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diff --git a/3107.txt b/3107.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..076540a --- /dev/null +++ b/3107.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3024 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of As We Go, by Charles Dudley Warner + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: As We Go + +Author: Charles Dudley Warner + +Release Date: August 22, 2006 [EBook #3107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS WE GO *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +AS WE GO + +By Charles Dudley Warner + + + +CONTENTS: (28 short studies) + +OUR PRESIDENT +THE NEWSPAPER-MADE MAN +INTERESTING GIRLS +GIVE THE MEN A CHANCE +THE ADVENT OF CANDOR +THE AMERICAN MAN +THE ELECTRIC WAY +CAN A HUSBAND OPEN HIS WIFE'S LETTERS? +A LEISURE CLASS +WEATHER AND CHARACTER +BORN WITH AN "EGO" +JUVENTUS MUNDI +A BEAUTIFUL OLD AGE +THE ATTRACTION OF THE REPULSIVE +GIVING AS A LUXURY +CLIMATE AND HAPPINESS +THE NEW FEMININE RESERVE +REPOSE IN ACTIVITY +WOMEN--IDEAL AND REAL +THE ART OF IDLENESS +IS THERE ANY CONVERSATION +THE TALL GIRL +THE DEADLY DIARY +THE WHISTLING GIRL +BORN OLD AND RICH +THE "OLD SOLDIER" +THE ISLAND OF BIMINI +JUNE + + + + +OUR PRESIDENT + +We are so much accustomed to kings and queens and other privileged +persons of that sort in this world that it is only on reflection that we +wonder how they became so. The mystery is not their continuance, but how +did they get a start? We take little help from studying the bees +--originally no one could have been born a queen. There must have been +not only a selection, but an election, not by ballot, but by consent some +way expressed, and the privileged persons got their positions because +they were the strongest, or the wisest, or the most cunning. But the +descendants of these privileged persons hold the same positions when they +are neither strong, nor wise, nor very cunning. This also is a mystery. +The persistence of privilege is an unexplained thing in human affairs, +and the consent of mankind to be led in government and in fashion by +those to whom none of the original conditions of leadership attach is a +philosophical anomaly. How many of the living occupants of thrones, +dukedoms, earldoms, and such high places are in position on their own +merits, or would be put there by common consent? Referring their origin +to some sort of an election, their continuance seems to rest simply on +forbearance. Here in America we are trying a new experiment; we have +adopted the principle of election, but we have supplemented it with the +equally authoritative right of deposition. And it is interesting to see +how it has worked for a hundred years, for it is human nature to like to +be set up, but not to like to be set down. If in our elections we do not +always get the best--perhaps few elections ever did--we at least do not +perpetuate forever in privilege our mistakes or our good hits. + +The celebration in New York, in 1889, of the inauguration of Washington +was an instructive spectacle. How much of privilege had been gathered and +perpetuated in a century? Was it not an occasion that emphasized our +republican democracy? Two things were conspicuous. One was that we did +not honor a family, or a dynasty, or a title, but a character; and the +other was that we did not exalt any living man, but simply the office of +President. It was a demonstration of the power of the people to create +their own royalty, and then to put it aside when they have done with it. +It was difficult to see how greater honors could have been paid to any +man than were given to the President when he embarked at Elizabethport +and advanced, through a harbor crowded with decorated vessels, to the +great city, the wharves and roofs of which were black with human beings +--a holiday city which shook with the tumult of the popular welcome. +Wherever he went he drew the swarms in the streets as the moon draws the +tide. Republican simplicity need not fear comparison with any royal +pageant when the President was received at the Metropolitan, and, in a +scene of beauty and opulence that might be the flowering of a thousand +years instead of a century, stood upon the steps of the "dais" to greet +the devoted Centennial Quadrille, which passed before him with the +courageous five, 'Imperator, morituri te salutamus'. We had done it--we, +the people; that was our royalty. Nobody had imposed it on us. It was not +even selected out of four hundred. We had taken one of the common people +and set him up there, creating for the moment also a sort of royal family +and a court for a background, in a splendor just as imposing for the +passing hour as an imperial spectacle. We like to show that we can do it, +and we like to show also that we can undo it. For at the banquet, where +the Elected ate his dinner, not only in the presence of, but with, +representatives of all the people of all the States, looked down on by +the acknowledged higher power in American life, there sat also with him +two men who had lately been in his great position, the centre only a +little while ago, as he was at the moment, of every eye in the republic, +now only common citizens without a title, without any insignia of rank, +able to transmit to posterity no family privilege. If our hearts swelled +with pride that we could create something just as good as royalty, that +the republic had as many men of distinguished appearance, as much beauty, +and as much brilliance of display as any traditional government, we also +felicitated ourselves that we could sweep it all away by a vote and +reproduce it with new actors next day. + +It must be confessed that it was a people's affair. If at any time there +was any idea that it could be controlled only by those who represented +names honored for a hundred years, or conspicuous by any social +privilege, the idea was swamped in popular feeling. The names that had +been elected a hundred years ago did not stay elected unless the present +owners were able to distinguish themselves. There is nothing so to be +coveted in a country as the perpetuity of honorable names, and the +"centennial" showed that we are rich in those that have been honorably +borne, but it also showed that the century has gathered no privilege that +can count upon permanence. + +But there is another aspect of the situation that is quite as serious and +satisfactory. Now that the ladies of the present are coming to dress as +ladies dressed a hundred years ago, we can make an adequate comparison of +beauty. Heaven forbid that we should disparage the women of the +Revolutionary period! They looked as well as they could under all the +circumstances of a new country and the hardships of an early settlement. +Some of them looked exceedingly well--there were beauties in those days +as there were giants in Old Testament times. The portraits that have come +down to us of some of them excite our admiration, and indeed we have a +sort of tradition of the loveliness of the women of that remote period. +The gallant men of the time exalted them. Yet it must be admitted by any +one who witnessed the public and private gatherings of April, 1889, in +New York, contributed to as they were by women from every State, and who +is unprejudiced by family associations, that the women of America seem +vastly improved in personal appearance since the days when George +Washington was a lover: that is to say, the number of beautiful women is +greater in proportion to the population, and their beauty and charm are +not inferior to those which have been so much extolled in the +Revolutionary time. There is no doubt that if George Washington could +have been at the Metropolitan ball he would have acknowledged this, and +that while he might have had misgivings about some of our political +methods, he would have been more proud than ever to be still acknowledged +the Father of his Country. + + + + +THE NEWSPAPER-MADE MAN + +A fair correspondent--has the phrase an old-time sound?--thinks we should +pay more attention to men. In a revolutionary time, when great questions +are in issue, minor matters, which may nevertheless be very important, +are apt to escape the consideration they deserve. We share our +correspondent's interest in men, but must plead the pressure of +circumstances. When there are so many Woman's Journals devoted to the +wants and aspirations of women alone, it is perhaps time to think of +having a Man's journal, which should try to keep his head above-water in +the struggle for social supremacy. When almost every number of the +leading periodicals has a paper about Woman--written probably by a woman +--Woman Today, Woman Yesterday, Woman Tomorrow; when the inquiry is daily +made in the press as to what is expected of woman, and the new +requirements laid upon her by reason of her opportunities, her entrance +into various occupations, her education--the impartial observer is likely +to be confused, if he is not swept away by the rising tide of femininity +in modern life. + +But this very superiority of interest in the future of women is a warning +to man to look about him, and see where in this tide he is going to land, +if he will float or go ashore, and what will be his character and his +position in the new social order. It will not do for him to sit on the +stump of one of his prerogatives that woman has felled, and say with +Brahma, "They reckon ill who leave me out," for in the day of the +Subjection of Man it may be little consolation that he is left in. + +It must be confessed that man has had a long inning. Perhaps it is true +that he owed this to his physical strength, and that he will only keep it +hereafter by intellectual superiority, by the dominance of mind. And how +in this generation is he equipping himself for the future? He is the +money-making animal. That is beyond dispute. Never before were there such +business men as this generation can show--Napoleons of finance, +Alexanders of adventure, Shakespeares of speculation, Porsons of +accumulation. He is great in his field, but is he leaving the +intellectual province to woman? Does he read as much as she does? Is he +becoming anything but a newspaper-made person? Is his mind getting to be +like the newspaper? Speaking generally of the mass of business men--and +the mass are business men in this country--have they any habit of reading +books? They have clubs, to be sure, but of what sort? With the exception +of a conversation club here and there, and a literary club, more or less +perfunctory, are they not mostly social clubs for comfort and idle +lounging, many of them known, as other workmen are, by their "chips"? +What sort of a book would a member make out of "Chips from my Workshop"? +Do the young men, to any extent, join in Browning clubs and Shakespeare +clubs and Dante clubs? Do they meet for the study of history, of authors, +of literary periods, for reading, and discussing what they read? Do they +in concert dig in the encyclopaedias, and write papers about the +correlation of forces, and about Savonarola, and about the Three Kings? +In fact, what sort of a hand would the Three Kings suggest to them? In +the large cities the women's clubs, pursuing literature, art, languages, +botany, history, geography, geology, mythology, are innumerable. And +there is hardly a village in the land that has not from one to six clubs +of young girls who meet once a week for some intellectual purpose. What +are the young men of the villages and the cities doing meantime? How are +they preparing to meet socially these young ladies who are cultivating +their minds? Are they adapting themselves to the new conditions? Or are +they counting, as they always have done, on the adaptability of women, on +the facility with which the members of the bright sex can interest +themselves in base-ball and the speed of horses and the chances of the +"street"? Is it comfortable for the young man, when the talk is about the +last notable book, or the philosophy of the popular poet or novelist, to +feel that laughing eyes are sounding his ignorance? + +Man is a noble creation, and he has fine and sturdy qualities which +command the admiration of the other sex, but how will it be when that +sex, by reason of superior acquirements, is able to look down on him +intellectually? It used to be said that women are what men wish to have +them, that they endeavored to be the kind of women who would win +masculine admiration. How will it be if women have determined to make +themselves what it pleases them to be, and to cultivate their powers in +the expectation of pleasing men, if they indulge any such expectation, by +their higher qualities only? This is not a fanciful possibility. It is +one that young men will do well to ponder. It is easy to ridicule the +literary and economic and historical societies, and the naive courage +with which young women in them attack the gravest problems, and to say +that they are only a passing fashion, like decorative art and a mode of +dress. But a fashion is not