LADIES' COLUMN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6132, 19 March 1898, Page 3

LADIES' COLUMN.

SHAMS OF THE MODERN GIRL. (Ruth Ashmore, in the Ladies' Home Journal.) Cynics do not hesitate to say that this la an age of shams. But those of us who have hopeful dispositions do not like to believe this, for it means loss of faith in human nature. And yet how can we deny that the sham is popular ! To-day lam out for a walk and I meet a charming girl ■ — a girl who earns in an honourable way her own living. My eyes, as I stand before her, are unwillingly drawn to the brooch which Bhe wears — a brooch elaborately set "with imitation rubies. It is not beautiful to look at, and it deceives nobody ; it cost probably fifty tents, while a brooch set with *eal gems of such size would cost possibly 500, perhaps 5000 dollars. Now this girl could not afford the genuine stones, why then, did she vulgarise herself by assuming a sham? She may think that everyone known that the stones are hot real, and so there is no deception practised; but the girl ia hurting herself by wearing the piece of sham jewellery, even though there really be no intenb on her part to deceive; r Every girl has a right to look aB well as She can— indeed, it is her duty to look as "well as she can ; but when she overloads herself with imitation lace, brass jewellery, and tawdry trimmings, she impresses every one whom she meets as false ; whereas, in a simpler frock, properly made and suitably trimmed, she would have, been charmin"*. When my sensible girl speaks (I call her my sensible girl, for that is what &he used to be), she horrifies me by using words that I am sure she does not understand — •words that are shams, because, not realisiug their full meaning, she makes use of them simply to impress me. She wants me to think that she knows more than she does ; that I am more ignoranb than shn, and must be made to feel my inferiority, fs not that being a sham ? And yet you do not meet that sort of a sham every day ? More disagreeable even than the girl ■who wears a false brooch is the girl, often to be met with, nowadays,, who is eager to make you comprehend her great intelligence. . She combines deceit and vanity ; she speaks in the mo3t glib way of authors whoa© names she has seen in the newspapers: she picks up quotations from dinner cards, and talks as if she were a deep leader and perfectly conversant with the ■works of men of great intellect. I want every one of my girls to read good books —to gain all that is possible from the wonderful thoughts put in English by the besb ■writers. .But I want each girl to understand what she is talking about before she begins. to discuss any book or the merits of any author, and I do not want her, simply for the sake of seeming clever, to chatter about things of which she has only a superficial knowledge. The truthful and simple opinion regarding a book given by the girl who makes no claim toward great knowledge is appreciated and listened to, while the girl with many words displays her ignorance and becomes tiresome. lam never sorry when the social sham is unmasked, for the woman who claimß to know people simply because they are wealthy and fashionable — the ■woman who is willing to risk her soul that Bhe may seem to be acquainted with wellknown people, is a woman who is so mean a Bham, so little even in her vice, that she deserves the punishment that comes when her claims are proven false, liemember, my dear girls, that well-bred people do not talk- about their rich and fashionable friends. There are hundred of topics for conversation, and one's acquaintances should be the very last one selected.