Year: 1868

+ woman gets chance to hide her talent in a
I napkin, nowadays. It is brought out
scoured up polished, craven, set on the ex
hibitiUn tables, for every one to look at and
admire If she does not reach perfection
now. physically and mentally, she never
will!


And yet there 1oere women-women, too.
whose names and memories make our blood
stir with a thrill OF instructive pride, even
through the silence of dumb centuries
before the days of Calisthenics and Gvmna-
siums, ere " Female Colleges existed. and
when any science, beyond the daily page
Of reading immortalized by the Vicar of
Wakefield. was as a sealed book to them
We could hardly improve on some Of those
Old-tashiGned models, with all our modern
improvements"


Still We are not altogether satisfied. We
have gathered the fruit, mellowed, ripened
and perfected, but the bloom is somehow
rubbed off. We are ike poor Frankenstein,
not by any means exactly suited with the
result of our labors


Now, here Is the trouble Our women are
educated refined, charming. no G0abt, but
they are not tcoBsa1iy women. We miss the
nameless grace, the indescrioable charm
that should characterize a woman as en-
tirely and inseparably as fragrance eharac-
teriZes a rose Somehow. in the great cru
cibles of education and developments, this
strange. sweet essence has vanished and is
gone-nobody knows how, when, or where.


If we were a man-one Of those curious
compounds of strength and weakness, en-
ergy and helplessness, stupidity and intel
lect-that so sorely need second self by
way Of balance swheel-where should we
look for true wife For something that
would be more than a mere ornament better
than compendium of sciences. nobier than
a trained parrot? We are afraid we should
be worse of than Diogenese with his Ian
tern


We should not want a wife too much like
ourselE We should learn to dread the wO-
man who dehes Us with our own logic, who
out-talked as on cur own ground, who
pitched her voice semit0ne above ours, and
who, IN short, carried the doctrine Of equal-
ity right iutO the domestic hearthstone
Imagine such woman by our sick bed;
fancy coming home to such woman after n
day OF discouraging failure or depressing
business 1T there was club house"
within ten miles, we should flee to it as a
city Of refuge. There is much harsh.iudg-
ment pronounced in the world man is
{" a brute who spends his evenings away
from home what, th en-, is the woman who
has tailed to make that home attractive, and
whose voice and temper make it hideous IN
stead?


Too little attention is paid to the manner
of women in the nineteenth century We
never stop to think that this manner is Lhe
letter Of introduction they carry with them
into the world that by the touehsbone of
manner they viii nest assuredlY be Judged
And it is so difficult to watch this most i'm
palpable of all feminine CHARMS, to pruue
away redundaneies and cultivate de6eien-
cies There IS but a step between cOnfding
iTanknesssnd UNPLEASANT boldness-between
vivacity and pertness-between simplicity
nd silliRessl We have no sympathy with
the pTudIsh damsel who confines her con :
versatiOn to " Yes" and No" and looks
upon all men as destroying demons, to Fbe
kept at arms length. or looked at through a
gTating; yet Is not the other extreme still
worse? The tendency Of the aye is toward
too great freedum Ia social intercourse be-
tween the two sexes. Men should be men,
and women women; and when Young lady
slaps her brother friend on the back and
calls him old fellow" the results a most
unpleasant confusion of ideas 1t is not at
al unusual, nowadays, for a girl to " take 9
cigar in the evening with the rest of fhe
fellows Not a cigarette, that compremfse
between Spanish vice and American folly,
but regular, full ledged cigar


Now perhaps we are hypereriticai upon
the subject but from the moment we saw a
cigar between the lips of ladyewe were
disposed to like and admire-always suppos
sing as to be gentleman on the Qui Uire
for a matrimonial companiOd-all respect
and esteem would die out of our nature to-
ward that lady. She would have unsexed
herself as completely as If she had been an
Amazon. We could neither recognize her
as a man or respect her woman.
Freedom of manner IN public Is another
national fault School girls Of sixteen enter
public conveyances with the confidence Of
young men. They look you boldly in the
| eye, press forward to a seat with the great
est sang fr0id. and converse across the aisle
in loud, selfassured voices about 10 and
" Tom, and " the party last night" and
the surprise to morrow night" as If every
body was as vitaily inter, sted IN their con
Germs as they themselves are They eat
peanuts and throw the shells past you out
Of the window with an accuracy Of aim that
makes you nervous; they clean aud trim
their nails, or perhaps pick their little white
teeth with pins as they talk. Yet were YOU
! to call them unladylike," how shocked and
1 surprised tney would BET


/ leu see they d0nt Think Carelessness
is the tToubIe-utteF, reckless lack Of
/ thought Girls, do think


/ AS they verge from sixteen toward the
/ twentes, new perls beset their way. Their
| tendency Is to became abrupt. quick mo-
i toned, hard voiced, and fast They pride
4 themselves on an Independence which Is bot
another name for eoafseness. With the pure
I IS wei Of English undefIed," from which
! Milton sang and Goldsmith wrote, as a heri-
tage TO their tongues, they express them


selves in language betting a stable yard or
a billiard saloon. They glory 10 the newest
I slang, che choicest repertoire OF what Victor
1 Hugo calls Arg0t They have no respect


for the sweet low voice that Shakespeare
/ loved, but hail you across the drawing room


as if you were somewhere out at sea, and
speak from between their eyebrows, metal
I Ideally and sharp


And when tne sweet old story Of love and


couriship weaves itself into the chapter 81


their lives, how do they comport Themselves


They treat It as q joke. They get euga-


ged for the fun of the thing, not because


they eyer intend TO ratify the soielan rs0m-


paet before the altar. u is no new thirlg 70


hear Of a young lady, Oh she has been


engaged five or ak TIMES We hardly


blame gentlemen for amusing themselves g
the expense Of such VemsB as these


And lately We haze bssu saFPEised and


stocked % observe the total lack of dzlicac5