The Washington herald., 1912-11-28
Real American Girl. True.

Docs the world judge the American
nation by its insane asylums. prisons,
and reformatories? No, Then. why
judge the American girl by any such
standards as Bernard Shaw has chosen
to set up?
AS long as society" continues to keep
its heiresses in luxury. praising their
uselessness and applauding their listless
inactivity, just so long will girls of the
upper classes be bought and sold by and
to the highest bidder They cannot af-
ford to be Independent and think for
themselves, and their mothers, vino are
equally unfit for anything but pleasure,
use up all their surplus energy and in
genuity in marrying their daughters of
well-not happily. but well. For is not
a successful marriage Indicative of the
ability of the shrewd matchmaker and
the high social standing and firmly es-
tablished financial basis of the family?
On the other hand, to say that Ameri-
can girls entice men into marriage is
absolutely false. Society girls are not
the standard by which American girls
should be judged. Most OF the girls of
the so-caIled upper classes spend so
much time abroad and assimilate so
much that is foreign that it is hardly
fair to call them American girls.
bul lnC T6dl, true AMERICAN BlTlSt InG
middIe-class girls. who really are the
true representatives of this country of
ours, would never entice men into mar
riage, nor would their mothers sanction
or allow a marriage not essentially for
the benefit and happiness of their
daughters.
American girls are honest. Therefore
would not stoop to an act OF this kind
They are intelligent and good, but. above
all, they are idealists and do not marry
any one, rather than no one. They re-
quire a certain standard and men have
to measure up to this. They are capable
Of taking care Of themselves, and so do
not need to marry to obtain shelter and
food.
Bernard Shaw may be wonderfully
brainy, but his ideas are morbid and HIS
opinions lack keen perception.
The American marriage is a noble, up
lifting thing, and l quote from the rule,
not the exception.
c. ADELAIDE BARKER.
5O3 Seventh Street Northwest
CInxses sham as Individual.
dividual, and not Of class. The amount
of sham in society depends almost en-
tirely upon the definition of society.
Most certainly the -four hundred"
from its very nature, must contain q
much larger percentage of persons liv-
ing a more or less unnatural existence
than would any other group of Amer
leans, but there are few who would con-
slider that this group is the real society
of America. Indeed, il is not even our
most exclusive circle. The highest type
Of man in any country is the one of
greatest culture. Natur4sly, such cult
ure is usually attended by wealth be-
cause wealth is a greater opportunity for
the development Of the finer at
tributes of character. But culture
shuns. not invites, attention. Our real
aristocracy is not press-loving. and
It is not largely. represented in the class
uually spoken of as society" But
neither Of these limited groups is what a
thorough analyst would designate as the
society of nation. Social America is
made up OF the great mass of its better
elements; progressive, success
full business men and their wives and
daughters. These constitute our real So
ciety. and II is a society of healthy, nor
mai people. People whose activities are
so numerous and whose interests are SO
diverse that marriage is an incident OF
a busy, useful life. and not the goal of a
shallow existence
Do these srIs entice men to mar