The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-05-10
THE CHARM OF THE AMERICAN WOMAN

Sir Philip Burne-J Jones, who paint
ed that somewhat agitated picture,
"The Vampire" and thereby pro-
voked his ousin, Rudyard Kipling,
to compose the famous appreciation
of woman as rag and bone and a
hank of hair, may be regarded, with
apologies to that squire Of danes,
Max O. Rell, as kind of connoisseur
in things feminine. This distinction
of his being known, it was natural
that on his arrival in America the
reporters shouldask him not what he
thought about tall buildings, express
elevators, or the American habit of
eating fruit at breakfast, all of which
might with propriety have been sug-
gested to other visitors, but rather
what he thought about American
women.
Sir Philip answerered in a way that
ought to bring a universal blush of
pleasure over the face of the Ameri-
can continent. "The American wo-
man is smart" he said "undeniably
so. She has what the French call
chic, together with what the English
call culture. She wears her gowns
with an effectiveness quite beyond
the power of her English sister. She
has eyes that express the whole gamut
of the emotions. She wears no fringes
and shows fine, broad brow" This
will get Sir Philip the freedom of the
Woman's Commonwealth at Mount
Pleasant in the District of Columbia.
At any rate, it should. 1t is no
obiter dictum. 1t is a professional
opinion. 1t comes from a person who
has right to pronounce ex cathedra
on such question. Only the schis-
matte will refuse to accept it. Be-
sides Sir Philip is making no lecture
tour. What he says he says for the
for the sake of augmenting his gate
receipts.
Granting, then, that American wo-
men have good clothes, expressive
eyes and spacious brows, together
with chic, clean, eclat, verve, and je
ne sais quoi, the question naturally
arises. Why is it? Is it because of
the climate, with its violent alterna-
tions of heat and cold, its restless
ness, its overcharge of oxygen? The
climate of England is by comparison
equable and sluggish. Or is it be-
cause of a greater democracy and an
ampler recognition of the humanity
of woman? Or is it because of the
freer life incident to a new country !?
Or, finally, is it simply because of the
fact that kind fate has so willed it?
Whichever one of these causes ex-
plains the phenomenon it is certain
that the phenomenon is here, and,
after all, that is the main point.
English women are, of course, far
from being altogether negligible.
George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrett,
Browning and others show that. 1t
remains true, however, that in GER
tain qualities of attractiveness Ameri-
can women as a class make English
women as a class look like one shil-
ling and three pence. The American
man is not surprised by the English
artist remarks. They tell him moth
ing he did not know. He believes in
American women as much as in any
thing else this country produces, and,
as Mr. Kipling once remarked, is
ready
To shake the iron hand of fate
And match with destiny for bears
on this or any other ground. Sir
Philip will find that his observations
on the American woman will meet
with little hostile criticism on this
side of the Atlantic-Chtcago Tribune.