The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-04
The American
andTheir
BRITISH SISTERS.
An Englishman's Interest
ing Analysis.

Put roughly, what chiefly strikes the
stranger in the American woman is her
candor, her frankness, her hail-fellow-
well-metedness, her apparent absence
of consciousness of self or of sex, her
spontaneity, her vivacity, her fearless
ness. If the observer himself is not
of specially refined or delicate type.
he is apt at first to misunderstood the
| cameraderie of an American girl, to
see in it suggestions of a possible
coarseness of fibre. If vain man, he
may take it as a tribute to his personal
charms, or at least to the superior
claims of a representative of old world
| civilization. But even to an obtuse
stranger of this character, it viii ult:-
mately become obvious-as to the more
refined observer alb initio-that he can
! no more Cf as much) dare to rake q
hoerty with the American girl than
with his own country women.
The plan may appear to be more cas-.
lily handled, but it's bloom win be
| found to be as intact and as ETHEREAL
| as IN the jealousy guarded hot house
fruit of Europe. He win find that her
frank and charming personality is as
lar removed from Insecurity as from
| coarseness; that the points in which
she dlifers from the European lady do
! not bring her nearer to man on the one
hand, or to common woman on the
| other He will find that he has to read
| just his standards, to see that diverg-
ence from the best type of woman
hitherto known to him does not nee
essarily mean deterioration if ne is Of
an open and susceptible mind, he may
10
prefers the transatlantic type!
Unless his time in England has lain
IN very pleasant places, the intelligent
! EhgHshman in enjoying his first ex-
peflence OF transatlantic society. will
assuredly be struck by the sprighti-
ness, the variety, the fearless indy
duality of the American girl bv her
power of repartee, by the quaint APP
posltiVeness Of her expressions by the
variety Of her interests, by the absence
OF undue Difference 10 masculine DIG
nifty If in his newly landed Innocence
he ventures to compliment the girl he
talks with on the purity of her Eng
Tllsh. and assumes that she differs in
that respect from her companions she
will periodically repel the suggested
accusation Of her country woman by
answering him, without the ghost of a
smile that she has had special ad-
Nantages, inasmuch as an English mis-
sionary has been stationed in her
tribe"
If she prefers Martin Topper to
Shakspere, or Strauss to Beethoven. she
will say so without a tremor Why
should she hypocritally subordinate
her individual instincts to a general
theory of taste? Her independence is
visible in her very dress. She wears
what she thinks suits her land her taste
Is seldom at fault, not merely what
happens to be the fashionable freak
Of the moment What Englishman
does not shudder when he remembers
how each of his womankind-the come
ly and the homely, the short and the
long, the stout and the lean-at once
assumed the latest form Of hat, appar-
emily utterly oblivious to the question
of whether it suited her special style
of beauty or not?
Now, an American girl is not built
that way. She wishes to be in the
fashion just as much as she can: but
if a special item of fashion does not
set her off to advantage, she graceful
ly and courageously resigns it to those
who can wear it with profit But honor
where honor is due! The English girl
generally shows more sense of fitness
in the dress for walking and travel
ing; she, consciously or unconscious
ly, realizes that adapta bility for its
; practical purpose is essential in such
a case.
The American girl. as above said
strikes one as individual as varied
In England when we meet a girl in a
ballroom we can generany-not always
- place her after q few minutes
talk; she belongs to a set of which
you remember to have already met a
volume or two. In some continental
countries the patterns in common use
seem reduced to three or four.
In fhe limited States ayet,,r or, i~
new sensation.
Society consists of a series Of sur
4. prlses. A and and c do not help
you to induce D; when you reach d
you may imagine you find q slight
trace of incarnation. Not that the sur
prises are invariably pleasant The
very force and confidence of the
; American girl doubly and trebly nm
derline the undesirable. Vulgarity
that would be stalled stodgy in Mid
dleseX becomes blatant and aggressive
in New York.
The American girl is not hanpered
by the feeling of class distinction
which has for her neither religious nor
, historical sanction. The English girl
is first the squire's daughter, second
a good church woman, third an English
subject, and fourthly Il woman. Even
the best of them can not rise wholly
superior to the all-pravailing, and in
10 SSSSiiSCs NulSdilZlHS, superstition
that some of her fellow creatures are
not fit to come between the wind ard
) her nobility Those who reject tho
/, theory do so by a self-conscious effort
which in itself is crude and a strain
The American girl is, however, born
INTO an atmosphere of Inconsistencies
or all this, and, unless she belongs to
very narrow coterie. does not reach
this point of view either as believer
or antagonist.
This endues her, at her best. with
a sweet and subtle fragrance of human
ity that is, perhaps, unique. Free from
any sense of inherited or conventional
) superiority or inferiority, as devoid Of
the brutality of condescension as of the
: manners of toadyisIn, she combines in
strangely attractive way the charm
! OF eternal Womanliness with the latest
aroma of a progressive century. 1t is
doubtless this quality that M. Bourget
; has in view when he speaks of that
Incompatible delicacy of the American
/ girl, or M. Paul Blouet, when he as
serts that you find ia the American
} woman a quality whiA / fear, is be-
ginning to disappear in Paris and is
almost unknown in London-a kind of
spiritualized politeness, a tender soli-
3 citude for other people, combined with
strong individuality"
There is one type of girl, with whom
even the most modest and most mod
; erately eligible of bachelors must be
} familiar in England who is seldom in
evidence in the United States-she
/ whom the American aborigines might
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