The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-05-03
Tmerican G)omen
By Alfred Cecil.

- OR many years no voice has been
raised, and no pen has written, a
word save IL: nraiSe Of rn.. Amer
lean girl. She has been put fol-
ward as the most beautiful. the
most accomplished. the most entertain
ing, the most modest and the most world
ly wise of all her sisters. AS girl she
was the most bewitching. wife the
most attractive and useful. and as a
mother the most affectiOnate and best
adapted to the responsibilities of matern-
ity. But developments III the most recent
years have presented American women
in light that causes the social philos,-
pher to modify his superlatives. To be
sure the women who have caused this
cessation of admiration are in the min
GRITTY, nevertheless. it must be borne in
mind that In judging the strength of a
chain we are forced to the conclusion that
it is no stronger than its weakest link.
In all large cities, and for that matter.
in some of the smallest towns. we find
many young women are idle. To be sure
this idleness is forced by modern condi-
tions. The work of the household is rele-
gated to employed labor and even the
needlework of a practical kind has been
iessened by the competition of machinery.
But whether idleness is forced or not. has
little to do with the main fact that many
young women idle. The old saying Is
that his Satanic majesty finds mischief
for idle hands to do.
Mischief need not find it's expression in
crime or in wickedneSs; that is crime as
defined by statute and wickedness as de-
fined by moral laws. 1t may be of the
negative sort, that kind which does no
act but works like secret poison through
a whole system. The finger cannot be
placed upon it at any one point for 1t
spreads throughout the whole environ
ment of the affected person.
In New York, Chicago. Boston, Philadei-
phia ST. Louis, in fact in every large city,
the theaters gather these idle young
women into audiences for their saturday
and Wednesday matineeS. There Is noth-
ing wrong in going to a matinee. but
when we find it develops a type-the mat
inee girl, We are compelled to ask what a
matinee girl is. In the main, she Is at
the theater, because she is idle. Listen
to her talk All matinee girls talk alike,
their ideas are about the same; slit these
ideas and you discover they are largely
those you would expect to find in the head
of an idle girl. They are not founded IN
sense, in reading, in experience. or IN oo-
servation They are emotional, fanciful
and ina ginative. Gods are made OF act
ors, who in themselves very poor
specimens of human clay: and when a
genius comes along like PadereWSkl VINO
appeals to their senses by the medium OF
sound they pass into seHi-hysterlcaI
condition that suggests phenomena TO De
pictured by psychologists.
The recent remarkable DEMONSTRATIONS
of women at the funerals of two boys
shot while escaping from pennsylvania
prison, cannot be passed over. IN this
instance two young men, poS . III yea %
effected their escape through the contrlF-
ance OF the prison wardens wife. who
eloped with them. When the bodies OF
the young rutfians were brought to town
ten thousand women struggled to see
the corpseS: they actually fought. In
more recent instance a young giri-a mat
inee girI--charged with murder was on
trial before magistrate in New York
city. The court room was crowded with
young girls. who wore picture mats
and used opera glasses. When the ac-
cused was discharged on the ground OF
insufficient evidence to hold her, the
matinee girls became excited Some
cried. others tainted, some applauded. all
sought to reach the defendant Now,
what does all this sort of thing mean?
On the first Impulse one would say
"clriosityr But there is more behind
this than curiosity The nervous, delicate.
organism of women. that has gained for
them through centuries the appellation
of the weaker SEX" comes strongly out
in evidence. And why? Because the
tendency of our times is to remove re-
strainI, and to create idleness. If 1t be
true that the removal of restraint and the
enforcement of ideneSs is to result to de-
welcoming this peculiar phase OF feminine
emotions, it may be well to inquire to
what end it will lead2
Perhaps the frequency Of divorce. the
growth Of martial iufelicty, and the euor-
nous conversion of young women into
terelicts of fate. may be attributed to the
Perhaps, after all, the old days were bet
ter when the women of the household
found honor in working with their moth
ers and their greatest happiness in work
ing from early to late FOR husband and
children. The idle American girl is the
weakest link in the chain of American
women.