The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-01
For +he Women.

Meredith Nicholson devotes a chapter
IN The Main Chance" his new novel
OF the middle west. to the Girl That
Tries Hard. You all know her. She
nVes an every town in this land of the
free and home OF the brave. and some
times you visit a place where her In
nuence so pervades the so-called Best
Society that it may be said to be q
town of Girls That Try Hard And that
Is good enough town to be born in or
70 die in, perhaps. The Girl That Tries
Hard is the first to take up the new
1ads. and she pushes them to the limit
II she wears a short skirt. it is the
shortest in town, but her trails drag for
yards behind her. Her pompadour is
something fearful and wonderful in its
exaggerated height and elaboration.
and her hats flare up behind in a way
marvellous to behold. Her belts seem to
dip to her knees in front, and her heels
are at least three and a half inches
high. She is so bedizened with college
and fraternity pins fastened around III
tne most unexpected places on her coll
lar and the front of her bodice that she
looks for all the world like John Philip
Sousa when he makes his final entrance
DOW 10 the audience before he turns
around 10 wave his baton for the open
Ing strain of his newest march. She
groups the Greek letter fraternities'
Snielos, diamonds. triangles keys and
skulls and cross bones together with the
most reckless abandon. and covers tne
remaining space of her shirtwaist front
with Harvard. Yale and Princeton PEN
nants and the monograms and coats-or-
arms of the other universities. She has
West Point belt buckle and a L. 3
navy hat pin and a Rough Riders
medal FOR a watch fob and each and
every one of these ornaments are tro-
phies OF her conquests- For the Girl
That Tries Hard would sCorn to con-
clude a Irritation without some tangible
and comparatively valua BILE memcntO
of it. She is like that young woman
of whom Ebert Hubbard told in re-
cent Philistlne. who getting on pretty
well at her first meeting with a man
first admired a pin he were. He gave
Il TO her. Shortly afterward he pulled
knife out OF his nocket and as she
faucied that he bonded il over. He had
some kind of fancy silver pencil in
his pocket which she thought too
cute SO she got that also.aud he added
as he gave II to her. How are YOU OFF
The Girl That Tries Hard may or may
not have a lover at home but she IS
sure TO have one every place else She
gets many letters from them and there
are three or four who come to see her
from time TO time. She trots them out
TO show the natives their PAGES and
arouse the envy of the other girls and
after they are gone she covers them
with all the glamour possible by dc-
counts of the. iavishness of their sal
aries and the social grandeur of their
families. All her relatives. acquaint-
ances and friends are of most exalted
. station and there is no one of social i'm
portance in any of the neighboring
towns or any city of size in these United
States whom she doesn't know either
personally or through "a particular
friend Of mine who is very intimate
with the family"
The Girl That Tries Hard introduces
all the new fads in speech and deport-
ment- She knows the new ways to walk
and shake hands and holds up her skirts
and sit and stand and pose generally.
Just now she walks with a long stride
and d reckless fling of her body. plants
her feet firmly and fat with every STEP
bends her arms to the exact curve of
bulldogs bow legs and swings them
vigorously TO time with her strenuous
gait. With one hand she holds UP her
skirt twisting il tightly around her
hips and punching it at the knee in
front. She rolls her shirt waist sleeves
TO the elbow and runs around
barheaded in the boiling sun all sum-
mer. She says all the girls at the sea-
shore Go il and the fact that she is
about > QQ0 miles from either coast
makes no difference to her. When she
meets an acquaintance she bows with
the short and ierky nod which she de-
scTibes as dead swagger" This is the
favOTite term of the Girl That Tries
Hard. For her there are but two posi-
bic classiications: people and things are
dead swagger' or they aren't and in
the latter case they might better never
have existed according 10 the standards
of the G. T. 7. II.
She is not always pretty but she gets
herself up the way a vaudeville artistic
dOes-ton the stage. for nowadays the
vaudeville artistic dresses, on the street,
TO look like a lady" and the lady
might easily be mistaken for the vaude-
willie artiste) At any rate she invaria-
bly, attracts attention and that is the
principal object in life of the G.. T. T. H
If there is nobody better around she will
pose and talk for the benefit of SER
wants. When she enters a street car or
a railway train her loud talk and eX
treme dress pervade it, She is widely
known by all classes of people as THAT
girl we saw at --" for the G. T. T. II.
goes everywhere and misses nothing
She is a persistent and untiring man
chaser and is fairly successful for the
reason that there are many men of her
kind In the world and her experience
has taught her to read man promptly
with reference to her attraction for him
and she wastes no energy on those who
appear to have no time for her. Her
firtations are usually desperate but
Ehort-lived. Either the G. T T H. or
her adj irers soon tire of the game and
in either case TO hearts are broken. We
get in exchanges of this kind exactly