The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-05-28
FOR FEMININE READERS
sELF-REsPECTING WOMEN WHO GO
ABOUT WITHOUT ESCORTS.
Rarity of the Ability to Read Aloud
wholesome Health Philosophy
Various Suggestions.

Or
corting herself from place to ~place-after
dark, maybe; sometimes later even than
errant damsels were won't to wander-is
always surprised to find how her indie
pendence is a source of wonder to her
friends and their mothers. says Jean Neal,
in ST. Louis Globe-Democrat. My mother is
no less thoughtful, anxious, tenderly care
full than any. Yet. being a sonless mother,
she has sympathy for her brotherless
daughter, and has learned confidence in
her valor and discretion. She does not bid
ne tarry by the fireside from dusk TO bed
time: but. if / am late to tea, or if / start
upon a nocturnal quest, she is content
and unworried. There is so much fun
missed by girls like my chum, whose mother
has brought her up 70 think that roaring
lions are abroad, bound to devour defense
less maids who return alone after lamp
light. She must be at home for every meal.
unless she has particularly specified before
hand when and where she may be found at
the hours of repast. She must return prompt
at the hour promised, or the town crier is
sent TO clamor for a lost child" She must
never be out after dusk or her mother has
hysteria, a fit. commissions or something
equally unpleasant and unbecoming. And
she cannot go anywhere of an evening un-
less some man is provided for an escort.
Therefore, my chum, charming girl and
dear, passes many hours in solitary COM
munion with herself. while I, less deserv-
ing and no more brotherless, but more for
tunate in a sensible mother, am vastly i'm
proving the time of day.
Chivalry is not quite dead, at least in
America l believe the real article is hard
to find in many European cities, especially
/ nbnNr Dn.t- D.t
free and independent States a girl unpro-
tected, brotherless and alone, may safely
be free and Independent. And the chivalry
of to-day consists more in kindly not doing
than in polite doing. All that the brother
less girl asks of mankind at large is to be
let alone. And If. by manner and carriage,
she asks it Enthusiastically and sincerely,
her wish will be respected. What men as
sert that girls themselves are largely re-
sponsible for any u-npleasantness which
may befall them. / believe to be true. A
woman need not be fifty, Ugly and ragged
In order to pass safely the dangers of a
great city. A young, pretty, stylish girl
may take care of herseiI quite as well. But
she must understand how. An eye rolling
ABOUT in search OF trouble is quick to spy
or fancy Ii. A too timid manner is quite as
conspicuous as a bold one, and in challeng-
ing the world has a disagreeable-or agree
Naturalization not TO disappoint. If Ii
AAAS OuO SAPcCliuS OdnSeTs i IS lDCllneO 10
push danger along. Inc brotherless girl
needs above all things to cultivate the
manner OF commonplaceness. She must
mt into her surroundings as a matter of
course. If she finds 1t necessary to be out
alone at midnight, she must appear quietly
In the path OF duty, as If it were no UNI
else. Others are apt to accept her own in
depreciation of her act and to consider 1t
which is what she wishes. / am neither
aonormaIly ugly. old or dowdyish; l am
ddei Hi prim, puritanical nor ppttyish by
damsel by the electric lights Of a big city,
l am a model Of discreet nonentity. No one
thinks twice of me in any corner of the
car; no one looks twice at me passing quiet
~ On a lonely street; no one, unbidden.
speaks once to me when 1 am alone. And
aat am often alone going to or from the the
out OF town on electric cars, escortiDg nv
SER TO remote quarters OF my city. And
never yet have / met with an ANNOYANCE
or mlshap. | trust implicitly in my luck
and IN American chivalry. Brotherless as 1
ina, L nonor and respect the brothers of
There is a great confidence in knowing
one ; ground, as We'll as ones self. / should
never dare such Independence in a strange
town, nowhere but in the old familiar ways
and byways of my native city. The country
also Is q horror TO a brotherless girl. Your
dark roads, your Shadowy woods, your desc
Iate nelds-even empty and deserted of man
and beast-are full of more terrors than
all the crowded squares. noisy ways and
HItCu tHOIOuSHldTeS OF any city at
night. The country girls who come to visit
me are Mortified at my proposals to escort
them hither and yon, and promptly decline
my brotherless offer. But, year in and year
out, L am in far less danger than they, and
the items In the newspapers will prove It.
III one must be brotherless, better far to be
brotherless in a big city.
The feminine instinct is to be pleasing,
10 strive to appear at an advantage. But
one cannot always be a positive quantity
of joy. 1t is sometimes safer to be a Mega
tive quantity, and, Ike the chameleon.
adapting ones self colorlessly to the sur
roundings SO as to blend with them, escape
unnoticed. The brOtherless girl has in mind
not to attract admiring attention, but to
escape any attention whatever. 1t Is not so
satisfactory TO her vanity; but she can
make up for arrears when she next ap-
pears in public with a suitable escort, ELI
gible to be the cynosure of all eyes.