The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-12

WORLD.

America is the only country in the
world where the girl baby is, says Dor
othy Dix. in the New York Journal. gen
timely welcomed. In Asia she is regarded
as a calamity. In Africa she is merely
an asset to be traded off for something
really disirable. In Europe she is an en-
cumbrance, but in the United States
from the time her first squall announces
her arrival, she is undisputed boss,
No phase of our national life is more
unique or interesting than this worship
of the daughter. 1t pervades every grade
of society. You see it equally in the mil
lionaire who tolls night and day, at the
pace that kills, amassing yet other mil
lions with which to indulge the reckless
extravagances of his adored Gwendolin,
and in the humble home of the day labor
er, where the poor old mother does all
the homework and washes all the dishes
an order that Mary AIMS hands shall be
kept soft and white, and where the best
of everything goes to the girl as her
hereditary right.
In this country it is the young girl,
and not the dowager, who wears the dia-
monds. We put our boys to work, and
send our girls to college, and in the same
family it is frequently the son who is
pale, weak and narrow-chested from
bending over some sedentary occupation.
while the daughter is strong and straight
and glowing with health from outdoor
sports and exercises. The result Of this
system has given US the great American
girl, who is a combination Hebe and
Minerva, who is self-poised and ready to
run the universe, while other girls of her
age are still eating bread and butter in
the school room, or clinging to their
chaperon's skirts, and who believes that
men were created to pay her bills and
send her violets and candy.
1t is state of affairs that is a never
ceasing wonder to foreigners. 1t In true
that the feminine creature thus pro-
duced is so alluring that those who come
to criticise frequently remain to marry.
but the mystery of the American girl
still remains unsolved They don't I'M
derstand why we do it.
It is q family secret that we don't often
tell, but the real explanation of the mat
ter is that the American girl is the brio
a-brac of American life. She is the lux
ury in which we indulge ourselves, the
chiffon frills on the plain garments of
commercialism. She represents. among
us, the leisure class, and the cultivated
class, which man may have no earthly
desire 10 belong to himself. but IN which
he likes to feel that he has a proprietary
interest, nevertheless.
It is a deeply significant fact that the
American girl is the outgrowth of a mas
culine ideal, and not a feminine one. Wo-
men are always what men want them to
be, and il the American girl is brighter,
quicker, more entertaining and more gen.
orally good looking than any other, it is
because no other men in the world de-
mand so much of women as American
men Your German is satisfied with
girl II she is domestic. The Frenchman
demands artless innocence, the English
man goodness and intelligence, but the
American demands all of these virtues,
with a few others thrown in to boot
That explains why American men so sell
dom marry foreign women. They prefer
the sauce piquante kind Of girlhood their
own taste has created.
She 1t is who is the social pioneer of
the family, who scales the heights and
drags the rest up after her. We laugh
when plain little Mary Ann Smith goes
off to boarding school and comes back
in six months az NJ Elinor Smythe, and
with an accent so broad you could cut 1t
with knife, but it is the thin edge of
the wedge OF progress, and the Smith
family are never quite plain Smiths
again.
After the Quarrel
"A single smile from her rosy mouth,
A sudden glance from her soft eyes
sent,
And he turned, as the wind vserS north
or south,
And followed whittier her light feet
went
DID she linger and look for a moment
Then?
DID she lift her face and smile again7
Nay. not so!
The heart Of a girl, All! who may known
With every pace OF his swift pursuit.
Her step she quicfxsned, nor looked be-
hind;
Eyes were speechless and lips were mute;
Never a glance, or cold or kind
AS If she cherished nor thought nor care
For the eager footballs hurrying therel
Was it so?
The heart of a girl, ah who may know?
Did she love him more when look and
smile
Silently babe him to follow herr
Did she love him less when she wove her
vile
His heart to trouble. his hope defer?
Nay. read you this riddle. strange but
true
She loved him most when she most with
drew!
Even sol
The heart OF a girl, ah! who may know ?
-Blanch Trennor Heath, in the Philadel-
phia Enquirer.
Divorce, says Ella Wheeler Wilcox in
the New York Journal. has become so
common It has biunted the sensibilities
of the public.
confess the news of this remarkable