to be underestimated; and when a fashion +continues and spreads like this one, it is significant of a great change +going on in society. And it is to be noticed that this fashion is +accompanied by other phenomena as interesting. There is scarcely an +occupation, once confined almost exclusively to men, in which women are +not now conspicuous. Never before were there so many women who are +superior musicians, performers themselves and organizers of musical +societies; never before so many women who can draw well; never so many +who are successful in literature, who write stories, translate, compile, +and are acceptable workers in magazines and in publishing houses; and +never before were so many women reading good books, and thinking about +them, and talking about them, and trying to apply the lessons in them to +the problems of their own lives, which are seen not to end with marriage. +A great deal of this activity, crude much of it, is on the intellectual +side, and must tell strongly by-and-by in the position of women. And the +young men will take notice that it is the intellectual force that must +dominate in life. + + + + +INTERESTING GIRLS + +It seems hardly worth while to say that this would be a more interesting +country if there were more interesting people in it. But the remark is +worth consideration in a land where things are so much estimated by what +they cost. It is a very expensive country, especially so in the matter of +education, and one cannot but reflect whether the result is in proportion +to the outlay. It costs a great many thousands of dollars and over four +years of time to produce a really good base-ball player, and the time and +money invested in the production of a society young woman are not less. +No complaint is made of the cost of these schools of the higher +education; the point is whether they produce interesting people. Of +course all women are interesting. It has got pretty well noised about the +world that American women are, on the whole, more interesting than any +others. This statement is not made boastfully, but simply as a market +quotation, as one might say. They are sought for; they rule high. They +have a "way"; they know how to be fascinating, to be agreeable; they +unite freedom of manner with modesty of behavior; they are apt to have +beauty, and if they have not, they know how to make others think they +have. Probably the Greek girls in their highest development under Phidias +were never so attractive as the American girls of this period; and if we +had a Phidias who could put their charms in marble, all the antique +galleries would close up and go out of business. + +But it must be understood that in regard to them, as to the dictionaries, +it is necessary to "get the best." Not all women are equally interesting, +and some of those on whom most educational money is lavished are the +least so. It can be said broadly that everybody is interesting up to a +certain point. There is no human being from whom the inquiring mind +cannot learn something. It is so with women. Some are interesting for +five minutes, some for ten, some for an hour; some are not exhausted in a +whole day; and some (and this shows the signal leniency of Providence) +are perennially entertaining, even in the presence of masculine +stupidity. Of course the radical trouble of this world is that there are +not more people who are interesting comrades, day in and day out, for a +lifetime. It is greatly to the credit of American women that so many of +them have this quality, and have developed it, unprotected, in free +competition with all countries which have been pouring in women without +the least duty laid upon their grace or beauty. We, have a tariff upon +knowledge--we try to shut out all of that by a duty on books; we have a +tariff on piety and intelligence in a duty on clergymen; we try to +exclude art by a levy on it; but we have never excluded the raw material +of beauty, and the result is that we can successfully compete in the +markets of the world. + +This, however, is a digression. The reader wants to know what this +quality of being interesting has to do with girls' schools. It is +admitted that if one goes into a new place he estimates the agreeableness +of it according to the number of people it contains with whom it is a +pleasure to converse, who have either the ability to talk well or the +intelligence to listen appreciatingly even if deceivingly, whose society +has the beguiling charm that makes even natural scenery satisfactory. It +is admitted also that in our day the burden of this end of life, making +it agreeable, is mainly thrown upon women. Men make their business an +excuse for not being entertaining, or the few who cultivate the mind +(aside from the politicians, who always try to be winning) scarcely think +it worth while to contribute anything to make society bright and +engaging. Now if the girls' schools and colleges, technical and other, +merely add to the number of people who have practical training and +knowledge without personal charm, what becomes of social life? We are +impressed with the excellence of the schools and colleges for women +--impressed also with the co-educating institutions. There is no sight +more inspiring than an assemblage of four or five hundred young women +attacking literature, science, and all the arts. The grace and courage of +the attack alone are worth all it costs. All the arts and science and +literature are benefited, but one of the chief purposes that should be in +view is unattained if the young women are not made more interesting, both +to themselves and to others. Ability to earn an independent living may be +conceded to be important, health is indispensable, and beauty of face and +form are desirable; knowledge is priceless, and unselfish amiability is +above the price of rubies; but how shall we set a value, so far as the +pleasure of living is concerned, upon the power to be interesting? We +hear a good deal about the highly educated young woman with reverence, +about the emancipated young woman with fear and trembling, but what can +take the place of the interesting woman? Anxiety is this moment agitating +the minds of tens of thousands of mothers about the education of their +daughters. Suppose their education should be directed to the purpose of +making them interesting women, what a fascinating country this would be +about the year 1900. + + + + +GIVE THE MEN A CHANCE + +Give the men a chance. Upon the young women of America lies a great +responsibility. The next generation will be pretty much what they choose +to make it; and what are they doing for the elevation of young men? It is +true that there are the colleges for men, which still perform a good +work--though some of them run a good deal more to a top-dressing of +accomplishments than to a sub-soiling of discipline--but these colleges +reach comparatively few. There remain the great mass who are devoted to +business and pleasure, and only get such intellectual cultivation as +society gives them or they chance to pick up in current publications. The +young women are the leisure class, consequently--so we hear--the +cultivated class. Taking a certain large proportion of our society, the +women in it toil not, neither do they spin; they do little or no domestic +work; they engage in no productive occupation. They are set apart for a +high and ennobling service--the cultivation of the mind and the rescue of +society from materialism. They are the influence that keeps life elevated +and sweet--are they not? For what other purpose are they set apart in +elegant leisure? And nobly do they climb up to the duties of their +position. They associate together in esoteric, intellectual societies. +Every one is a part of many clubs, the object of which is knowledge and +the broadening of the intellectual horizon. Science, languages, +literature, are their daily food. They can speak in tongues; they can +talk about the solar spectrum; they can interpret Chaucer, criticise +Shakespeare, understand Browning. There is no literature, ancient or +modern, that they do not dig up by the roots and turn over, no history +that they do not drag before the club for final judgment. In every little +village there is this intellectual stir and excitement; why, even in New +York, readings interfere with the german;--['Dances', likely referring to +the productions of the Straus family in Vienna. D.W.]--and Boston! Boston +is no longer divided into wards, but into Browning "sections." + +All this is mainly the work of women. The men are sometimes admitted, are +even hired to perform and be encouraged and criticised; that is, men who +are already highly cultivated, or who are in sympathy with the noble +feminization of the age. It is a glorious movement. Its professed object +is to give an intellectual lift to society. And no doubt, unless all +reports are exaggerated, it is making our great leisure class of women +highly intellectual beings. But, encouraging as this prospect is, it +gives us pause. Who are these young women to associate with? with whom +are they to hold high converse? For life is a two-fold affair. And +meantime what is being done for the young men who are expected to share +in the high society of the future? Will not the young women by-and-by +find themselves in a lonesome place, cultivated away beyond their natural +comrades? Where will they spend their evenings? This sobering thought +suggests a duty that the young women are neglecting. We refer to the +education of the young men. It is all very well for them to form clubs +for their own advancement, and they ought not to incur the charge of +selfishness in so doing; but how much better would they fulfill their +mission if they would form special societies for the cultivation of young +men!--sort of intellectual mission bands. Bring them into the literary +circle. Make it attractive for them. Women with their attractions, not to +speak of their wiles, can do anything they set out to do. They can +elevate the entire present generation of young men, if they give their +minds to it, to care for the intellectual pursuits they care for. Give +the men a chance, and---- + +Musing along in this way we are suddenly pulled up by the reflection that +it is impossible to make an unqualified statement that is wholly true +about anything. What chance have I, anyway? inquires the young man who +thinks sometimes and occasionally wants to read. What sort of +leading-strings are these that I am getting into? Look at the drift of +things. Is the feminization of the world a desirable thing for a vigorous +future? Are the women, or are they not, taking all the virility out of +literature? Answer me that. All the novels are written by, for, or about +women--brought to their standard. Even Henry James, who studies the sex +untiringly, speaks about the "feminization of literature." They write +most of the newspaper correspondence--and write it for women. They are +even trying to feminize the colleges. Granted that woman is the superior +being; all the more, what chance is there for man if this sort of thing +goes on? Are you going to make a race of men on feminine fodder? And here +is the still more perplexing part of it. Unless all analysis of the +female heart is a delusion, and all history false, what women like most +of all things in this world is a Man, virile, forceful, compelling, a +solid rock of dependence, a substantial unfeminine being, whom it is some +satisfaction and glory and interest to govern and rule in the right way, +and twist round the feminine finger. If women should succeed in reducing +or raising--of course raising--men to the feminine standard, by +feminizing society, literature, the colleges, and all that, would they +not turn on their creations--for even the Bible intimates that women are +uncertain and go in search of a Man? It is this sort of blind instinct of +the young man for preserving himself in the world that makes him so +inaccessible to the good he might get from the prevailing culture of the +leisure class. + + + + +THE ADVENT OF CANDOR + +Those who are anxious about the fate of Christmas, whether it is not +becoming too worldly and too expensive a holiday to be indulged in except +by the very poor, mark with pleasure any indications that the true spirit +of the day--brotherhood and self-abnegation and charity--is infusing +itself into modern society. The sentimental Christmas of thirty years ago +could not last; in time the manufactured jollity got to be more tedious +and a greater strain on the feelings than any misfortune happening to +one's neighbor. Even for a day it was very difficult to buzz about in the +cheery manner prescribed, and the reaction put human nature in a bad +light. Nor was it much better when gradually the day became one of Great +Expectations, and the sweet spirit of it was quenched in worry or soured +in disappointment. It began to take on the aspect of a great lottery, in +which one class expected to draw in reverse proportion to what it put in, +and another class knew