The herald., 1897-08-29
Uncle Sans Daughters Pro-
nOunced the Most Charm
ing Women on Earth.
OUR TRUEST AMERICAN TYPE.
Working Girls in U. S. Compared
with Those of England and
France-Gift of "Style."

American scientists and historians
haven't done their duty. They have
missed the greatest opportunity of their
lives though they have sat at table op-
posite this opportunity, courted it in
shadowy lanes, and fallen on their
knees before it. Sometimes it has re-
fused to have anything to do with them.
But not always. Thousands of scien-
lists and historians have been accepted
and have not profited by their good
luck. Probably this is because the sci
entists and historians are men.
AS an American woman is modest she
cannot we'll write about herself. Fur
thermore, it would detract from her
charm if she knew the secret of it. She
doesn't know. 1 don't know, and I
don't care much if she doesn't know, as
long as she will be herself-that is, be
charming-while I am around.
But, my fellow-countrymen, fame
awaits the scientist who will tell us just
why the American girl is the finest girl
the world has ever known. There
awaits the historian who will record the
American girls doings an equally great
fame Once the scientist has written
his thesis, once the historian has writ
ten his history, both must lock their
books up in a library, to which all ac-
cess will be forbidden. We want this
done for the same reason that we talk
about Herbert Spencer's works without
reading them. We want to know that
the American girl has been recorded,
explained and glorified by intellects
worthy of the subject We want to
know that we have the result where we
can lay our hands on it, simply to
squash the arguments of any foreigner
who says his girl is superior to ours
just because she is his girl. An Amer
lean is broad minded. He doesn't like
his girl because she is his girl, but be-
cause she is, as sure as there is any
justice in the world, better than any,
body else's.
That is enough. For we don't want
to read books about the American girl
when we have the live subject itself on
hand. The books might be lent, how
ever, out of kindness, to foreigners, who
are not allowed to feast their eyes on
American girls every time they go into
the street.
WE NEED REMINDERS.
Yet I must confess that I do some
times think the American man needs a
book to remind him occasionally of the
privileges he is enjoying. To an Ameri-
can returning after a long residence
abroad the American girl bursts upon
him as the finest and most wonderful
creation of these United States of Amer
lea. She is a distinct type. She is the
real American. For years it has been
said that the American was a nobody.
He had no nationality; he was mon
grel. Foreign critics said with con-
descension that some time we might
develop a distinctive type of human
being to be called American. Then
they sighed as they thought of what this
type would be. They were good enough
to say that it would be a human being
with all the Biblical sins, all the faults
of other nationalities, and a number
of faults invented by the foreign critics
themselves as necessary to the very ex-
istence of an American type. But this
type would not come for a century at
least
But the type is already here-or half
of it is here; for in this country, o for
eign critic, woman is just as impor-
tant as a man. The American woman
is as distinct a type of woman as either
the English or the French woman, and
she is so fine that the foreign critic can
not appreciate her. The pitiable fellow
goes about searching for a bad type,
and because he cannot find her among
American women he thinks that no type
at all exists
VIRTUES OF FOREIGNERS FALL
FAR SHORT.
The American girl has the virtues of
both the French and the English girl