ENGLISHWOMEN ABROAD.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 168, 13 February 1868, Page 2

ENGLISHWOMEN ABROAD.

Foreign climates seem to have the property of developing, to a greater or less extent, a kind of rabies Sritannica iu the mind of nearly every Englishman abroad; but Englishwomen, holding less pronounced opinions on the military strength of England, the justice of English laws, the admirable system of English municipal government, snd such intricate matters, generally escape. By her courtesy and native gentleness an Englishwmoman not unfrequently removes the impression produced by the boorishness of her husband, and smoothes his path for him by making people more inclined to do him those innumerable little services which cannot be "put down in the bill." The average Englishwoman abroad is a delicious creature, whether with a husband or without; but when she appears in the guise of the " unprotected female" who is terrible accurate in counting her kreutzers, who goes over every item in her bill and desires 'an explanation which she insists upon understanding, who boldy appeals to the nearest stranger to hold her poodle for a little while she opens her boxes on the deck of the steamer, who gets up the history of a town bpfore entering it, aud "does" the place as though she were compiling a guide-book, and who has invariably such a face and temper as make one rejoice with a philanthropic joy that she is not married; then she is grateful neither to the eyes nor the understanding. The two or three ladies, however, who make up a little party and venture fearlessly abroad, are for the most part charming travelling companions. One of the party may be young, but usually the members of such small hands are between twenty-five and thirty, of pleasant disposition, and without that horrible acridity which is produced in some women by the consciousness of their chances of marriage being gone. There is no trace of the unprotected female about these ladies. A delightful indecision hovers about their movements, and they do not anathematize creation if they miss a train. You lose sight of them, and pick them up again in a most mysterious way. Tou leave them in a Cologne hotel, and you find them in an Eilwayen in the Black Forest. Or you catch a glimpse of them crossing the Pont de Jena towards the Exhibition, and as you fly away from that fearful spot of the earth's surface, you discover them confronting the cathedral of Strasbourg. The directress of the party is sure to be a stout young lady with fair hair and gold-rimmtd spectacles. She carries the general purse and governs the movements of herself and sisters. Upon occasion she can muster a great deal of firmness ; but she never approaches the audacity of the unprotected female. "When hard driven, she will say aloud in your hearing, " Well, it would be so much better if one person who can speak German fluently were to secure carriages for us all, or we shall be left behind;" and if you take the gentle hint, and with such fluency in German as nature and art have given you, procure the desired accommodation for the whole sisterhood, she will thank you in a pretty and business-like manner. Altogether these maiden tourists are agreeable subjects for contemplation, and undoubtedly enjoy themselves a great deal better than if they were going the same round as the attendant of a dissatisfied and grumbling husband.