that it would only reap as it had sowed. The day, +blessed in its origin, and meaningless if there is a grain of selfishness +in it, was thus likely to become a sort of Clearing-house of all +obligations and assume a commercial aspect that took the heart out of +it--like the enormous receptions for paying social debts which take the +place of the old-fashioned hospitality. Everybody knew, meantime, that +the spirit of good-will, the grace of universal sympathy, was really +growing in the world, and that it was only our awkwardness that, by +striving to cram it all for a year into twenty-four hours, made it seem a +little farcical. And everybody knows that when goodness becomes +fashionable, goodness is likely to suffer a little. A virtue overdone +falls on t'other side. And a holiday that takes on such proportions that +the Express companies and the Post-office cannot handle it is in danger +of a collapse. In consideration of these things, and because, as has been +pointed out year after year, Christmas is becoming a burden, the load of +which is looked forward to with apprehension--and back on with nervous +prostration--fear has been expressed that the dearest of all holidays in +Christian lands would have to go again under a sort of Puritan protest, +or into a retreat for rest and purification. We are enabled to announce +for the encouragement of the single-minded in this best of all days, at +the close of a year which it is best not to characterize, that those who +stand upon the social watch-towers in Europe and America begin to see a +light--or, it would be better to say, to perceive a spirit--in society +which is likely to change many things, and; among others, to work a +return of Christian simplicity. As might be expected in these days, the +spirit is exhibited in the sex which is first at the wedding and last in +the hospital ward. And as might have been expected, also, this spirit is +shown by the young woman of the period, in whose hands are the issues of +the future. If she preserve her present mind long enough, Christmas will +become a day that will satisfy every human being, for the purpose of the +young woman will pervade it. The tendency of the young woman generally to +simplicity, of the American young woman to a certain restraint (at least +when abroad), to a deference to her elders, and to tradition, has been +noted. The present phenomenon is quite beyond this, and more radical. It +is, one may venture to say, an attempt to conform the inner being to the +outward simplicity. If one could suspect the young woman of taking up any +line not original, it might be guessed that the present fashion (which is +bewildering the most worldly men with a new and irresistible fascination) +was set by the self-revelations of Marie Bashkirtseff. Very likely, +however, it was a new spirit in the world, of which Marie was the first +publishing example. Its note is self-analysis, searching, unsparing, +leaving no room for the deception of self or of the world. Its leading +feature is extreme candor. It is not enough to tell the truth (that has +been told before); but one must act and tell the whole truth. One does +not put on the shirt front and the standing collar and the knotted cravat +of the other sex as a mere form; it is an act of consecration, of rigid, +simple come-out-ness into the light of truth. This noble candor will +suffer no concealments. She would not have her lover even, still more the +general world of men, think she is better, or rather other, than she is. +Not that she would like to appear a man among men, far from that; but she +wishes to talk with candor and be talked to candidly, without taking +advantage of that false shelter of sex behind which women have been +accused of dodging. If she is nothing else, she is sincere, one might say +wantonly sincere. And this lucid, candid inner life is reflected in her +dress. This is not only simple in its form, in its lines; it is severe. +To go into the shop of a European modiste is almost to put one's self +into a truthful and candid frame of mind. Those leave frivolous ideas +behind who enter here. The 'modiste' will tell the philosopher that it is +now the fashion to be severe; in a word, it is 'fesch'. Nothing can go +beyond that. And it symbolizes the whole life, its self-examination, +earnestness, utmost candor in speech and conduct. + +The statesman who is busy about his tariff and his reciprocity, and his +endeavor to raise money like potatoes, may little heed and much +undervalue this advent of candor into the world as a social force. But +the philosopher will make no such mistake. He knows that they who build +without woman build in vain, and that she is the great regenerator, as +she is the great destroyer. He knows too much to disregard the gravity of +any fashionable movement. He knows that there is no power on earth that +can prevent the return of the long skirt. And that if the young woman has +decided to be severe and candid and frank with herself and in her +intercourse with others, we must submit and thank God. + +And what a gift to the world is this for the Christmas season! The +clear-eyed young woman of the future, always dear and often an anxiety, +will this year be an object of enthusiasm. + + + + +THE AMERICAN MAN + +The American man only develops himself and spreads himself and grows "for +all he is worth" in the Great West. He is more free and limber there, and +unfolds those generous peculiarities and largenesses of humanity which +never blossomed before. The "environment" has much to do with it. The +great spaces over which he roams contribute to the enlargement of his +mental horizon. There have been races before who roamed the illimitable +desert, but they traveled on foot or on camelback, and were limited in +their range. There was nothing continental about them, as there is about +our railway desert travelers, who swing along through thousands of miles +of sand and sage-bush with a growing contempt for time and space. But +expansive and great as these people have become under the new conditions, +we have a fancy that the development of the race has only just begun, and +that the future will show us in perfection a kind of man new to the +world. Out somewhere on the Santa Fe route, where the desert of one day +was like the desert of the day before, and the Pullman car rolls and +swings over the wide waste beneath the blue sky day after day, under its +black flag of smoke, in the early gray of morning, when the men were +waiting their turns at the ablution bowls, a slip of a boy, perhaps aged +seven, stood balancing himself on his little legs, clad in +knicker-bockers, biding his time, with all the nonchalance of an old +campaigner. "How did you sleep, cap?" asked a well-meaning elderly +gentleman. "Well, thank you," was the dignified response; "as I always do +on a sleeping-car." Always does? Great horrors! Hardly out of his +swaddling-clothes, and yet he always sleeps well in a sleeper! Was he +born on the wheels? was he cradled in a Pullman? He has always been in +motion, probably; he was started at thirty miles an hour, no doubt, this +marvelous boy of our new era. He was not born in a house at rest, but the +locomotive snatched him along with a shriek and a roar before his eyes +were fairly open, and he was rocked in a "section," and his first +sensation of life was that of moving rapidly over vast arid spaces, +through cattle ranges and along canons. The effect of quick and easy +locomotion on character may have been noted before, but it seems that +here is the production of a new sort of man, the direct product of our +railway era. It is not simply that this boy is mature, but he must be a +different and a nobler sort of boy than one born, say, at home or on a +canal-boat; for, whether he was born on the rail or not, he belongs to +the railway system of civilization. Before he gets into trousers he is +old in experience, and he has discounted many of the novelties that +usually break gradually on the pilgrim in this world. He belongs to the +new expansive race that must live in motion, whose proper home is the +Pullman (which will probably be improved in time into a dustless, +sweet-smelling, well-aired bedroom), and whose domestic life will be on +the wing, so to speak. The Inter-State Commerce Bill will pass him along +without friction from end to end of the Union, and perhaps a uniform +divorce law will enable him to change his marital relations at any place +where he happens to dine. This promising lad is only a faint intimation +of what we are all coming to when we fully acquire the freedom of the +continent, and come into that expansiveness of feeling and of language +which characterizes the Great West. It is a burst of joyous exuberance +that comes from the sense of an illimitable horizon. It shows itself in +the tender words of a local newspaper at Bowie, Arizona, on the death of +a beloved citizen: "'Death loves a shining mark,' and she hit a dandy +when she turned loose on Jim." And also in the closing words of a New +Mexico obituary, which the Kansas Magazine quotes: "Her tired spirit was +released from the pain-racking body and soared aloft to eternal glory at +4.30 Denver time." We die, as it were, in motion, as we sleep, and there +is nowhere any boundary to our expansion. Perhaps we shall never again +know any rest as we now understand the term--rest being only change of +motion--and we shall not be able to sleep except on the cars, and whether +we die by Denver time or by the 90th meridian, we shall only change our +time. Blessed be this slip of a boy who is a man before he is an infant, +and teaches us what rapid transit can do for our race! The only thing +that can possibly hinder us in our progress will be second childhood; we +have abolished first. + + + + +THE ELECTRIC WAY + +We are quite in the electric way. We boast that we have made electricity +our slave, but the slave whom we do not understand is our master. And +before we know him we shall be transformed. Mr. Edison proposes to send +us over the country at the rate of one hundred miles an hour. This +pleases us, because we fancy we shall save time, and because we are +taught that the chief object in life is to "get there" quickly. We really +have an idea that it is a gain to annihilate distance, forgetting that as +a matter of personal experience we are already too near most people. But +this speed by rail will enable us to live in Philadelphia and do business +in New York. It will make the city of Chicago two hundred miles square. +And the bigger Chicago is, the more important this world becomes. This +pleasing anticipation--that of traveling by lightning, and all being +huddled together--is nothing to the promised universal illumination by a +diffused light that shall make midnight as bright as noonday. We shall +then save all the time there is, and at the age of thirty-five have lived +the allotted seventy years, and long, if not for 'Gotterdammerung', at +least for some world where, by touching a button, we can discharge our +limbs of electricity and take a little repose. The most restless and +ambitious of us can hardly conceive of Chicago as a desirable future +state of existence. + +This, however, is only the external or superficial view of the subject; +at the best it is only symbolical. Mr. Edison is wasting his time in +objective experiments, while we are in the deepest ignorance as to our +electric personality or our personal electricity. We begin to apprehend +that we are electric beings, that these outward manifestations of a +subtile form are only hints of our internal state. Mr. Edison should turn +his attention from physics to humanity electrically considered in its +social condition. We have heard a great deal about affinities. We are +told that one person is positive and another negative, and that +representing socially opposite poles they should come together and make +an electric harmony, that two positives or two negatives repel each +other, and if conventionally united end in divorce, and so on. We read +that such a man is magnetic, meaning that he can poll a great many votes; +or that such a woman thrilled her audience, meaning probably that they +were in an electric condition to be shocked by her. Now this is what we +want to find out--to know if persons are really magnetic or sympathetic, +and how to tell whether a person is positive or negative. In politics we +are quite at sea. What is the good of sending a man to Washington at the +rate of a hundred miles an hour if we are uncertain of his electric +state? The ideal House of Representatives ought to be pretty nearly +balanced--half positive, half negative. Some Congresses seem to be made +up pretty much of negatives. The time for the electrician to test the +candidate is before he is put in nomination, not dump him into Congress +as we do now, utterly ignorant of whether his currents run from his heels +to his head or from his head to his heels, uncertain, indeed, as to +whether he has magnetism to run in at all. Nothing could be more +unscientific than the process and the result. + +In social life it is infinitely worse. You, an electric unmarried man, +enter a room full of attractive women. How are you to know who is +positive and who is negative, or who is a maiden lady in equilibrium, if +it be true, as scientists affirm, that the genus old maid is one in whom +the positive currents neutralize the negative currents? Your affinity is +perhaps the plainest woman in the room. But beauty is a juggling sprite, +entirely uncontrolled by electricity, and you are quite likely to make a +mistake. It is absurd the way we blunder on in a scientific age. We touch +a button, and are married. The judge touches another button, and we are +divorced. If when we touched the first button it revealed us both +negatives, we should start back in horror, for it is only before +engagement that two negatives make an affirmative. That is the reason +that some clergymen refuse to marry a divorced woman; they see that she +has made one electric mistake, and fear she will make another. It is all +very well for the officiating clergyman to ask the two intending to +commit matrimony if they have a license from the town clerk, if they are +of age or have the consent of parents, and have a million; but the vital +point is omitted. Are they electric affinities? It should be the duty of +the town-clerk, by a battery, or by some means to be discovered by +electricians, to find out the galvanic habit of the parties, their +prevailing electric condition. Temporarily they may seem to be in +harmony, and may deceive themselves into the belief that they are at +opposite poles equidistant from the equator, and certain to meet on that +imaginary line in matrimonial bliss. Dreadful will be the awakening to an +insipid life, if they find they both have the same sort of currents. It +is said that women change their minds and their dispositions, that men +are fickle, and that both give way after marriage to natural inclinations +that were suppressed while they were on the good behavior that the +supposed necessity of getting married imposes. This is so notoriously +true that it ought to create a public panic. But there is hope in the new +light. If we understand it, persons are born in a certain electrical +condition, and substantially continue in it, however much they may +apparently wobble about under the influence of infirm minds and acquired +wickedness. There are, of course, variations of the compass to be +reckoned with, and the magnet may occasionally be bewitched by near and +powerful attracting objects. But, on the whole, the magnet remains the +same, and it is probable that a person's normal electric condition is the +thing in him least liable to dangerous variation. If this be true, the +best basis for matrimony is the electric, and our social life would have +fewer disappointments if men and women went about labeled with their +scientifically ascertained electric qualities. + + + + +CAN A HUSBAND OPEN HIS WIFE'S LETTERS? + +Can a husband open his wife's letters? That would depend, many would say, +upon what kind of a husband he is. But it cannot be put aside in that +flippant manner, for it is a legal right that is in question, and it has +recently been decided in a Paris tribunal that the husband has the right +to open the letters addressed to his wife. Of course in America an appeal +would instantly be taken from this decision, and perhaps by husbands +themselves; for in this world rights are becoming so impartially +distributed that this privilege granted to the husband might at once be +extended to the wife, and she would read all his business correspondence, +and his business is sometimes various and complicated. The Paris decision +must be based upon the familiar formula that man and wife are one, and +that that one is the husband. If a man has the right to read all the +letters written to his wife, being his property by reason of his +ownership of her, why may he not have a legal right to know all that is +said to her? The question is not whether a wife ought to receive letters +that her husband may not read, or listen to talk that he may not hear, +but whether he has a sort of lordship that gives him privileges which she +does not enjoy. In our modern notion of marriage, which is getting itself +expressed in statute law, marriage is supposed to rest on mutual trust +and mutual rights. In theory the husband and wife are still one, and +there can nothing come into the life of one that is not shared by the +other; in fact, if the marriage is perfect and the trust absolute, the +personality of each is respected by the other, and each is freely the +judge of what shall be contributed to the common confidence; and if there +are any concealments, it is well believed that they are for the mutual +good. If every one were as perfect in the marriage relation as those who +are reading these lines, the question of the wife's letters would never +arise. The man, trusting his wife, would not care to pry into any little +secrets his wife might have, or bother himself about her correspondence; +he would know, indeed, that if he had lost her real affection, a +surveillance of her letters could not restore it. + +Perhaps it is a modern notion that marriage is a union of trust and not +of suspicion, of expectation of faithfulness the more there is freedom. +At any rate, the tendency, notwithstanding the French decision, is away +from the common-law suspicion and tyranny towards a higher trust in an +enlarged freedom. And it is certain that the rights cannot all be on one +side and the duties on the other. If the husband legally may compel his +wife to show him her letters, the courts will before long grant the same +privilege to the wife. But, without pressing this point, we hold strongly +to the sacredness of correspondence. The letters one receives are in one +sense not his own. They contain the confessions of another soul, the +confidences of another mind, that would be rudely treated if given any +sort of publicity. And while husband and wife are one to each other, they +are two in the eyes of other people, and it may well happen that a friend +will desire to impart something to a discreet woman which she would not +intrust to the babbling husband of that woman. Every life must have its +own privacy and its own place of retirement. The letter is of all things +the most personal and intimate thing. Its bloom is gone when another eye +sees it before the one for which it was intended. Its aroma all escapes +when it is first opened by another person. One might as well wear +second-hand clothing as get a second-hand letter. Here, then, is a sacred +right that ought to be respected, and can be respected without any injury +to domestic life. The habit in some families for the members of it to +show each other's letters is a most disenchanting one. It is just in the +family, between persons most intimate, that these delicacies of +consideration for the privacy of each ought to be most respected. No one +can estimate probably how much of the refinement, of the delicacy of +feeling, has been lost to the world by the introduction of the +postal-card. Anything written on a postal-card has no personality; it is +banal, and has as little power of charming any one who receives it as an +advertisement in the newspaper. It is not simply the cheapness of the +communication that is vulgar, but the publicity of it. One may have +perhaps only a cent's worth of affection to send, but it seems worth much +more when enclosed in an envelope. We have no doubt, then, that on +general principles the French decision is a mistake, and that it tends +rather to vulgarize than to retain the purity and delicacy of the +marriage relation. And the judges, so long even as men only occupy the +bench, will no doubt reverse it when the logical march of events forces +upon them the question whether the wife may open her husband's letters. + + + + +A LEISURE CLASS + +Foreign critics have apologized for real or imagined social and literary +shortcomings in this country on the ground that the American people have +little leisure. It is supposed that when we have a leisure class we shall +not only make a better showing in these respects, but we shall be as +agreeable--having time to devote to the art of being agreeable--as the +English are. But we already have a considerable and increasing number of +people who can command their own time if we have not a leisure class, and +the sociologist might begin to study the effect of this leisureliness +upon society. Are the people who, by reason of a competence or other +accidents of good-fortune, have most leisure, becoming more agreeable? +and are they devoting themselves to the elevation of the social tone, or +to the improvement of our literature? However this question is answered, +a strong appeal might be made to the people of leisure to do not only +what is expected of them by foreign observers, but to take advantage of +their immense opportunities. In a republic there is no room for a leisure +class that is not useful. Those who use their time merely to kill it, in +imitation of those born to idleness and to no necessity of making an +exertion, may be ornamental, but having no root in any established +privilege to sustain them, they will soon wither away in this atmosphere, +as a flower would which should set up to be an orchid when it does not +belong to the orchid family. It is required here that those who are +emancipated from the daily grind should vindicate their right to their +position not only by setting an example of self-culture, but by +contributing something to the general welfare. It is thought by many that +if society here were established and settled as it is elsewhere, the rich +would be less dominated by their money and less conscious of it, and +having leisure, could devote themselves even more than they do now to +intellectual and spiritual pursuits. + +Whether these anticipations will ever be realized, and whether increased +leisure will make us all happy, is a subject of importance; but it is +secondary, and in a manner incidental, to another and deeper matter, +which may be defined as the responsibility of attractiveness. And this +responsibility takes two forms the duty of every one to be attractive, +and the danger of being too attractive. To be winning and agreeable is +sometimes reckoned a gift, but it is a disposition that can be +cultivated; and, in a world so given to grippe and misapprehension as +this is, personal attractiveness becomes a duty, if it is not an art, +that might be taught in the public schools. It used to be charged against +New Englanders that they regarded this gift as of little value, and were +inclined to hide it under a bushel, and it was said of some of their +neighbors in the Union that they exaggerated its importance, and +neglected the weightier things of the law. Indeed, disputes have arisen +as to what attractiveness consisted in--some holding that beauty or charm +of manner (which is almost as good) and sweetness and gayety were +sufficient, while others held that a little intelligence sprinkled in was +essential. But one thing is clear, that while women were held to strict +responsibility in this matter, not stress enough was laid upon the equal +duty of men to be attractive in order to make the world agreeable. Hence +it is, probably, that while no question has been raised as to the effect +of the higher education upon the attractiveness of men, the colleges for +girls have been jealously watched as to the effect they were likely to +have upon the attractiveness of women. Whether the college years of a +young man, during which he knows more than he will ever know again, are +his most attractive period is not considered, for he is expected to +develop what is in him later on; but it is gravely questioned whether +girls who give their minds to the highest studies are not dropping those +graces of personal attractiveness which they will find it difficult to +pick up again. Of course such a question as this could never arise except +in just such a world as this is. For in an ideal world it could be shown +that the highest intelligence and the highest personal charm are twins. +If, therefore, it should turn out, which seems absurd, that +college-educated girls are not as attractive as other women with less +advantages, it will have to be admitted that something is the matter with +the young ladies, which is preposterous, or that the system is still +defective. For the postulate that everybody ought to be attractive cannot +be abandoned for the sake of any system. Decision on this system cannot +be reached without long experience, for it is always to be remembered +that the man's point of view of attractiveness may shift, and he may come +to regard the intellectual graces as supremely attractive; while, on the +other hand, the woman student may find that a winning smile is just as +effective in bringing a man to her feet, where he belongs, as a +logarithm. + +The danger of being too attractive, though it has