New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-09-06
THE AMERICAN WOMAN.
HER CONuUEsTs AND THE CAUSE


Gertrude Anterior in The London Daily News.
Sir The fascination OF Engishmen for American
women has been much discussed OF late, but the
time il approaching when the possession OF Eng.
far more vital controversy In fact 1t threatens to
become one of the great international Questions
derstand that effort is being made by the United
States Government TO prevent Its voting citzens
remaining abroad more than two years AT tlmc,
that II is seriously alarmed at the increasing thou
sands of Americans who are settling IN Europe.
The United States press has also hall awakened 10
the fact that the detection of it's women means
loss of something more than millions although as
vet its only suggestions in re self-protecion nave
been TO impose a tax on the dots of American heir
marrying foreigners, and TO create domesuc
Meanwhi what is the reason that at the present
moment me- , ,h fashions hayeno to exaggerae
five admirers to every English womans one-and
r r.. have been advanced They are prettier.
cleverer, more vivacious more natural dress better
have A born and acute understanding OF men, less
religion. above all more money ,...,-
will show that they do not hold water Spanish and
Austrian women are more beautiful than Ameri-
yanious dresses as well. and what she does no,
know about men is not worth recording Win the
ton not calculated to make man wish that all
women were Pagans; and there are heiresses all
The one manifest point. therefore. upon which the
American woman is sui generis Is her naturainess.
her habit OF thinking out loud her lack OF self-con-
sciousness of mannersm All English women talk
as if they had studied elocution An American
voice even when trainane. has the effect OF spon.
tancity. And so with the manner; the habit Of
Buf ths quality delightful a. it is is hardly
strong enough to constitute more than passing
England is growing firm as the years go BY. She
has come to stay. and what IS more 10 English
Under the obvious reason. rather set Of reasons
there must then. be fundamental and psychological
with all their manifold charms They make love in
Paris Vienna. Seville. Venice and Yokohama. but
he therefore that they recognize In American
women something that they most want-something
that the women of their own country cannot give
Can it be that while Englishmen have gone for
kept pace with their century-t may almost be said
that they have the pace-the English woman has
Grated Take her literature With some very few
exceptions no English woman to-day is writing
the silly novelists out II the question. what does
the enormous success Of the neurotc. morbid and
dccadent effusion denote? One need hardly think
twice to answer that 1t means general degeneracy
among English women | hear several thousand
great sales in America" So they have. but be-
cause the United States is Intellectually under the
to have a mind of its own the subject OF liter
ature. None of these books would have achieved
not have been written in America. AS it is, they
read out of curiosity tossed aside and forgot
To return: 1t is inconceivable that the women
who read and exist in these novels as the expires.
al s wot hs
/" cy live a clean. outdoor life, love sport better
IN women and make history along the natural
lines of evolution In them is no faint Of morbid
ity and il H. easy to Imagine how little attraction
the quality has for them In womankind
Do the advanced women and their following
actually believe that they can reconstruct .nese
men-the most dominant. perfectly balanced, raplo-
ly deyeloping-along lines laid down by themselves
and highly developed race OF men the worso nas
ever known? AS we'll try to harness the sun Inc
end will be that their men will let them severely
alone md marry American women. In the FEMININE
literature OF to-day and In Its success Is the noto
Of decay: one can smell the mould
IL seems TO that this Is the secret OF the AZ
The vast majority Of American men are composed
of two elements only-money greed ana sensuaity.
They are the very beginnings OF their own dc;
yelopment, the most elemental race Of men In all
civilization to-day. Ar rican women have so far
flashed past them that they stand on the plane
which English women would occupy 4 they had
kept pace with their men. They are alive to their
finger tips; they have cast off the yoke OF conven-
tionality cut-and dried religion. and all the old
forms and traditions which should be and must be.
come obsolete the higher civilization develops:
they premise all that seems to be moribund
stunted in the older Of women; in short, they
are at a point in their evolution where. mentally,
spiritually and sexuaIly. they are the natural COM
panions of Engishmen; and Englishmen with O.
without analysis. have recognized the fact