AMERICAN WOMEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 201, 31 July 1862, Page 5

AMERICAN WOMEN.

(FROM " XORTiI AMERICA.'' BY AXTIIOXT TP.OLI.OPE. }

Women are entitled to much observance from men, but they are entitled to no ob;crvanc^ which is incompatible with truth. Women, by the conventional laws of society, are allo'.voJ to exact much from men, but they are allowed to exact nothintr for which they should not make some f.lejuatc return. It is well that a man should kneel in spirit before the grace aiA weakness of a woman, but it is not well that he should kneel either in spirit or W.y if there l>e neither grace or weakness. A mau should yield everything ■• a

woman for a word, for a siniie,—to one look of entreaty. But if there 1« no look of entreaty, ik> word, no smile, I do not see that he is called upon to yic-M much. The happy privileges with winch vomea are at present blessed, have come to them from the spirit, of chivalry. That spirit has taught men to endure in order that women may be at their ease; an 1 lias generally taught women to accept the ease be?tov.vd ou them with grace ami thankfulness. But in America the spirit of chivalry has sunk: deeper amonsr men than it has among wumen. It must be borne in mind that iv that country material well-being and education are more extended than with us: and that therefore, men there- have learned to ha chivalrous, who "with us have hardly progressed Iso far. The conduct of men to women throutrht out the States is always gracious. They have learned the lesson. But ft seems to me that the wo- | men have not advanced as far as the men have don-.\ They have aequi.vd a, sufficient perception of the p:ivi'e.^es which chivalry irives them, but no perception of that return which chivalry tleinanls from t'uem. Women of the class to which I allude are also talkit:^ of their rights ; but seem to have a most in.liriere:.! idea of their duties. They have no scruple at demanding from men everything that a man eaa bo caliei ou to relinquish in a woman's behalf, but they do so without any of that grace which turns tae demind made into a favor conferred. . . . Tie woman, as she enters the 'bus, drags after her a misshapen, dirty mass of battered wi'rcwork, which sh;; calls her crinoline, and which adds as much to hot{Trace and comfort as a log of wood does to a donkey when tied to the animal's leg in a paddock. Of this she takes much heed, not managing it so that it m-iy be conveyed up the carriage with some decency, but striking it about against men's legs, and heaving h with violence over people's knees. The touch of a real 1 woman's dress Is iv itself delicate ; but thesi blows from a harpy's finsare loathsome. If there bet wo of th'-in they talk loudly together, having a theory that modesty has been jnit out of court by women's" rights. But, though not modest, the woman I describe is ferocious in her propriety. .She ignores the whole world around her, and as she sits -with raised chin and face flatten?'. by affectation, she pretends to declare aloud that she is positively not aware that any man is even near h-r-r. She speaks as though to her, iv her womanhood, the neighbourhood of mca was the same as that of doirs or cats. They are there, but she d >es not hear tiieni, see them, or even acknowledge them by any courrosv of motion. Bu c her own face always gives her the lie. In her assumption of indifference s'io i]-splays her nasty consciousness, and in each attempt at a woul 1-be propriety is sruilty of an immodesty. Who does not know the timid retiring face of th-e youa^ girl who, when alone among men unknown t<j her, I feels that it becomes her to keep herself seehi'lel 1 .\s many men as there are around her, so many kniehis has such a one, ready bucklerei fir lief servif ;\ should occasion require such services. Should it not, she passes on unmolested, but not, as she her-^.f v.i 1 wrongly think, unheeded. But a« to her of whom I am speaking, we may s-ay that every twist of her b Mly and every tone of her voice i- an" unsuccessful falsehood. She looks square at you in the face, r. n-.i you rise to give her your sea*. You rise from a deiei\ :._■_• to your old convictions, and from that courtesy which you hive ever paid a woman's dress, let it be; worn with ever such hideous deformities. She ta!:«s the place from which you have laoved without a word or a bow. She twists herself round, banging your shins with her wires, while her chin, is still raised, and her face i« still flattened, and she directs her friend's attention to another seated man. as though that place were also vacant, and neressarilv at her disposal. Perhaps the man opposite has his own ideas about chivalry. I have seen s-ieh a thhig, and have rejoiced to see it. You will meet these women daily, hourly,—everywhere in the streets. Now and again you will find them in society, making themselves even more odious there than elsewhere. Who they are, whence they come, and why they are so unlike that other race cf women of which I have spoken, you will settle for yourself. Do we not all say nf our chance acquaintances after half-an-hour's conversation —nay, atter half-an-hour spent in the same room without conversation, —that this woman is a lady, and that that other woman is not ~i They jostle each other even among us, but never seem to mix. They are closely allied; but neither imbues the other with her attributes. Both shall be equally well-born, or both shall be equally i!l-born : but still it is so. The contrast exists in England: but in America it is much stronger. In England, women become ladylike or vulgar. In the States they are either charming or odious. . . See that female walking down Broadway. She is not e>:actly such a one as her I have attempted to describe on her entrance into the street ear; for this lady is well dressed, if fine clothes will make well-dressing. The machinery of her hoops is not battered, and altogether she is a personage much more distinguished in all her expenditures. But she is a copy of the other woman. Look at the train which she drags behind her over the dirty pavement, where dogs have been, and chewers of tobacco, and everything concerned with filth except a scavenger. At every hundred yards some unhappy man treads upon the silken swab which she trails behind her, — looseniug it dreadfully at the girth one would say ; and then see the style of face and the expression* of features with which she accepts the sinner's half-mut-tered apology. The world, she supposes, owes her everything because of her silkea train, —even room in a crowded thoroughfare, to drag it along unmolested. But, according to her theory, she owes the world nothing in return. She is a" woman with perhaps a hundred dollars on her back, and having done the world the honor of wearing them in the world's presence, expects to be repaid by the world's homage and chivalry. But chivalry owes her nothing —nothing, though she walk about beneath a hundred times a hundred dollar—nothing, even though she be a woman. Let every woman learn this, —that chivalry owes her nothing unless she also acknowledge her debt to chivalry. She must acknowledge it and pay it; and then chivalry will nGt be backward in making good her claims upon it.