs. Maybriok's Case.
Statistics Of Women In business.
The apothcosis of woman, which is
the so original feature of society in
! America, is first and above all the
| Giotheosis Of the youug girl. These
W rds, so simple, are still two words to
be explained, for it is probable that on
I II the points-reserving, let it be un.
',rstOod, that of honor-they express
exactly the opposite in the United States
10 what they do i'll France. What first
strikes the traveller who has heard so
much of the Young American girls is
tho absolute impossibility of distin-
;lishing them from the young women.
The fact, so much commented upon, that
they can come and go alone as they
please would not suffice to establish the
onfusion. The identity goes further.
They have the same jewels, the same
ilets, the samo liberty of speech and
laughter tho same books to read, the
same manner, the same beauty already
fully developed, and, thanks to the in
vcntion Of the 'chaperon, there is not
a theater or restaurant party to which
they cannot go, alone naturally, and at
the invitation of any gentleman of their
acquaintance.
The quality of that official surveil-
lance may be measured from another
fact--that the young lady for whom the
bachelor gives the party chooses herself
the chaperOn. The younger that chaper-
on is the more she is appreciated. The
young widow and the grass widow
tho woman separated, divorced or sim
ply isolated temporarily from her hus-
band-fills the ideal conditions of the
part. You might just as well say that
the young girls whom you see at Del.
monico's in the company of three young
men and the said chaperon, or who go
and take tea at the rooms Of another
young man, are as free as though they
had no one to look after them than
themselves. It is that habit of acting
for themselves without control which is
manifested in the singular assurance Of
their countenances.
One of the most amiable men of New
York, who is poet, has had the idea
of forming a collection of miniatures,
where he places, with their permission,
all the professional beauties of the
town. 1 remember that in examining
them with the magnifying glass through
the pane behind which those hundreds
Of ftxro nd en- cr,ni1a fo.,fh I
sought to guess those who had known
marriage and could not succeed. What,
in truth, will it bring them more when
it comes? Duties, a husband to bear
WITH children to care for, house to
look after. Today the young girl has
none of the burden of those chains She
knows it, and she enjoys the time she
has to the utmost. She will not have
one liberty the more when she is mar
ried, and she will have less time in
which to amuse herself But in most
cases she marries late. If it is not quite
an end to her, as it is for the young
man of Paris when he decides to break
off his bachelor life, it is at least CON-
mencement of abdication. The majority
do not conceal it.
"We must amuse ourselves before
marriage" said one of them gayly to
me. 'Does one know what will come
after?"
The divorce cases, of which the news
papers publish the details from time to
time, prove that that young person had
as much good sense as beauty. For my
part, after having closely investigated
the human conditions. here and in Eu-
rope, l think that for young man Of
25 years the best chances of happiness
are to be an Englishman of good fami-
ly, concluding his studies at Oxford,
and for young girl to be born Ameri- |
can, with father who has made his
money in mines, railways or land spec
ulation, and to arrive with good spon-
sors in the society of New York or
Washington. Paul Bourget.