historic illustration, +is thought by many to be more apparent than real. Merely being too +attractive has often been confounded with a love of flirtation and +conquest, unbecoming always in a man, and excused in a woman on the +ground of her helplessness. It could easily be shown that to use personal +attractiveness recklessly to the extent of hopeless beguilement is cruel, +and it may be admitted that woman ought to be held to strict +responsibility for her attractiveness. The lines are indeed hard for her. +The duty is upon her in this poor world of being as attractive as she +can, and yet she is held responsible for all the mischief her +attractiveness produces. As if the blazing sun should be called to +account by people with weak eyes. + + + + +WEATHER AND CHARACTER + +The month of February in all latitudes in the United States is uncertain. +The birth of George Washington in it has not raised it in public esteem. +In the North, it is a month to flee from; in the South, at best it is a +waiting month--a month of rain and fickle skies. A good deal has been +done for it. It is the month of St. Valentine, it is distinguished by the +leap-year addition of a day, and ought to be a favorite of the gentle +sex; but it remains a sort of off period in the year. Its brevity +recommends it, but no one would take any notice of it were it not for its +effect upon character. A month of rigid weather is supposed to brace up +the moral nature, and a month of gentleness is supposed to soften the +asperities of the disposition, but February contributes to neither of +these ends. It is neither a tonic nor a soother; that is, in most parts +of our inexplicable land. We make no complaint of this. It is probably +well to have a period in the year that tests character to the utmost, and +the person who can enter spring through the gate of February a better man +or woman is likely to adorn society the rest of the year. + +February, however, is merely an illustration of the effect of weather +upon the disposition. Persons differ in regard to their sensitiveness to +cloudy, rainy, and gloomy days. We recognize this in a general way, but +the relation of temper and disposition to the weather has never been +scientifically studied. Our observation of the influence of climate is +mostly with regard to physical infirmities. We know the effect of damp +weather upon rheumatics, and of the east wind upon gouty subjects, but +too little allowance is made for the influence of weather upon the +spirits and the conduct of men. We know that a long period of gloomy +weather leads to suicides, and we observe that long-continued clouds and +rain beget "crossness" and ill-temper, and we are all familiar with the +universal exhilaration of sunshine and clear air upon any company of men +and women. But the point we wish to make is that neither society nor the +law makes any allowance for the aberrations of human nature caused by +dull and unpleasant weather. And this is very singular in this +humanitarian age, when excuse is found for nearly every moral delinquency +in heredity or environment, that the greatest factor of discontent and +crookedness, the weather, should be left out of consideration altogether. +The relation of crime to the temperature and the humidity of the +atmosphere is not taken into account. Yet crime and eccentricity of +conduct are very much the result of atmospheric conditions, since they +depend upon the temper and the spirit of the community. Many people are +habitually blue and down-hearted in sour weather; a long spell of cloudy, +damp, cold weather depresses everybody, lowers hope, tends to melancholy; +and people when they are not cheerful are more apt to fall into evil +ways, as a rule, than when they are in a normal state of good-humor. And +aside from crimes, the vexation, the friction, the domestic discontent in +life, are provoked by bad weather. We should like to have some statistics +as to incompatibility between married couples produced by damp and raw +days, and to know whether divorces are more numerous in the States that +suffer from a fickle climate than in those where the climate is more +equable. It is true that in the Sandwich Islands and in Egypt there is +greater mental serenity, less perturbation of spirit, less worry, than in +the changeable United States. Something of this placidity and resignation +to the ills inevitable in human life is due to an even climate, to the +constant sun and the dry air. We cannot hope to prevent crime and +suffering by statistics, any more than we have been able to improve our +climate (which is rather worse now than before the scientists took it in +charge) by observations and telegraphic reports; but we can, by careful +tabulation of the effects of bad weather upon the spirits of a community, +learn what places in the Union are favorable to the production of +cheerfulness and an equal mind. And we should lift a load of reprobation +from some places which now have a reputation for surliness and +unamiability. We find the people of one place hospitable, lighthearted, +and agreeable; the people of another place cold, and morose, and +unpleasant. It would be a satisfaction to know that the weather is +responsible for the difference. Observation of this sort would also teach +us doubtless what places are most conducive to literary production, what +to happy homes and agreeing wives and husbands. All our territory is +mapped out as to its sanitary conditions; why not have it colored as to +its effect upon the spirits and the enjoyment of life? The suggestion +opens a vast field of investigation. + + + + +BORN WITH AN "EGO" + +There used to be a notion going round that it would be a good thing for +people if they were more "self-centred." Perhaps there was talk of adding +a course to the college curriculum, in addition to that for training the +all-competent "journalist," for the self-centring of the young. To apply +the term to a man or woman was considered highly complimentary. The +advisers of this state of mind probably meant to suggest a desirable +equilibrium and mental balance; but the actual effect of the self-centred +training is illustrated by a story told of Thomas H. Benton, who had been +described as an egotist by some of the newspapers. Meeting Colonel Frank +Blair one day, he said: "Colonel Blair, I see that the newspapers call me +an egotist. I wish you would tell me frankly, as a friend, if you think +the charge is true." "It is a very direct question, Mr. Benton," replied +Colonel Blair, "but if you want my honest opinion, I am compelled to say +that I think there is some foundation for the charge." "Well, sir," said +Mr. Benton, throwing his head back and his chest forward, "the difference +between me and these little fellows is that I have an EGO!" Mr. Benton +was an interesting man, and it is a fair consideration if a certain +amount of egotism does not add to the interest of any character, but at +the same time the self-centred conditions shut a person off from one of +the chief enjoyments to be got out of this world, namely, a recognition +of what is admirable in others in a toleration of peculiarities. It is +odd, almost amusing, to note how in this country people of one section +apply their local standards to the judgment of people in other sections, +very much as an Englishman uses his insular yardstick to measure all the +rest of the world. It never seems to occur to people in one locality that +the manners and speech of those of another may be just as admirable as +their own, and they get a good deal of discomfort out of their +intercourse with strangers by reason of their inability to adapt +themselves to any ways not their own. It helps greatly to make this +country interesting that nearly every State has its peculiarities, and +that the inhabitants of different sections differ in manner and speech. +But next to an interesting person in social value, is an agreeable one, +and it would add vastly to the agreeableness of life if our widely spread +provinces were not so self-centred in their notion that their own way is +the best, to the degree that they criticise any deviation from it as an +eccentricity. It would be a very nice world in these United States if we +could all devote ourselves to finding out in communities what is likable +rather than what is opposed to our experience; that is, in trying to +adapt ourselves to others rather than insisting that our own standard +should measure our opinion and our enjoyment of them. + +When the Kentuckian describes a man as a "high-toned gentleman" he means +exactly the same that a Bostonian means when, he says that a man is a +"very good fellow," only the men described have a different culture, a +different personal flavor; and it is fortunate that the Kentuckian is not +like the Bostonian, for each has a quality that makes intercourse with +him pleasant. In the South many people think they have said a severe +thing when they say that a person or manner is thoroughly Yankee; and +many New Englanders intend to express a considerable lack in what is +essential when they say of men and women that they are very Southern. +When the Yankee is produced he may turn out a cosmopolitan person of the +most interesting and agreeable sort; and the Southerner may have traits +and peculiarities, growing out of climate and social life unlike the New +England, which are altogether charming. We talked once with a Western man +of considerable age and experience who had the placid mind that is +sometimes, and may more and more become, the characteristic of those who +live in flat countries of illimitable horizons, who said that New +Yorkers, State and city, all had an assertive sort of smartness that was +very disagreeable to him. And a lady of New York (a city whose dialect +the novelists are beginning to satirize) was much disturbed by the +flatness of speech prevailing in Chicago, and thought something should be +done in the public schools to correct the pronunciation of English. There +doubtless should be a common standard of distinct, rounded, melodious +pronunciation, as there is of good breeding, and it is quite as important +to cultivate the voice in speaking as in singing, but the people of the +United States let themselves be immensely irritated by local differences +and want of toleration of sectional peculiarities. The truth is that the +agreeable people are pretty evenly distributed over the country, and +one's enjoyment of them is heightened not only by their differences of +manner, but by the different, ways in which they look at life, unless he +insists upon applying everywhere the yardstick of his own locality. If +the Boston woman sets her eyeglasses at a critical angle towards the +'laisser faire' flow of social amenity in New Orleans, and the New +Orleans woman seeks out only the prim and conventional in Boston, each +may miss the opportunity to supplement her life by something wanting and +desirable in it, to be gained by the exercise of more openness of mind +and toleration. To some people Yankee thrift is disagreeable; to others, +Southern shiftlessness is intolerable. To some travelers the negro of the +South, with his tropical nature, his capacity for picturesque attitudes, +his abundant trust in Providence, is an element of restfulness; and if +the chief object of life is happiness, the traveler may take a useful +hint from the race whose utmost desire, in a fit climate, would be fully +satisfied by a shirt and a banana-tree. But to another traveler the +dusky, careless race is a continual affront. + +If a person is born with an "Ego," and gets the most enjoyment out of the +world by trying to make it revolve about himself, and cannot +make-allowances for differences, we have nothing to say except to express +pity for such a self-centred condition; which shuts him out of the +never-failing pleasure there is in entering into and understanding with +sympathy the almost infinite variety in American life. + + + + +JUVENTUS MUNDI + +Sometimes the world seems very old. It appeared so to Bernard of Cluny in +the twelfth century, when he wrote: + + "The world is very evil, + The times are waning late." + +There was a general impression among the Christians of the first century +of our era that the end was near. The world must have seemed very ancient +to the Egyptians fifteen hundred years before Christ, when the Pyramid of +Cheops was a relic of antiquity, when almost the whole circle of arts, +sciences, and literature had been run through, when every nation within +reach had been conquered, when woman had been developed into one of the +most fascinating of beings, and even reigned more absolutely than +Elizabeth or Victoria has reigned since: it was a pretty tired old world +at that time. One might almost say that the further we go back the older +and more "played out" the world appears, notwithstanding that the poets, +who were generally pessimists of the present, kept harping about the +youth of the world and the joyous spontaneity of human life in some +golden age before their