The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-02-02
THE SOUTHERN GIRL.

According to a northern observer
who contributes his conclusions to
the New York Herald, lone of the
truths that the southern girl imbibes
with her mothers milk is that wo-
mans strongest weapon is her femi-
ninity." She believes, he goes on,
that "man is not made to mourn,
but to wait on and make things easy
for her. He expects to do it, and
she gracefully lets him shoulder the
burden.
Strangers" continues the writer,
"speak of the charm of the southern
girl as something illusive-indefna-
Bile. Bless you, it's the simplest
thing in the world. 1t is not always
beauty, though that is an excellent
card to hold. 1t is her strange hyp-
motto power of suggesting, conveying
clairvoyantly to man, be he from the
north, east, south, or west, that she
neeos him. And not mothers son
of them all can resist the flattery of
her apparent heiplessness.
"Who ever heard a southern girl
lamenting the fact that chivalry has
gone? She doesn't believe it, not
for one moment. Or if it has wither-
ed away under rights talk and suf-
frage notions it has way of reviving
like those curious resurrection plants.
our grandmothers brought home
from the Philadelphia centennial,
when she appears on the scene.
Some wise one has observed that
pretty girl generally takes an opti-
mistic view of the worlds gallantry.
Not all the pretty girls live on Popu-
lar street in this playground of socie-
ty, but the average southern girl un-
derstands what constitutes the ground
work of social success, In supera-
bundance she has inherited tact and
cultivated the social graces, and her
manner is Joy forever.
Probably no feminine creature to-
day is brought up in such Incidence
as the southern girl--not the southern
girl of yesterday, for she had slaves
to attend to her imperious demands.
and there was no poverty to gainsay
her idle extravaganza, but the south
ern girl of today. She is as idle as
the flowers of the field, and as care
free. Why, stranger naturally
asks, does the southern girl ignore
the homely little household duties
that her northern and western sisters
delight in? She does not ignore
them. 1t has probably never entered
her foolish little head that she would
be doing anything commendable 1t
she were to rise one morning and
sweep and garnish the house and
busy herself with the hundred mental
tasks of cleaning up for the day. If
she were to be this the little negro
maids and the old negro mainmies,
to say nothing of the horde of small
negro boys, whose duties are to sweep,
dust, carry water and make them
selves generally useful, would stand
aghast at her usurpation of their dtf--
ties. They have been doing these
things as long as she can remember.
Even her mother does not recall the
time when nanny did not queen it
over the kitchen and nursery, with
always kaleidoscope procession of
sable satellites to do her bidding and
make way wild de scraps frum de
table
"Divorce is practically unknown
in the far south, but the average
southern girl can marry any day she
is a widow, and the majority of them
do marry-keep on marrying, as one
Alabama beauty wittily explained,
to have man about the place, you
know
"a delicious story that will bear
retelling anent this point is told by
debutante of last year. She was
walking with her fance in the family
burying ground on the old plantation
home. Finally the group, composed
of her maiden aunt, her grandmother
and mother, herself and escort, halted
| DeSlQe the grave Vi AitAGulAS ~ pew,
an aunt of the maiden who told the
story. This grave is lanked on each
side by the graves of two husbands.
Her life was like a beautiful flower
garden breathed the sentimental
grand dame, Full of bridal bou-
quets,' whispered the irreverent
young man to his beloved.
"The southern girl, God bless her
If she isn't serious, she's mighty
sweet, in southern parlance. With
her red-rose hat and her wild rose
face, her huttering ribbons, her flmy
gowns, her tact, her beauty and her
inde6nable charm, she believes in
and loves the whole world, and the
whole world, cynic though the ex-
pcrienced ones aver it, quick to re-
spond to the heart that really trusts
| it, doffs its cloak to keep the mud
from her feet, and she, confident OF
its continued gallantry, strolls serene
| ly on-a phantom of delight" +"