THE WAR BETWEEN CITY AND SUBURBS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2373, 24 August 1899, Page 52

THE WAR BETWEEN CITY AND SUBURBS.

By 0. M. This war may not be particularly noticeable in New Zealand, which is practically all suburb and country as yet ; but one sees it in Sydney, in Melbourne, or any other of the little Londons under British rule. It seems strange that the mere numbers in which people happen to be grouped together should make such a difference in their character, but such is the fact. The suburbanites are the upholders of convention, the practisers of all the bourgeois virtues. To the city we look for the erratic, the bizarre, and the extremes of virtue and vice, especially the latter ; but as this is a woman's column, let us confine our attention to our own Bex. Each suburb is a little city in itself, wrapped up in its own small interests; but it is as easy to see that the women who stay at home must be somewhat more wrapped up than tho men who go to the city every morning and give to it part of their life. It is also easier to see that the men oftoner than the" women will find it necessary to take up their abode in the city altogether. Consequently we have the one great difference to begin with, the ono sex preponderating in town, the other in the suburb. Now the ivy may cling to the oak so long as there is 'any oak to cling to, but if that is not forthcoming,* she must develop resources of her own, or give up the struggle; and this same thing may happen with human oaks and ivy. The Sydney suburban girl has learnt this lesson. Quiet and conventional as she may be in her ideas, oldi fashioned in her life and habits of thought, t she is in reality more independent than some of her own sisters, for she has learnt to do without masculine society — probably would not know what to do with it now if she gob it. A few weeks ago, the enterprising editor of the Sydney Sunday Times invited Jetters from his girl correspondents on the theme, "How I Spend a Week In My Life." Apparently only the good girls responded to any great extent. What pictures of maidenly industry from rising at half-past 6 to scrub the verandah floor to " cheering up dear papa with a game of whist, of which he is passionately fond." One wonders how they ever spared the time to indite the lengthy effusions in which they praise themselves so unsparingly. But certainly the picture is true enough ; the suburban girl, with her domestic duties, her suburban reading society, her Sunday school picnic, and her little stock of favourite hymns, and last, but not least, iier , girl chum, to whom she confides her innocent I liitle secrets, is really more independent of ! men than the so-called independent girl out " on her own." In a late number of the Cosmopolitan there is an interesting article by Harry Thurston Peck, which holds this theory with some effect and perhaps not overmuch exaggeration : the girl who works for her living and seems independent of man's assistance is really more dependent on it than the domestic girl, to whom the phrase " economic independence " is unknown. Certainly the girl "on her own " expects more from them in the way of amusement ; and whereas the quiet home mouse is overcome with gratitude when the. friend of the family offers to take her to the tLeatre, the city girl does not thank him unless he escorts her to an oyster supper ofterwards. Such a one — a Sydney shop girl, by the way — favoured the boarding house with her views the other day, fingering her bangle, a gift, she informed us, of one of her " boys." " Yea, what I say is : get all you can out of them, and then say 'Ta-ta/ and go. I've

had one or two boys, mostly old ones. The meanness of some of them ! There was one took me out to the Gardens, kept me walking and talking there for two hours, and then was going to put me into a tram and send me j home. ' No, thanks,' says I, ' I want my tea ' first ; I'll pay for it myself if you like, but , I must have my tea.' Oh, yes, he paid for ! it; al] right, and you may be pretty sure I ordered the best tea in the shop. Very different from my next ' boy.' I was out with him when it came on to rain, and of course he didn't want me to go home, as I was saying I must to save my good hat. So what do you think? He wanted to buy me a mackintosh and umbrella, just so he could keep me out a little longer, and I've no doubt he'd have bought me the best in th© shop and thought no more about it ; but I wouldn't let him. Sometimes," said the shop girl reflectively. " I think T was a goat." But her companion, who has been engaged s&verai times, instead of the lesser honour of " best girlism," assures her she acted quite right. The umbrella might have passed Mrs Grundy, but the mackintosh would have been I too much. Then the argument turns to the ' advisability of returning a man his presents when you broke off the engagement, and the general concensus of opinion is that mothers '• ore much to blame who insist on this '" useless | piece of quixotism." The shop girl is espe ; j cially indignant at the idea. " "Why, if one had to do that, one would never break off any engagements at all;" and at the idea of everlasting engagements everyone looks very solemn. Greed for money (or for what money brings) and a certain hard vulgarity of thought are two notable characteristics amongst a , huge section of Sydney womenkind.