The age-herald., 1900-03-11
THREE GIRLS
 FROM THE SOUTH

Three girls came riding up out of the southl
 That sounds too much like Kingsley's sad song of "1yhree Fishers" And this isn't a sad song at all, though it must be ad- mitted that men worked for them and women wept at sight of 'uhem
 But lthose three girls were beautiful!
 Nobody knows In the chronology of a properly introduced family, which is the eldest for, after the introduction, all are merged together in the general classifica- tion of daughters that are out" But there were Elizabeth, Irene, Mamie and Phyllis. And they were all Langhorne girls, of AIbemarle county, Virginia, and all were the prettiest types of pretty girls that the north had seen in many a day. ''
 Mrs Moncure Perkins never got north. She married "a Richmond man and now lives there in fbelledom. But "Ndftnie'' got as far toward the Pole as Boston, where she was grabbed up into matrimony by MT. Robert Shaw, we'll known in club and so- cial circles at the Hub.
 Everybody wondered why that venerated artist, Charles Dana Gibson, insisted upon spending all his vacations an the south, even his midsummer ones, and everybody wondered where he got his ''gdrl' and whence came 0his womanly ideal, any way.
 But it was all explained one day when invitations were issued for a Richmond wedding and when MT. Gibson, in blush ing little note, asked Richard Harding Davis and few ether young men to go down and be best men and ushers, etc. He was to marry Irene Ianghorne, the queen- ly southern beauty, the ihandsomest-the most queenly handsome-girl of all the beautiful south.
 x1f1,i aifutl utl,of iYun Langhorne had the tiniest foot that ever trod the Virginia grass; that she could not, in fact, walk much or far for those Dttle feet And it was known that she had t1e tallest, most commanding figure seen bn many a day. With tiny tapering waist, full figure, splendid length from the hips down, she made an ideal model, though lit is doubtful if she ever posed, and with that face and hair and voice she became simply irresistible as a companion. Yes, Glpson was in buck. His friends declared that with Miss Uanghone as home model, for life he ought to go on and on improv- dng, world without end-and subsequent events proved the prophecy correct to date.
 When MT. and Mrs. Gibson came north it was discovered that Mrs. Gibson could sing New York is so crowded that there isn't room for field sports, put this girl who could ride like centaur could sing like MeIba; and soon there were offers ito go on the stage, to sing in public, to ap- pear att any time or place. But Mrs Cub son refused them all. Her husband had no idea of losing his domestic star to the Metropolitan mana cement and for aw'hile Mrs. Gibson refused to sing at all outside her own home. She so hated notoriety.
 Southern girls have one pecunaI1ty. IT you have studied them you have noticed 1t. Before marriage they are tine worst hirts in the universe. When you lax them with k4nz 4el1 l1aH h I'll must have somebody to fall back upon. And they will even strive on this frail ground to excuse the fact that they have engaged themselves to marry two persons, one in the frozen norlhh and one in the sunny south. "It will turn out right, they will tell you.
 That Is the southern girl before mar riage
 But once catch your bird and put her in i d cage and it is different Suddenly from a wayward thing she turns into a model of domesticity. Such devoted wives the girls of the south make were never seen elsewhere. FlIr'tatious, and all but naugh- ty before marriage, they suddenly house themselves up afterwards, go out no more, care nothing for other girls and other men, and with thoughts home alone cater, and serve, and walt upon. and worship the man to whom they have said "I will"
 That is the way with tihe subjects of this sketch
 And now another beautiful southern girl has come up from the south. Her name is Phyllis. She has blue eyes put in "the smutty finger of Ireland; under those low dark brows those eyes play furiously. Her hair is beautifully glistering, her figure Junoesque. Though visiting her intensely domestic sister, Mrs. Gibson, and the two babies, Miss Danghoue escapes to ride with the Meadowbrook Hounds, to go coaching, to golf on Long Island, to at- hopu tlaa ilNa1 1lc tn t1n a1p1 coddled by the 400. New York has few such girls.
 The Langhorne family has long been known in the solith Of the "F. F. V's''- First Families of Vdrginia-they have been leaders. In horsewoma nship, that sine qua non of the souitherner. they have excelled. In beauty none equalled.
 Miss Phyllis Is nineteen; and already, with only a seasons experience in New York, she has all the beaux after Gler. Even bhe mammas are singing her praises; she cooks so we'll upon a chafing dish. Is so very courteous ito the chaperones, so ut- terly refined in speech, 50 modest, so t'houghtful! The young men mention other qualities more desirable, such as the ability to ride ito hounds and to take all obstacles though they were ant hills, and to eat hearty hunt breakfast after ward.
 They tell a pretty story of how the irre- pressIble Miss Phyllis, riding to hounds, tore along upon the back of her hunter, through an orchard where the apple boughs hung low. One of the branches, more persistent than the rest, caught into the band of her derby and tore it from her head. But on she rode, unconscious in the excitement of the chase, and so came in at the death, 11atless but flushed and beau- thul. A dozen gay cavaliers rode off to get that hat, while the pretty owner fiirted desperately with a dozen others. as she rode back Ito the club house, hatless but happy, with the fox's tail as "a trophy of her success.
 { There Is another sister, litble Nora a girl in school. Will she be as destructive as the others?