The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-02-06
ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
OUR WOMEN ARE BETTER EQUIPPED
THAN THE EUROPEANS.

The American Girl Compared with Her
Foreign Sisters--The Result Shows That
There Is Little Cause For Lament of
Any Kind.
Attention has recently been drawn to the
fact that every one of the daughters of the
great European banking house of Rotbs
child has been brought up as IL she were
destined to earn her daily bread, and lhis
together with the prominence achieved in
the world of letters and of art by certain
ladies of title in England and on tho con
tinent, appears to have given rise to the
impression that culture and accomplish
ments are the rule instead of the exception
among the fair sex of the old world. In
fact, regret has actually been expressed in
several quarters on this side of the Atlantic
that the daughters of America should 10
inferior in instruction and attainments OF
one kind and another to their sisters on
Europe. There is, however, hut little
cause for any lament of this kind, and
speaking not of individual cases, but Of
American women in general, it may he
questioned whether they are not as class
superior in brillancy and in intellectual
equipment to the women on yonder side oi
the Atlantic.
In England the average of accomplish.
ments of the class known as gentlewumcn
| is not high. Their education is of sin.
| gularly superficial character. and white
every girl is supposed to learn how to
sketch and play the piano after a fashion.
these two attainments being considered
necessary, the knowledge of foreign Ian.
guages, of modern history and of every.
thing outside that touched upon in tho Sc
| called ladies papers, is of the most elo-
| mentary and restricted description. Eng
lish girls are exuberant with health, vital
! ity and physical vigor, due in the main to
their outdoor life and fondness for exercise.
| But it cannot be said that they shine in
any particular, save in riding and at lawn
tennis. Their conversation is dull and un.
! interesting, and when once one attempts
! to breach any subject of general interest
| outside the narrow circle which constitutes
their own particular world, and beyond
which they never look, thew are bopelessly
at sea and likely to regard their Communion
as either a freak or as a "ouiz" whose oh
ject Is to make them look foolish.
The average American girl knows all
about Europe and without n moment's
hesitation could rattle off the names of the
various rulers of the old world. But il
would be difficult to find one peptlewoman
in a hundred in England who Is acouaint
ed with the identity of the president of the
United States, who has the faintest con
ception of the distinction between the two
great national parties here, or who does
not imagine that Boston is only few
hours distance from New Orleans. This
Ignorance of the English women as a class
is su general that when any one of their
number can really put forward any CLAIM
|
binary, she is at once considered in the
light of phoenix, and her name is herald
ed forth in the press to such a degree as to
convey an altogether wrong impression
abroad in regard to the intellectual caliber
of the English woman.
In France the gentlewoman is equally
lacking in accomplishments. True, there
are daughters of the old aristocracy who.
in spite of the aflluence of their parents,
have made point of being graduated from,
the public schools and of taking up the
diplomas that qualify them to earn Their
living either as governesses or as teachers
at the various educational institutions OF
town or state. But this is the exception
rather than the rule, and although the
practice has been adopted by the daugh-
tiers of some of these so called "princes ot
finance who are forever endeavoring To
place themselves on the same social foot
ing as the old nobility yet it is by no
means countenanced by theaverage French
woman, who is of the opinion that blue
stockings are not the particular form OF
feminine hosiery that finds the most grace
in the eyes of the sterner sex. What the
Frenchwoman, however, lacks in the line
of accomplishments she atones for in grace
elegance and chic, to such a degree that
attachments of an intellectual order would
positively seem homogeneous and ont OF
place in SO captivating an embodiment OF
frivolity.
Austrian and Hungarian ladies posses,