The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1912-06-13
SEES MANY FAULTS
IN AMERICAN
women
Scathing Arrangement by a Can.
did Swedish Writer-CaIIs
Them Selfish, Poor Mothers,
Characterized by Lack of Self
Control, Naggers Of Husbands,
Spoilers of Home, and Follow
Lives of Social Butterflies.

pT0SS1OuS udOC Ny :"
general and American women
in particular on Ezra Heliberg,
- an observant and up-to-date
young Swedish newspaper woman now
In this country for the purpose OF
sending back descriptive articles
about us to the paper which employs
her, a leading Liberal organ of Stock
holm, the capital Of her native land.
The article is reprinted from the Bos-
ton Herald:
America Is like a painting, a thea
ter curtain which is, at first, taken for
the real scene, looked at, criticised
and judged. Then all of a sudden you
discover that there is a peephole in
the curtain, that the perspective was
only painted, and you realize that be-
yond there Is something quite differ
ent.
There is so much to listen to and so
much to see.
The first Of all those things which
you have never seer before Is the
American woman.
One comes from Europe; from Ber-
lin, where the domestic "hausfrau"
mends stockings, bears children and is
eminently ~respectable; from that gay
sinner, Paris, who keeps an open
house for the worlds intelligence II
where Marie Antoinette still puts her
high small heels on the asphalt pave
ment; from the Scandinavian coun-
tries, where the women go silent. hur-
r1ed and dreaming between the office,
the university and the home; from
Rome, Madrid or Lisbon, where the
woman, be she rich or poor, dances
with naked feet on the sunlit road,
and, with a jug of wine on her Shout
er, smiles with her dark eyes and
sings out: your health"
From these one comes to America,
to the American woman
You find yourself in the eddy-whlrls
of a main t~horoughfare, you feel the
pulse of a mighty town OF millions.
You saunter between buildings OF
many stories above ground.
Or you-but no, l will not try to de-
scribe any great American city. Even
though l have the admiration OF a
dilettante for the gigantic engineering
skill which is the creative power over
here, l will not tire readers with that
which is close at hand for the Euro
pean visitor to stop and look at.
The Woman the Attraction.
The woman in the river OF human
ity Is always the startling thing where
ever she Is. She is the life OF the
street; she it is who gives the street
It's color. But in Europe she is never
what she is here in America. Over
there wherever you meet her she
melts into the surroundings, she is
like the pearl in a beautiful ornament
On which the jeweler has spent much
laborous work.
She is a part OF the whole. Her
very figure, her walk, her way OF
dressing, her manners, have sprung
directly from her immediate surround.
ings.
She Is the child of the natural seen.
cry, the child of the architecture.
Look at the Scandinavian countries
WALL I1Cll lie II dll1C uOuStS Ut Dig
stone palaces. with their door-knock
ers, their high, spacious rooms and
windows, through which the sunbeams
play on we'll scrubbed floors. Look a,
the German cities, with their irregular
streets, their corbel-step houses, theil
market places where the grass grows
between the cobble stones. Look a
the white loggias on the green hills o.
South Europe, the old eoge palaces
the gothic art in the chateauX O
Paris, the slender spires, the broaC
avenues. Look at England-crowded
but old-fashioned and dignitied. All O
them make a picture in which tn,
woman in the street is a detail; beau
tiful, peculiar and stimulating.
But here in America, the painting i
wonderfully changed. There is not
spark OF phantasy, OF dreams of vener
alton, Of longing, OF ~old-fashione,
beauty, nothing which amalgamate
with the grace, the poetry, the pic
t~uresqueness in feminine personality
Is a Type Unique.
The woman in America is not Xix
The woman anywhere else. She i
nearly related to the English woman
but the English girl Is softer in he
makeup than the American. She doe
not, however, possess the brilItan
TREASURY Of a practical mind combine
with Intelligence which is character
istic of the woman OF the new worle
What first impresses you is the phy,
1cal superiority of the America
woman. Here Is a personal cleanl
ness which is lacking in Europe,
believe that bathrooms are more nov
erful agents in the DEVELOPMENT of
nations health than almost anythtn
else.
Her physical type is strong an
elastic. She has a way of raising be
head and carrying her body with
seH-consciousness born OF perfect an
unrestricted liberty.
Tie German woman has an mr.
fined but honest expression of fac
Her Dutch cousin is like her, but
more rigid, and lacks the Anglo-Saxo
suppleness. The woman of South e,
Nlu - -.-- -..-