time. In fact, the world is old in spots--in +Memphis and Boston and Damascus and Salem and Ephesus. Some of these +places are venerable in traditions, and some of them are actually worn +out and taking a rest from too much civilization--lying fallow, as the +saying is. But age is so entirely relative that to many persons the +landing of the Mayflower seems more remote than the voyage of Jason, and +a Mayflower chest a more antique piece of furniture than the timbers of +the Ark, which some believe can still be seen on top of Mount Ararat. +But, speaking generally, the world is still young and growing, and a +considerable portion of it unfinished. The oldest part, indeed, the +Laurentian Hills, which were first out of water, is still only sparsely +settled; and no one pretends that Florida is anything like finished, or +that the delta of the Mississippi is in anything more than the process of +formation. Men are so young and lively in these days that they cannot +wait for the slow processes of nature, but they fill up and bank up +places, like Holland, where they can live; and they keep on exploring and +discovering incongruous regions, like Alaska, where they can go and +exercise their juvenile exuberance. + +In many respects the world has been growing younger ever since the +Christian era. A new spirit came into it then which makes youth +perpetual, a spirit of living in others, which got the name of universal +brotherhood, a spirit that has had a good many discouragements and +set-backs, but which, on the whole, gains ground, and generally works in +harmony with the scientific spirit, breaking down the exclusive character +of the conquests of nature. What used to be the mystery and occultism of +the few is now general knowledge, so that all the playing at occultism by +conceited people now seems jejune and foolish. A little machine called +the instantaneous photograph takes pictures as quickly and accurately as +the human eye does, and besides makes them permanent. Instead of fooling +credulous multitudes with responses from Delphi, we have a Congress which +can enact tariff regulations susceptible of interpretations enough to +satisfy the love of mystery of the entire nation. Instead of loafing +round Memnon at sunrise to catch some supernatural tones, we talk words +into a little contrivance which will repeat our words and tones to the +remotest generation of those who shall be curious to know whether we said +those words in jest or earnest. All these mysteries made common and +diffused certainly increase the feeling of the equality of opportunity in +the world. And day by day such wonderful things are discovered and +scattered abroad that we are warranted in believing that we are only on +the threshold of turning to account the hidden forces of nature. There +would be great danger of human presumption and conceit in this progress +if the conceit were not so widely diffused, and where we are all +conceited there is no one to whom it will appear unpleasant. If there was +only one person who knew about the telephone he would be unbearable. +Probably the Eiffel Tower would be stricken down as a monumental +presumption, like that of Babel, if it had not been raised with the full +knowledge and consent of all the world. + +This new spirit, with its multiform manifestations, which came into the +world nearly nineteen hundred years ago, is sometimes called the spirit +of Christmas. And good reasons can be given for supposing that it is. At +any rate, those nations that have the most of it are the most prosperous, +and those people who have the most of it are the most agreeable to +associate with. Know all men by these Presents, is an old legal form +which has come to have a new meaning in this dispensation. It is by the +spirit of brotherhood exhibited in giving presents that we know the +Christmas proper, only we are apt to take it in too narrow a way. The +real spirit of Christmas is the general diffusion of helpfulness and +good-will. If somebody were to discover an elixir which would make every +one truthful, he would not, in this age of the world, patent it. Indeed, +the Patent Office would not let him make a corner on virtue as he does in +wheat; and it is not respectable any more among the real children of +Christmas to make a corner in wheat. The world, to be sure, tolerates +still a great many things that it does not approve of, and, on the whole, +Christmas, as an ameliorating and good-fellowship institution, gains a +little year by year. There is still one hitch about it, and a bad one +just now, namely, that many people think they can buy its spirit by jerks +of liberality, by costly gifts. Whereas the fact is that a great many of +the costliest gifts in this season do not count at all. Crumbs from the +rich man's table don't avail any more to open the pearly gates even of +popular esteem in this world. Let us say, in fine, that a loving, +sympathetic heart is better than a nickel-plated service in this world, +which is surely growing young and sympathetic. + + + + +A BEAUTIFUL OLD AGE + +In Autumn the thoughts lightly turn to Age. If the writer has seemed to +be interested, sometimes to the neglect of other topics, in the American +young woman, it was not because she is interested in herself, but because +she is on the way to be one of the most agreeable objects in this lovely +world. She may struggle against it; she may resist it by all the +legitimate arts of the coquette and the chemist; she may be convinced +that youth and beauty are inseparable allies; but she would have more +patience if she reflected that the sunset is often finer than the +sunrise, commonly finer than noon, especially after a stormy day. The +secret of a beautiful old age is as well worth seeking as that of a +charming young maidenhood. For it is one of the compensations for the +rest of us, in the decay of this mortal life, that women, whose mission +it is to allure in youth and to tinge the beginning of the world with +romance, also make the end of the world more serenely satisfactory and +beautiful than the outset. And this has been done without any amendment +to the Constitution of the United States; in fact, it is possible that +the Sixteenth Amendment would rather hinder than help this gracious +process. We are not speaking now of what is called growing old gracefully +and regretfully, as something to be endured, but as a season to be +desired for itself, at least by those whose privilege it is to be +ennobled and cheered by it. And we are not speaking of wicked old women. +There is a unique fascination--all the novelists recognize it--in a +wicked old woman; not very wicked, but a woman of abundant experience, +who is perfectly frank and a little cynical, and delights in probing +human nature and flashing her wit on its weaknesses, and who knows as +much about life as a club man is credited with knowing. She may not be a +good comrade for the young, but she is immensely more fascinating than a +semi-wicked old man. Why, we do not know; that is one of the unfathomable +mysteries of womanhood. No; we have in mind quite another sort of woman, +of which America has so many that they are a very noticeable element in +all cultivated society. And the world has nothing more lovely. For there +is a loveliness or fascination sometimes in women between the ages of +sixty and eighty that is unlike any other--a charm that woos us to regard +autumn as beautiful as spring. + +Perhaps these women were great beauties in their day, but scarcely so +serenely beautiful as now when age has refined all that was most +attractive. Perhaps they were plain; but it does not matter, for the +subtle influence of spiritualized-intelligence has the power of +transforming plainness into the beauty of old age. Physical beauty is +doubtless a great advantage, and it is never lost if mind shines through +it (there is nothing so unlovely as a frivolous old woman fighting to +keep the skin-deep beauty of her youth); the eyes, if the life has not +been one of physical suffering, usually retain their power of moving +appeal; the lines of the face, if changed, may be refined by a certain +spirituality; the gray hair gives dignity and softness and the charm of +contrast; the low sweet voice vibrates to the same note of femininity, +and the graceful and gracious are graceful and gracious still. Even into +the face and bearing of the plain woman whose mind has grown, whose +thoughts have been pure, whose heart has been expanded by good deeds or +by constant affection, comes a beauty winning and satisfactory in the +highest degree. + +It is not that the charm of the women of whom we speak is mainly this +physical beauty; that is only incidental, as it were. The delight in +their society has a variety of sources. Their interest in life is broader +than it once was, more sympathetically unselfish; they have a certain +philosophical serenity that is not inconsistent with great liveliness of +mind; they have got rid of so much nonsense; they can afford to be +truthful--and how much there is to be learned from a woman who is +truthful! they have a most delicious courage of opinion, about men, say, +and in politics, and social topics, and creeds even. They have very +little any longer to conceal; that is, in regard to things that should be +thought about and talked about at all. They are not afraid to be gay, and +to have enthusiasms. At sixty and eighty a refined and well-bred woman is +emancipated in the best way, and in the enjoyment of the full play of the +richest qualities of her womanhood. She is as far from prudery as from +the least note of vulgarity. Passion, perhaps, is replaced by a great +capacity for friendliness, and she was never more a real woman than in +these mellow and reflective days. And how interesting she is--adding so +much knowledge of life to the complex interest that inheres in her sex! +Knowledge of life, yes, and of affairs; for it must be said of these +ladies we have in mind that they keep up with the current thought, that +they are readers of books, even of newspapers--for even the newspaper can +be helpful and not harmful in the alembic of their minds. + +Let not the purpose of this paper be misunderstood. It is not to urge +young women to become old or to act like old women. The independence and +frankness of age might not be becoming to them. They must stumble along +as best they can, alternately attracting and repelling, until by right of +years they join that serene company which is altogether beautiful. There +is a natural unfolding and maturing to the beauty of old age. The mission +of woman, about which we are pretty weary of hearing, is not accomplished +by any means in her years of vernal bloom and loveliness; she has equal +power to bless and sweeten life in the autumn of her pilgrimage. But here +is an apologue: The peach, from blossom to maturity, is the most +attractive of fruits. Yet the demands of the market, competition, and +fashion often cause it to be plucked and shipped while green. It never +matures, though it may take a deceptive richness of color; it decays +without ripening. And the last end of that peach is worse than the first. + + + + +THE ATTRACTION OF THE REPULSIVE + +On one of the most charming of the many wonderfully picturesque little +beaches on the Pacific coast, near Monterey, is the idlest if not the +most disagreeable social group in the world. Just off the shore, farther +than a stone's-throw, lies a mass of broken rocks. The surf comes leaping +and laughing in, sending up, above the curving green breakers and crests +of foam, jets and spirals of water which flash like silver fountains in +the sunlight. These islets of rocks are the homes of the sea-lion. This +loafer of the coast congregates here by the thousand. Sometimes the rocks +are quite covered, the smooth rounded surface of the larger one +presenting the appearance at a distance of a knoll dotted with dirty +sheep. There is generally a select knot of a dozen floating about in the +still water under the lee of the rock, bobbing up their tails and +flippers very much as black driftwood might heave about in the tide. +During certain parts of the day members of this community are off fishing +in deep water; but what they like best to do is to crawl up on the rocks +and grunt and bellow, or go to sleep in the sun. Some of them lie half in +water, their tails floating and their ungainly heads wagging. These +uneasy ones are always wriggling out or plunging in. Some crawl to the +tops of the rocks and lie like gunny bags stuffed with meal, or they +repose on the broken surfaces like masses of jelly. When they are all at +home the rocks have not room for them, and they crawl on and over each +other, and lie like piles of undressed pork. In the water they are black, +but when they are dry in the sun the skin becomes a dirty light brown. +Many of them are huge fellows, with a body as big as an ox. In the water +they are repulsively graceful; on the rocks they are as ungainly as +boneless cows, or hogs that have lost their shape in