The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-21
THE AMERICAN WOMAN
IN ENGLAND.

The Herald has we'll said, says Mrs.
Burton Harrison in that paper that |
the feminine creature depicted as an |
American woman by a writer for the |
Daily Express in London is "impos- |
sble." At her worst the American
graft upon the tree of British nobility |
has not succeeded in equalling certain
high examples that have been set her
by great ladies to the manner born in
the defiance of moral law, which seems
not to affect their standing in society
nor prevent British matrons of lesser
degree following in their wake with
<avish reverence. If one is to believe
the stories told over teacups in London
drawing rooms, there is not, nor has
ever been, in the most exaggerated va
rietY of American social life such
startling ffankness in misdemeanor.
such cool avowal of its emoluments.
as the LADY from the States" hears
detailed for her amazement Cor delec-
tatiOn, as the case may be- when ad-
mitted to circles deemed of highest
vogue.
To ones knowledge there is nothing
whatever comparable to this in our So
ciety, except in the case of a visiting
grande dame of British extraction who
occasionally enjoys making the eyes of
her transatlantic sisters open in as
constituent. That the hybrid Ameri-
can woman" of ''the Chicago-Park
lane four hundred upper ten Variety
should attempt, therefore, to "strike
a all that is most cherished in the
home life of England, at all that is
loot
tial." would be to carry Goals to New
castle. She could not if she would
She has to descend gradually to the
plane where such things are boosted
of with astounding sangfroid and if
she succeeds in making the descent it
is not American habit or precept that
has impelled her. The ''apelike deca-
deDce" of New York society may not
compete with that!
In the matter of eXtraVa gance there
is no woman more lavish in accruing
to herself all the appendages of lux
ury than the woman of fashion in
England Elegance in dress is the
breath of her nostrils Long vanished
is the day when the British trump was
held up to public disapprobation. Dur
ing the festivities of the coronation
summer last season were seen more
exquisite and elaborated toilets than
are ever brought together on any one
occasion with us. At dances. dinners,
the opera, fetes, garden parties, re-
views and military functions, at Rane-
lagh, Nottingham and Lords, at Ascot
and Henley, not to go further in Hyde
Park. on what was called coronation
Sunday, when the dense mass of we'll
dressed loiterers covered the walks
and turf in their favorite haunts, it is
impossible to imagine smarter gowns,
bonnets and parasols than the scene
presented. To one in a dozen in a
similar crowd with US, there every
toilet was Snowy, striking, intended to
capture the eye with brilliant color.
1t was a common saying Nowadays
they wear their ball gowns in the park.
What is left for the EVENING""
To the charge that she is a tuft
hunter, a social pusher in her am
bition to reach higher place. if that
be so of the individual, in what does
she differ from the land of her adop-
ton? ''She has no scruples in her
methods of applying to social life the
ethics of modern finance" If this fine
phrase means that the American wonn-
an pays her way well in England there
will be no one of her compatriots to
dispute it. She certainly does so. and
is expected to, and is made perfectly
aware that she is expected to at every
turn! But that she has no conception
of home life is patent absurdity.
They can in time overlook her youth,
her beauty, her wealth, her adapta-
bility to high places in the world, her
joyous tendency to make friends as
she goes, but objectionable indeed is
the American girls habit of making
fun. A witty young New York matron
was stopping once in a Scottish castle
where the house party was Illuminated
by the presence of great lady UNI
possessed Of the saving grace of COM
pretending aught save the serious and
potent facts of existence. When the
great lady at last discovered the less
er ones intention to create a ripple of
Ynerrtment in the stream of every
days commonplace conversation she
relaxed not sympathetically, but with
curious interest, as if viewing the
gambols of a recently imported ami
NAL from some unpenetrable fastness
of nature far away. From that mo-
ment she was never happy unless en-
gagged in surveying silently and list
ening eagerly for the American wom-
ans actions and speech.
When it became necessary for her
one day to go to her room to take
nap Her Ladyship turned to conf
dante at hand and said in an audible
whisper:-'I hate to go, it is so very
interesting; but mind, you have prom
ISFQ TO call me, GEAR, il SHE hOCS dhy
thing I shouldn't like to miss. Need
less to say that the naughty American,
upon perceiving the effect she had
been SO fortunate as to create, spared
no pains to give the good lady an I'M
ending festival of wonder whenever
they were together while the house
party endured. 81 have heard of them
often" was another comment of the
dowager. but really, my dear, 1t is
better than 1 had hoped"
No, the path of the American aspl-
rant to social honors in England is not
all of roses. She is liable to receive
her full share of blunt questions, mad
dening comments revealing the ignor-
ance of her interlocutor concerning
the most everyday facts in American
sociology to be misunderstood when
she INDUCES in the hyperbole and eX-
traVagance so dear to our country
wit to be snubbed by complete lndlt-
ference as to her opinion of the coun-
try she is visiting. and, worse than all
to see herself accepted on sufterahce
as an exotic specimen having no root
in the soil. as claim to consideration
by the women she encounters, unless
she is able to contribute to their en-