The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-30
THE GIRL STRENUOUS
AND THE GUSHER
A Breezy Analysis Of These Two Types of the
Modern Woman.
By KATE MASTERSON.

the recital of her virtues by the declar-
alton that she is a "gusher." The
gusher is the very opposite of the mod
ern strenuous type of a girl who does
things and is apt to be quite as much
of a poseur and, therefore, a bore.
AS a girl she is, of course, genuine.
and as impulsiveness is reckoned as
one Of the delightful faults of youth,
arguing righteousness and a frank
disposition, the most daring errors
that the gusher is guilty of will meet
no reproof other than a smile. But
as the gusher grows to womanhood
with these traits unchecked, the unre-
strained sway of her impulses fire.
quently leads her into awkward situa-
tions, and her habit of quick thought,
speech and action will prove con-
tinuous drawback to her social sue
cess.
The gusher never reasons things out;
she rushes to conclusions. She is fond
of frequently declaring the unfailing
accuracy of her instinct, when in truth
she mistakes her imagination for IN
stinct in nine cases out of ten.
AS time goes on the gusher, unless
she discovers her vocation as the
mother of babes, a calling that offers
a splendid field for her speciality, be-
comes a most unhappy woman. She
will have moods, violent reactions,
hysterical fits of confidence which she
will regret afterwards.
Her honesty of opinion of feeling
and even of speech will be continually
suspected, and any expression of emo
ton which she may evolve will always
be labeled "gush' in the mind of her
nearer, while the expression of similar
opinion from a more conservative
source would meet with respectful at
tention.
People weary of the gusher. Her
friends learn to know they are but the
toys of her mood. She givse so copi-
ously Of feelings to those whom she
really loves that she tires them. We
once knew a gusher who insisted on
pinning a rose on her husbands pill
low every day. During the honeymoon
it was delightful, but she continued the
habit and later on when he prolonged
his evenings at the club and struck the
rose with its attendant thorns unex-
pectedly when he reached his couch
his remarks were modifying in the
extreme.
The gusher. in fact, is handicapped
in every walk of life Her friends, who
may have been taught early in life to
be economic in their emotions, will all
ways seem to her cold, calculating and
affected. In reality. their feelings will
possibly be more real and substantial
than her own, for the gusher always
suffers more or less from a form of
mental hysteria, and her emotional
nights and depths lack reason and
carry no weight.
One of the favorite excuses which
the gusher urges in eXtenuation of her
excessive expressions of feeling is the
possession of an artistic temperament.
This by the way, is made to stand for
nearly every unpleasant trait that hui
man nature is heir to.
1t is made to do duty for all manner
of rude speeches, bad manners, eyre
gious selfshness, and an absurd sem
sitiveness' that is an aggravated form
of self-conceit. Boys, as a rule, are
stripped of this self-conscious attitude
before they reach the estate of man
hood.
LIES hazing processes reach them
earlier, and. above all, the boy with
a tendency to sentimentalize or to
gush is ridiculed and made fun of to
an extent that makes nineteen out of
twenty men emotionally secretive.
But the gusher goes on her way I'M
checked and sometimes encoura ged,
for she is apt to be amusing, and this
is the most fatal pose in life that any
woman can adopt. To be described as
amusing is really much worse than to
be rated as either wholesome" or
well meaning" both deadly adjectives
in their feminine application, as good
natured" is in masculine descriptive
lore.
The gusher almost invariably mar
ries young, for her temperamental pc
culiarities prove attractive to the
younger men. who always class her
demonstrative and reckless outflow of
feeling as a capacity for affection,
great loyalty, constancy and domes-
ITCHY.
In reality, the gusher rarely pos
sesses these attributes. She is apt to
be a flirt, exceedingly tickle in her
friendships as in her loves, fond of
dress and luxury, and incapable of sac
rifice in her domestic relations. She
is not mentally responsible for these
peculiarities any more than a kitten;
in fact, if she is we'll cared for and
loved sufficiently by others who will
give in to her moods and caprices she
is often agreeable, companionable, and,
above all, amusing"
The gusher, happily, like the
strong-minded female. is not a type
that will endure. Unless conditions
form themselves to her liking, she
gets the cold shoulder from the world
which. if not conservative, is at least
consistent in its demands. She is the
extreme of the modern type from
which something better must evolve
than the rampantly strenuous feminine
type that at present has its highest
Vogue-the type of girl who does things
in society. in the professions, and on
the field of athletics. scorning or pre-
tending to scorn sentiment and meet
ing men on a basis that at once places
them on the defensive and removes
any need for their chivalry
Students who have watched the won
derful evolution from the Amandas
and Arabellas of the past, with their
fainting fits and wasp waists. through
the ballot-seeking era and the entrance
of women ull-f1edged for the arena OF
the business world, pause in contem-
plation of what the New Girl will
really be.
The club girl as yet has not taken
any definite position as a force in any
particular direction except socially
She has proved her genius for organ
ization. in itself an achievement, but
little else.
The girl strenuous has survived the
upheaval that brought feminine athlet-
les and clubs to the surface. and still
remains the serious modern type. now
that the New Woman has subsidized to
name that means only bifurcation
and a latchkey.
The strenuous girl is excellent as a
symbol Of survival, "A valiant force to-
he NarFf r.rsa NJ