THE COLONIAL GIRL.

Evening Star, Issue 15373, 23 December 1913, Page 11

THE COLONIAL GIRL.

AND HER TASTE IN* WEDDINGS. Mips Jessie Ackerman, tho well-luiown' and muck-travelled Prohibition advocate, has written a lie ok in which sho discusses Australasia from a woman's viewpoint, and this is what sho has to say In ono chapter ;

"Tho real Australian girl lias not yet arrived. Tho country is too young. It will bo long before sho fully evolves. Tha constant flow of immigrant's to these shores will create, for a time at least, a very cosmopolitan sort of girl. Hundreds of now arrivals land weekly. They are of many callings—somo of no calling at all—numor-* ous in class, varied in type, and to a great extent wholly foreign t'o thoso parts, oven when of tho British race. Tho newcomers will, in tho course of time, intermarry, and this introduction of nn outside element, nlthough of tho same stock, will long retard the production of a purely Australian girl. Tho girls known as thoso of leisure, which is but a term, are, by usage, called 'Society' girls.' They aim to he loaders of tashion, but in reality merely ape stylo created elsewhere, intendod for other latitudes, but adopted bodily by a certain sot, m this zone. Some of them havo the bad taste to follow extremes, and mako themselves both vulgar and ridiculous. They, will not hesitate a moment to hang a cartwheel hat on the left ear and carrv it to and fro, heedless of the discomfort of others. The hobble-skirted girl—an outward sign of a. hobbled mind—flourished until the next importation of vulgarity arrived and was eagerly seized upon 'as a tiirther display of the lack of originality. "Taken as a whole, the girls tiro rather free from extremes in any direction, 'lhero is a lot- of sound common sense about them. Possessing this in a goodly degree, it is surprising that they havo never applied it to originating dress euitod to tho climate and setting of the country, rhcro is also nn utter absence of original social usages that would develop Australian characteristics in homo lifo. Thoro is abounding scope for girls to distinguish themselves by cutting loose from tho customs which enslavo women in other countries. They could create for themselves a purely local atmosphere o£ life in matters of dress, conventionalism, and all customs pertaining to the homo; for they are the freest girls in the world! So freo that they, beyond all others, could leave a mark upon the age in which they live. They could for ever abolish somo 'of tho demoralising old-time, old-world usages, and establish new ones moro in keeping with tho spirit of freedom and progress* in a country whero they enjoy tho advantages of citizenship at 21 years of ago. Not only so, but Iheycouldput down the appalling commercial spirit which obtains concerning most sacred matters, Theso have assumed a positively debasing aspect which should find no place where an effort is being made to evolve a new social order on democratic lines. Tho world's greatest reforms must bo brought about by girls, and Australia is tho natural startingpoint. Thoro is, however, no niovo in such a direction. Girls tread tho name old disgustingly false and unreal social highway of past, decayed, and buried generations, growing, if possible, moro commercial, more selfish, and rejecting all eonso of great responsibility. To illustrate: take", for instance, weddings as carried out in fashionable circles, and, indeed, down through the wholo social scale. The practices arc- coarse and commercial in tho extreme. Think of giving the utmost publicity—the more tho better—to an event which every instinct) of truo girlhood must hold an both solemn and sacred. This inner joy of a sweet! young girl's life is gazed 'upon by tho thoughtless and vulgar who are, neither by tie nor sentiment, in any way connected with the occasion—just curious 1 Analyse, if yon will, a wedding assembly*, See a bride slowly moving up tho aisle, all necks craned and every eye fixed upon her dress, to see the length "of tho train, the kind of lace in tho veil, hand or machine made, tho cut and fit of tho bodice, and then speculate, as to what firm turned it out, as well as mako secret estimates of the probable cost. The rudo staring;, comments and general attitude of the crowds are beyond that power of woi-ds to express, against which every selfrespecting girl should revolt.'"