The British Matron.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 206, 4 September 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

The British Matron.

AS AMERICA SEES HER

Judging by modern fiction, the mother, ;is such, docs uol exist in English >f;.'i,'iy. The female parent is not: extinct, but her attitude to her daughter seems to be that of business manager or advance agent rather than guardian angel. The ambition which in the American mother might, be labelled "My daughter's happiness" becomes, in the practical code of the British matron, "My daughter's establishment.'" One seldom picks up a novel of English society that one does not meet the

scheming, lynx-eyed mamma, diligently manipulating- the matrimonial net. with one hand, while with the other she pushes forward her gentle little lady-like daughter, who is some day to be metamorphosed into a British matron herself. She shoos off the detrimental and gathers in the heir with unabashed frankness, asking intentions and bustling around very much like a steam tug at a launching. And when a suitor passably suitable in the matter of lands and family has finally been secured, she heaves a sigh of relief, and prepares to do her duty by the next.

This picture is not merely the caricature of a few cynical novelists. Nearly all fiction that deals with social life in England shows the same figure, with more or less circumstantial evidence to prove that she is a reality rather than a careless]} r accepted type.—"Munsey's Magazine."