South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-08-12
Ladies In
The Making
American Girls Are
Spoiled, Says E ne lish
Writer, By Ambitions Of
Relatives

The friendliest Of our foreign crit
les, James Bryce, the British ambas
sadOr in describing the behavior Of
women in this country. has suggested
the fundamental reason why Amer
lean girls are so loudly self-confdent
and often so lacking in that final test
of good breeding consideration I'm
his chapter on Women" in the
American Commonwealth he SAYS:
I'm no country are women. and es
pecially young women so much made
of. The world is at their feet Society
seems organized for the purpose of
providing enjoyment for them. Par
cats, Unclcs. aunts. elderly friends.
| c~en brothers. are ready to make
| tLeir comfort and convenience bend
10 the sirls' wisht s.
In other wOl Dis, our girls are often
! spoiled Children of the well-to-do
! or the semi-le-suTe stratum OF So
! society whose relatives partly out of
SeneI osity but more. pei haps, out OF
family ambition, are trying TO raise
oLcm TO higher sOcial grade.
! cCn,ury ago il was supposed TO take
about three generations to develop a
/ social leader nom the ranks OF the
/ laDoIiDg ClaSs; but as our pace ac-
&c crates it is now sometimes accom-
p-4Sheu in one. That tie pTeuuct VIII
| be nnfsheu OF the result as good a. If
| IL hau taken longer period 10 pei
| tect. is not to be expected.
The defects of this ladies-i n-the-
! process f-making are in evidence
! everywhere in the LIE Of the street
and the auditorium, of the shop and
resta urant- Not only young girls VINO
have been OVerindu.gcd bat many
grown women as well put on the out
ward haoits of the leisure class and
then assume that hey are. in cons"-
quehce, entitled to exceptional aJten-
ton from all men ana particularly
from the walters and clerks who
serve them. Who does not know the
type OF near-lady who always de-
mands more tnan she means TO pay
lOr?-WhO is aggrieNed b. cause bal
slin' garm nts are not retitted with
cut charge; who must always have
the French rolls reheated in the res
taurant. who insists upon eNchang-
ING g.ONeS and lingerie sold TO her on
the express understanding that no
exchange would be permitted; VINO
demands special consideration when
she buys tneatcr or concert tickets:
who. in snort. demands as a right o.
seeks as a personal favor that which
she had not earned and does not
merit.
Such behavior is simply evidence
Of the fact that the spoiled girl gen
| orally grows up into the spoiled wO-
/ man who. as the years go on is apt
to become either a female bully or
! wheedler. In the one case she glares
at maids and clerks, giving orders i'm
"A tone which implies that they are
intending TO deceive or to disObey. In
the other. she gains d degree OF atten-
ton TO which she is not entitled by
! "paiaver.' where the more crude and
] straightforward male would plainly
bride with "A tip Among themselves
! women are familiar with thesesty
of self-indulgent. underbred ladies
the kind who in club meetings must
have their own way or there VIII be
row" and the other kind--eVen
more exasperating-whO Interior
: motives are constantly betrayed by a
manner too sweet.
/
A man who is altogether favorable
To the feminist movement was heard
/ to remark in discouraged tone that
he had seldom seen a woman who
would strictly take her turn at any
! thing-she always wanted to take
somebody else's place. To be con-
yinced that he was not wholly unjust
one has only to watch women's be-
havior at railway and postoffice win
dOws. Here is a line of people at the
stamp window, three women in front
and two men behind; up comes
young woman with a heavy suitcase
and calmly scrouges in behind the
] third woman and ahead of the men
| Then arrives an elderly woman who
seeing that she would be seventh if
she took her turn, offers the girl ten
! cents with which to buy stamps. The
| girl. who has herself taken what did
not belong to her. reluctantly and in
4 evident i'll temper accepts the COM
4 mi of w MI pf
| for all to be served if each had taken
her turn as justice no less than
| politeness demanded Pictorial Re
| view.