The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-04

BY Scumas McManus.)
than in the whole frame OF many a fine man
who is a perambulatng encyclopaedia of
etiquette.
The American girl has no parallel among
her sisters of other countries. She is
fine illustration of the disputed assertion
that woman may compete with man in
the general pursuits without losing her
| femininity and womanly charm. Large
liberty has been granted the American
girl, and this liberty has not been abused.
She has been emancipated, or. rather, has
emancipated herself to good purpose.
American progressiveness forced the
American girl QUE of woman's traditional
limits. The new sphere in which she found
herself robbed her of those naive graces
which the unprogressive lament the loss
of, but it was full time that women came
to see they had some more important mis-
sion here than as mere orna ments; under
the old circumstances women might Sc
duce she admiration of men, but the new
regime, as in America, where they COM
mand that admiration, is far healthier.
The American girl who, without false re-
serve or bashfulness without womanly
weakness or timidity, goes openly and
composedly about ali lawful business, has
thereby LOST none of the essentials of true
womanhood, and has gained much; for she
is "a sturdy and wholesome moral product
and because of her strength is not seldom
sneered at by a class who desire women
TO remain the charming weak things that
are glad to be toyed with in mans mo-
ments of relaxation.
For some time / used to wonder why
1t was that l never saw an old man in
America. And coming from a country
where it is common to see men of ninety
digging in the fields, unconcerned at the
rain and hail which pelted them, l was
amused to find the prominence given by
the press to the fact that Josh So-and-
So had just died at Utica, n. Y, at the
wonderful age of SO years. Having gone
home to ireland last summer, l was one
day shortly after my arrival there stand
ing in drapery in the village of Done
gal, when man who looked more than
seventy came in and bought some funer-
al fittings. Neil" said 1, who's dead?"
oh, only my father" said he Your
father! L didn't think your father was
alive. He must have been a pretty old
man. Faith no, sorra so old was he at
ALL only fourscore and twelve He had
no right to go dyin' for dozen years to
come, only he was out on the hills (moun-
tains) after sheep last March and the
mlsts caught him so thate he had to sit
down with his knees and chin together
all the night. When he came off next
mornin' he went about his work, like a
FOOL without changln' his insides, for he
was dhrenched to the skin, and when l
warned him he wasn't as Young as he
used to be he tout me not to provoke him
or he might soon show me whether or
no. Well, he took influenzy and he never
rightly got at himself again till he slipp-
ed away from us. He scorned to take
young advice; but God rest his soull'
remember too when out cycling one
sultry day, sitting down to rest by ,Ae
wayside, where bright-eyed, sunny-fac-
ed old woman was resting. too As we do
In Donegal l inquired where she came
from and where she was going. She in
formed me that on the second day before.
at O'Clock IN the morning, she had left
her home in Colmkille in the remote
mountains of Donegal, and Travelled forty
lrish miles to see her daughter who was
hired near the town of Banyshannon She
had taken her time by the way and rest
ed when she pleased, and had reached her
daughters place late at night She had
then taken a fine full days rest" ana
was now travelling back for home. She
was 81 years of age. | know well tina,
TO thousands of Americans such a thing
seems preposterous untruth But these
people have not the remotest idea of the
constitutions with which the mountaineers
or the west coast of Ireland ore blessed
From these incidents it may be guessed
that the shortness of life in America gave
me pause. The causes that conduce 20
this shortening seem to me, an onlooker
to be five or SIX viz: Nervous tension,
overheated houses, coffee, flesh meat.
quick lunch restaurants, and in Kentucky,
concealed deadly weapons
The one thing that astouished me first
and most in America was the breathless
haste at which the nation rushed. 1t 10
probably my ignorance, but this deadly
pace at which life rushed seemed to IRE
as futile and as ludricrous as that of the
donkey strove TO keep up with the
carrot which his rider dangled before him
a DOa'S end in, III
nervous haste, seems to have utterly lost
sight of the fact that life is to be en-
joyed as one goes
The great fact that looms before his
eager vision is that he must grasp the
means of enjoyment-means that are
about as real and as approachable as the
horizon line. To pause and gather the
flowers that bloom in vain by the way
side is to him criminal waste of time
1t has never dawned on him that life is
a morning saunter in our great existence
and that the pleasure of that saunter is
measured by how much we feel of all
that is for our enjoyment scattered
around us. But the American is the
scorcher of civilization, who jumps on his
wheel and, with bumped back and strain
ing nerves and starting eyes, flies over the
| landscape and measures his satisfaction
| by the cyclomcter. To the American life
is a task. not blessing a task that he
grimly resolves to go through with, and
the more quickly he can rush it, the bet
| ter He has been so long so grimly. so
persistently chasing wealth and station
that, though he set out all right, looking
to those as the means to an end, vet
! from his persistent pursuit of them, they
have entirely shut out the true end and
supplied its place to his strained vision
! That fictitious value given at some
time or other to almost worthless bits
of metal should through time obtain a
practically real value that has upset the
whole moral theory of humanity, is a Gu
rious instance of the halucination to
which human minds both great and small
| are ever victims.
In the labyrinths of theory / had al
most lost sight of the boarding house ia
bic and the quick lunch counter toward
which l was toilng. 1T is certain that the
amount of meat eaten in America Is
greater than healthfu moral and physf-
cal constitution can stand. Meat is the
staple commodity OF all meals; and the
American with whom I demonstrate
] eIu INF