The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-06-03
NOrtlien Men And Women.

between the women or the Two Sec
tions, says Southern woman in the
New York Independent. These Yam
kee gentlemen have nonchalance,
power of personal subtraction that is
maddening to the Southener, who has
at least as much temperament as he
has brains. They are not natural, as
are Southern men, but they have been
carefully made by their ancestors,
predcstined and produced. And un-
less one is acquainted with the process
he is never likely to comprehend
thoroughly the man that results from
it. They do not even get their con-
victions as we do, from experience,
but from books and university courses.
They have system of thought that
reaches from the slums Of the remot-
est solar systems, and the whole thing
is academic, theoretical !! And their
leading ccccntricity consists in an en-
ergetic determination to govern by it,
whether it meets the actual conditions
in the world about them or not. They
show the same tcnacity in holding
these book and university theories
that Southerncrs do in preserving their
tried and proved prejudiccs.
1 was prepared to find an even
greater difference between Northern
and Southern women. But 1 am
forced to the conclusion that Ameri-
:. can women are essentially the same
everywhere. They only differ in man
ifestations. In the North, for in
stance, they are frank rather than
coquetish. At the same time they
are personally more reserved, less
confidential than we are in the South,
because they have more impersonal
topics of conversation than we have.
They are more interested in the world
at large and less interested in them
selves. l think this may grow out of
the fact that they are not noticed as
much or approved as often and gal
lantly as women in the South. In
deed, they are apparently without
that self consciousness which limits
our ways from the glance of an eye to
the length Of q step. This leads to
what we should consider the most as
tonishipg results. I accounted on
this basis for the native exposure of
feminine legs on 5th avenue. When
Twas in New York recently I saw
many sober maids, matrons and grand
matrons walking there with skirts
lifted as high as if they had been
wading through three feet of water.
/ conclude that this cold Indifference
to their neither. extremities arose not
from laok Of modesty, but from the
evident Indifference Of the public.
However, if woman showed such
economy Of skirts in any Southern
city enough excitement and enthu-
siam could be generated along that
street by the sight to lengthen self
consciousness down to her boot heels
very quickly.
!, I do not know IL social life in the
North is more or less elastic than it
is in the South, but evidently it is
less formal in some ways. A closer
relation exists between romance and
reality than we admit. Love affairs
ore openly, confessed and apparently
4
receive recognition, q general sane
tion that we permit only near the end
Of an engagement. At the same time
/ was told that it is not admissible
for man to "make love" to woman
unless he is ''in earnest" To US,
whose vocation consists largely in q
coquettish dexterity at parrying the
gallant speeches Of our mankind, this
seems an unreasonable, prosaio hard
ship. And this reminds me Of an
other impressive characteristic Of
Northern men; they are not rude, but
they are unconscious Of how much
and how cunningly women differ from
men. recall in this connection q
long walk with gentleman who is q
product rather than an exponent of
New England. He was an excellent
comrade, but he allowed me to crawl
over stone fence, snake through q
thicket of briars and up hill ono
quarter Of mile steep without ever
offering me the least assistance. Had
Southern man treated me in this
fashion Lshoula have died OF exhaus-
tion and indignation. As it was, I
climbed the situation with fortitude
that have never showed before or
since. I felt humorous exhilaration
in conforming to his strenuous notions
Of sex.