The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-11
NORTHERN MEN AND WOMEN.

As Viewed by Southern Woman and
 Contrasted With southerners.
 On the whole, think there is a greater difference between the charac- ter and disposition of the men than be- tween the women of the two sections. These Yankee gentlemen have non chaiance, a power of personal suhtrac- ton that is maddening to the southern CT, who has at least as much tempera- ment as he has bhains. They are not natural, as are southern men, but they have been carefully made by their an cestors, predestined and produced. And unless one Is acquainted with the process. he is never likely to conpre- bend thoroughly the man that results from 1t. They do not even get their convictions as we do, from experience, but from books and university courses. They have system of thought that reaches from the slums of the remotest solar systems and the whole thing is academic, theoretical. And their lead ing eccentricity consists in an energetic determination to govern by it, whether 1t meets the actual conditions in the world about them or not. They show the same tenacity in holding these gook and university theories that southern CTS do in preserving their tried and proved prejudices.
 I was prepared to find an even great CT difference between northern and southern women. But I am forced to eiN,, ft,af =, a,.;oo,, .1,s,,1 ,,1 are essentially the same, everywhere. They only differ in manifestations. In the north, for instance, they are frank rather than coquettish. At the same time they are personally more reserved, less confidential than we are in person. al topics of conversation than We have. They are more interested in the world at large and less interested in them- selves. I think this may grow out of the fact that they are not noticed as much or approved as often and gallant ly as women are in the south. Indeed, they are apparently without that self consciousness which limits our ways from the glance of an eye to the length of step This leads to what we should consider the most astonishing results. I accounted on this basis for the native exposure of feminine legs on Fifth ave- nue, When I was in New York recent Iy I saw many sober maids, matrons and grandmatrons walking there with skirts lifted as high as if they had been wading through three feet of water. I conclude that cold indifference to their neither extremities arose not from a lack of modesty, but from the evident indifference of the public. However, if a woman showed such economy Of skirts in any southern city, enought ex- citement and enthusiasm could be gen. erated along that street by the sight to Iengthen self-consciousness down to her boot heels very quickly.
 | do not know if social life is 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 be- tween romance and reality than we ad- nit. Love affairs are openly confessed and apparently receive a recognition a general sanction that we permit only near the end of an engagement. At the same time I was told that it is not ad-, missible for man to make love" to a woman unless he is t'in earnest" To us, whose vocation consists largely in a coquettish dexterity. at parrying the gallant speeches of our mankind, this seems an unreasonable, prosaic hard ship. And this reminds me of another impressive characteristic of northern men; they are not rude, but they are