prosperity. Summer +and winter (and it is almost always summer on this coast) these beasts, +which are well fitted neither for land nor water, spend their time in +absolute indolence, except when they are compelled to cruise around in +the deep water for food. They are of no use to anybody, either for their +skin or their flesh. Nothing could be more thoroughly disgusting and +uncanny than they are, and yet nothing more fascinating. One can watch +them--the irresponsible, formless lumps of intelligent flesh--for hours +without tiring. I scarcely know what the fascination is. A small seal +playing by himself near the shore, floating on and diving under the +breakers, is not so very disagreeable, especially if he comes so near +that you can see his pathetic eyes; but these brutes in this perpetual +summer resort are disgustingly attractive. Nearly everything about them, +including their voice, is repulsive. Perhaps it is the absolute idleness +of the community that makes it so interesting. To fish, to swim, to +snooze on the rocks, that is all, for ever and ever. No past, no future. +A society that lives for the laziest sort of pleasure. If they were rich, +what more could they have? Is not this the ideal of a watering-place +life? + +The spectacle of this happy community ought to teach us humility and +charity in judgment. Perhaps the philosophy of its attractiveness lies +deeper than its 'dolce far niente' existence. We may never have +considered the attraction for us of the disagreeable, the positive +fascination of the uncommonly ugly. The repulsive fascination of the +loathly serpent or dragon for women can hardly be explained on +theological grounds. Some cranks have maintained that the theory of +gravitation alone does not explain the universe, that repulsion is as +necessary as attraction in our economy. This may apply to society. We are +all charmed with the luxuriance of a semi-tropical landscape, so +violently charmed that we become in time tired of its overpowering bloom +and color. But what is the charm of the wide, treeless desert, the +leagues of sand and burnt-up chaparral, the distant savage, fantastic +mountains, the dry desolation as of a world burnt out? It is not contrast +altogether. For this illimitable waste has its own charm; and again and +again, when we come to a world of vegetation, where the vision is shut in +by beauty, we shall have an irrepressible longing for these wind-swept +plains as wide as the sea, with the ashy and pink horizons. We shall long +to be weary of it all again--its vast nakedness, its shimmering heat, its +cold, star-studded nights. It seems paradoxical, but it is probably true, +that a society composed altogether of agreeable people would become a +terrible bore. We are a "kittle" lot, and hard to please for long. We +know how it is in the matter of climate. Why is it that the masses of the +human race live in the most disagreeable climates to be found on the +globe, subject to extremes of heat and cold, sudden and unprovoked +changes, frosts, fogs, malarias? In such regions they congregate, and +seem to like the vicissitudes, to like the excitement of the struggle +with the weather and the patent medicines to keep alive. They hate the +agreeable monotony of one genial day following another the year through. +They praise this monotony, all literature is full of it; people always +say they are in search of the equable climate; but they continue to live, +nevertheless, or try to live, in the least equable; and if they can find +one spot more disagreeable than another there they build a big city. If +man could make his ideal climate he would probably be dissatisfied with +it in a month. The effect of climate upon disposition and upon manners +needs to be considered some day; but we are now only trying to understand +the attractiveness of the disagreeable. There must be some reason for it; +and that would explain a social phenomenon, why there are so many +unattractive people, and why the attractive readers of these essays could +not get on without them. + +The writer of this once traveled for days with an intelligent curmudgeon, +who made himself at all points as prickly as the porcupine. There was no +getting on with him. And yet when he dropped out of the party he was +sorely missed. He was more attractively repulsive than the sea-lion. It +was such a luxury to hate him. He was such a counter-irritant, such a +stimulant; such a flavor he gave to life. We are always on the lookout +for the odd, the eccentric, the whimsical. We pretend that we like the +orderly, the beautiful, the pleasant. We can find them anywhere--the +little bits of scenery that please the eye, the pleasant households, the +group of delightful people. Why travel, then? We want the abnormal, the +strong, the ugly, the unusual at least. We wish to be startled and +stirred up and repelled. And we ought to be more thankful than we are +that there are so many desolate and wearisome and fantastic places, and +so many tiresome and unattractive people in this lovely world. + + + + +GIVING AS A LUXURY + +There must be something very good in human nature, or people would not +experience so much pleasure in giving; there must be something very bad +in human nature, or more people would try the experiment of giving. Those +who do try it become enamored of it, and get their chief pleasure in life +out of it; and so evident is this that there is some basis for the idea +that it is ignorance rather than badness which keeps so many people from +being generous. Of course it may become a sort of dissipation, or more +than that, a devastation, as many men who have what are called "good +wives" have reason to know, in the gradual disappearance of their +wardrobe if they chance to lay aside any of it temporarily. The amount +that a good woman can give away is only measured by her opportunity. Her +mind becomes so trained in the mystery of this pleasure that she +experiences no thrill of delight in giving away only the things her +husband does not want. Her office in life is to teach him the joy of +self-sacrifice. She and all other habitual and irreclaimable givers soon +find out that there is next to no pleasure in a gift unless it involves +some self-denial. + +Let one consider seriously whether he ever gets as much satisfaction out +of a gift received as out of one given. It pleases him for the moment, +and if it is useful, for a long time; he turns it over, and admires it; +he may value it as a token of affection, and it flatters his self-esteem +that he is the object of it. But it is a transient feeling compared with +that he has when he has made a gift. That substantially ministers to his +self-esteem. He follows the gift; he dwells upon the delight of the +receiver; his imagination plays about it; it will never wear out or +become stale; having parted with it, it is for him a lasting possession. +It is an investment as lasting as that in the debt of England. Like a +good deed, it grows, and is continually satisfactory. It is something to +think of when he first wakes in the morning--a time when most people are +badly put to it for want of something pleasant to think of. This fact +about giving is so incontestably true that it is a wonder that +enlightened people do not more freely indulge in giving for their own +comfort. It is, above all else, amazing that so many imagine they are +going to get any satisfaction out of what they leave by will. They may be +in a state where they will enjoy it, if the will is not fought over; but +it is shocking how little gratitude there is accorded to a departed giver +compared to a living giver. He couldn't take the property with him, it is +said; he was obliged to leave it to somebody. By this thought his +generosity is always reduced to a minimum. He may build a monument to +himself in some institution, but we do not know enough of the world to +which he has gone to know whether a tiny monument on this earth is any +satisfaction to a person who is free of the universe. Whereas every +giving or deed of real humanity done while he was living would have +entered into his character, and would be of lasting service to him--that +is, in any future which we can conceive. + +Of course we are not confining our remarks to what are called Christmas +gifts--commercially so called--nor would we undertake to estimate the +pleasure there is in either receiving or giving these. The shrewd +manufacturers of the world have taken notice of the periodic generosity +of the race, and ingeniously produce articles to serve it, that is, to +anticipate the taste and to thwart all individuality or spontaneity in +it. There is, in short, what is called a "line of holiday goods," +fitting, it may be supposed, the periodic line of charity. When a person +receives some of these things in the blessed season of such, he is apt to +be puzzled. He wants to know what they are for, what he is to do with +them. If there are no "directions" on the articles, his gratitude is +somewhat tempered. He has seen these nondescripts of ingenuity and +expense in the shop windows, but he never expected to come into personal +relations to them. He is puzzled, and he cannot escape the unpleasant +feeling that commerce has put its profit-making fingers into Christmas. +Such a lot of things seem to be manufactured on purpose that people may +perform a duty that is expected of them in the holidays. The house is +full of these impossible things; they occupy the mantelpieces, they stand +about on the tottering little tables, they are ingenious, they are made +for wants yet undiscovered, they tarnish, they break, they will not +"work," and pretty soon they look "second-hand." Yet there must be more +satisfaction in giving these articles than in receiving them, and maybe a +spice of malice--not that of course, for in the holidays nearly every +gift expresses at least kindly remembrance--but if you give them you do +not have to live with them. But consider how full the world is of holiday +goods--costly goods too--that are of no earthly use, and are not even +artistic, and how short life is, and how many people actually need books +and other indispensable articles, and how starved are many fine +drawing-rooms, not for holiday goods, but for objects of beauty. + +Christmas stands for much, and for more and more in a world that is +breaking down its barriers of race and religious intolerance, and one of +its chief offices has been supposed to be the teaching of men the +pleasure there is in getting rid of some of their possessions for the +benefit of others. But this frittering away a good instinct and tendency +in conventional giving of manufactures made to suit an artificial +condition is hardly in the line of developing the spirit that shares the +last crust or gives to the thirsty companion in the desert the first pull +at the canteen. Of course Christmas feeling is the life of trade and all +that, and we will be the last to discourage any sort of giving, for one +can scarcely disencumber himself of anything in his passage through this +world and not be benefited; but the hint may not be thrown away that one +will personally get more satisfaction out of his periodic or continual +benevolence if he gives during his life the things which he wants and +other people need, and reserves for a fine show in his will a collected +but not selected mass of holiday goods. + + + + +CLIMATE AND HAPPINESS + +The idea of the relation of climate to happiness is modern. It is +probably born of the telegraph and of the possibility of rapid travel, +and it is more disturbing to serenity of mind than any other. Providence +had so ordered it that if we sat still in almost any region of the globe +except the tropics we would have, in course of the year, almost all the +kinds of climate that exist. The ancient societies did not trouble +themselves about the matter; they froze or thawed, were hot or cold, as +it pleased the gods. They did not think of fleeing from winter any more +than from the summer solstice, and consequently they enjoyed a certain +contentment of mind that is absent from modern life. We are more +intelligent, and therefore more discontented and unhappy. We are always +trying to escape winter when we are not trying to escape summer. We are +half the time 'in transitu', flying hither and thither, craving that +exact adaptation of the weather to our whimsical bodies promised only to +the saints who seek a "better country." There are places, to be sure, +where nature is in a sort of equilibrium, but usually those are places +where we can neither make money nor spend it to our satisfaction. They +lack either any stimulus to ambition or a historic association, and we +soon find that the mind insists upon being cared for quite as much as the +body. + +How many wanderers in the past winter left comfortable homes in the +United States to seek a mild climate! Did they find it in the sleet and +bone-piercing cold of Paris, or anywhere in France, where the wolves were +forced to come into the villages in the hope of picking up a tender +child? If they traveled farther, were the railway carriages anything but +refrigerators tempered by cans of cooling water? Was there a place in +Europe from Spain to Greece, where the American could once be warm +--really warm without effort--in or out of doors? Was it any better in +divine Florence than on the chill Riviera? Northern Italy was blanketed +with snow, the Apennines were white, and through the clean streets of the +beautiful town a raw wind searched every nook and corner, penetrating +through the thickest of English wraps, and harder to endure than +ingratitude, while a frosty mist enveloped all. The traveler forgot to +bring with him the contented mind of the Italian. Could he go about in a +long cloak and a slouch hat, curl up in doorways out of the blast, and be +content in a feeling of his own picturesqueness? Could he sit all day on +the stone pavement and hold out his chilblained hand for soldi? Could he +even deceive himself, in a palatial apartment with a frescoed ceiling, by +an appearance of warmth in two sticks ignited by a pine cone set in an +aperture in one end of the vast room, and giving out scarcely heat enough +to drive the swallows from the chimney? One must be born to this sort of +thing in order to enjoy it. He needs the poetic temperament which can +feel in January the breath of June. The pampered American is not adapted +to this kind of pleasure. He is very crude, not to say barbarous, yet in +many of his tastes, but he has reached one of the desirable things in +civilization, and that is a thorough appreciation of physical comfort. He +has had the ingenuity to protect himself in his own climate, but when he +travels he is at the mercy of customs and traditions in which the idea of +physical comfort is still rudimentary. He cannot warm himself before a +group of statuary, or extract heat from a canvas by Raphael, nor keep his +teeth from chattering by the exquisite view from the Boboli Gardens. The +cold American is insensible to art, and shivers in the presence of the +warmest historical associations. It is doubtful if there is a spot in +Europe where he can be ordinarily warm in winter. The world, indeed, does +not care whether he is warm or not, but it is a matter of great +importance to him. As he wanders from palace to palace--and he cannot +escape the impression that nothing is good enough for him except a +palace--he cannot think of any cottage in any hamlet in America that is +not more comfortable in winter than any palace he can find. And so he is +driven on in cold and weary stretches of travel to dwell among the French +in Algeria, or with the Jews in Tunis, or the Moslems in Cairo. He longs +for warmth as the Crusader longed for Jerusalem, but not short of Africa +shall he find it. The glacial period is coming back on Europe. + +The citizens of the great republic have a reputation for inordinate +self-appreciation, but we are thinking that they undervalue many of the +advantages their ingenuity has won. It is admitted that they are +restless, and must always be seeking something that they have not at +home. But aside from their ability to be warm in any part of their own +country at any time of the year, where else can they travel three +thousand miles on a stretch in a well-heated--too much heated--car, +without change of car, without revision of tickets, without encountering +a customhouse, without the necessity of stepping outdoors either for food +or drink, for a library, for a bath--for any item, in short, that goes to +the comfort of a civilized being? And yet we are always prating of the +superior civilization of Europe. Nay, more, the traveler steps into a +car--which is as comfortable as a house--in Boston, and alights from it +only in the City of Mexico. In what other part of the world can that +achievement in comfort and convenience be approached? + +But this is not all as to climate and comfort. We have climates of all +sorts within easy reach, and in quantity, both good and bad, enough to +export more in fact than we need of all sorts. If heat is all we want, +there are only three or four days between the zero of Maine and the 80 +deg. of Florida. If New England is inhospitable and New York freezing, it +is only a matter of four days to the sun and the exhilarating air of New +Mexico and Arizona, and only five to the oranges and roses of that +semi-tropical kingdom by the sea, Southern California. And if this does +not content us, a day or two more lands us, without sea-sickness, in the +land of the Aztecs, where we can live in the temperate or the tropic +zone, eat strange fruits, and be reminded of Egypt and Spain and Italy, +and see all the colors that the ingenuity of man has been able to give +his skin. Fruits and flowers and sun in the winter-time, a climate to +lounge and be happy in--all this is within easy reach, with the minimum +of disturbance to our daily habits. We started out, when we turned our +backs on the Old World, with the declaration that all men are free, and +entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of an agreeable climate. We +have yet to learn, it seems, that we can indulge in that pursuit best on +our own continent. There is no winter climate elsewhere to compare with +that found in our extreme Southwest or in Mexico, and the sooner we put +this fact into poetry and literature, and begin to make a tradition of +it, the better will it be for our peace of mind and for our children. And +if the continent does not satisfy us, there lie the West Indies within a +few hours' sail, with all the luxuriance and geniality of the tropics. We +are only half emancipated yet. We are still apt to see the world through +the imagination of England, whose literature we adopted, or of Germany. +To these bleak lands Italy was a paradise, and was so sung by poets who +had no conception of a winter without frost. We have a winter climate of +another sort from any in Europe; we have easy and comfortable access to +it. The only thing we need to do now is to correct our imagination, which +has been led astray. Our poets can at least do this for us by the help of +a quasi-international copyright. + + + + +THE NEW FEMININE RESERVE + +In times past there have been expressed desire and fear that there should +be an American aristocracy, and the materials for its formation have been +a good deal canvassed. In a political point of view it is of course +impossible, but it has been hoped by many, and feared by more, that a +social state might be created conforming somewhat to the social order in +European countries. The problem has been exceedingly difficult. An +aristocracy of derived rank and inherited privilege being out of the +question, and an aristocracy of talent never having succeeded anywhere, +because enlightenment of mind tends to liberalism and democracy, there +was only left the experiment of an aristocracy of wealth. This does very +well for a time, but it tends always to disintegration, and it is +impossible to keep it exclusive. It was found, to use the slang of the +dry-goods shops, that it would not wash, for there were liable to crowd +into it at any moment those who had in fact washed for a living. An +aristocracy has a slim tenure that cannot protect itself from this sort +of intrusion. We have to contrive, therefore, another basis for a class +(to use an un-American expression), in a sort of culture or training, +which can be perpetual, and which cannot be ordered for money, like a +ball costume or a livery. + +Perhaps the "American Girl" may be the agency to bring this about. This +charming product of the Western world has come into great prominence of +late years in literature and in foreign life, and has attained a +notoriety flattering or otherwise to the national pride. No institution +has been better known or more marked on the Continent and in England, not +excepting the tramway and the Pullman cars. Her enterprise, her daring, +her freedom from conventionality, have been the theme of the novelists +and the horror of the dowagers having marriageable daughters. Considered +as "stock," the American Girl has been quoted high, and the alliances +that she has formed with families impecunious but noble have given her +eclat as belonging to a new and conquering race in the world. But the +American Girl has not simply a slender figure and a fine eye and a ready +tongue, she is not simply an engaging and companionable person, she has +excellent common-sense, tact, and adaptability. She has at length seen in +her varied European experience that it is more profitable to have social +good form according to local standards than a reputation for dash and +brilliancy. Consequently the American Girl of a decade ago has effaced +herself. She is no longer the dazzling courageous figure. In England, in +France, in Germany, in Italy, she takes, as one may say, the color of the +land. She has retired behind her mother. She who formerly marched in the +van of the family procession, leading them--including the panting +mother--a whimsical dance, is now the timid and retiring girl, needing +the protection of a chaperon on every occasion. The satirist will find no +more abroad the American Girl of the old type whom he continues to +describe. The knowing and fascinating creature has changed her tactics +altogether. And the change has reacted on American society. The mother +has come once more to the front, and even if she is obliged to own to +forty-five years to the census-taker, she has again the position and the +privileges of the blooming woman of thirty. Her daughters walk meekly and +with downcast (if still expectant) eyes, and wait for a sign. + +That this change is the deliberate work of the American Girl, no one who +knows her grace and talent will deny. In foreign travel and residence she +has been quick to learn her lesson. Dazzled at first by her own capacity +and the opportunities of the foreign field, she took the situation by +storm. But she found too often that she had a barren conquest, and that +the social traditions survived her success and became a lifelong +annoyance; that is to say, it was possible to subdue foreign men, but the +foreign women were impregnable in their social order. The American Girl +abroad is now, therefore, with rare exceptions, as carefully chaperoned +and secluded as her foreign sisters. + +It is not necessary to lay too much stress upon this phase of American +life abroad, but the careful observer must notice its reflex action at +home. The American freedom and unconventionality in the intercourse of +the young of both sexes, which has been so much commented on as +characteristic of American life, may not disappear, but that small +section which calls itself "society" may attain a sort of aristocratic +distinction by the adoption of this foreign conventionality. It is +sufficient now to note this tendency, and to claim the credit of it for +the wise and intelligent American Girl. It would be a pity if it were to +become nationally universal, for then it would not be the aristocratic +distinction of a few, and the American woman who longs for some sort of +caste would be driven to some other device. + +It is impossible to tell yet what form this feminine reserve and +retirement will take. It is not at all likely to go so far as the +Oriental seclusion of women. The American Girl would never even seemingly +give up her right of initiative. If she is to stay in the background and +pretend to surrender her choice to her parents, and with it all the +delights of a matrimonial campaign, she will still maintain a position of +observation. If she seems to be influenced at present by the French and +Italian examples, we may be sure that she is too intelligent and too fond +of freedom to long tolerate any system of chaperonage that she cannot +control. She will find a way to modify the traditional conventionalities +so as not to fetter her own free spirit. It may be her mission to show +the world a social order free from the forward independence and smartness +of which she has been accused, and yet relieved of the dull stiffness of +the older forms. It is enough now to notice that a change is going on, +due to the effect of foreign society upon American women, and to express +the patriotic belief that whatever forms of etiquette she may bow to, the +American Girl will still be on earth the last and best gift of God to +man. + + + + +REPOSE IN ACTIVITY + +What we want is repose. We take infinite trouble and go to the ends of +the world to get it. That is what makes us all so restless. If we could +only find a spot where we could sit down, content to let the world go by, +away from the Sunday newspapers and the chronicles of an uneasy society, +we think we should be happy. Perhaps such a place is Coronado Beach +--that semi-tropical flower-garden by the sea. Perhaps another is the +Timeo Terrace at Taormina. There, without moving, one has the most +exquisite sea and shore far below him, so far that he has the feeling of +domination without effort; the most picturesque crags and castle peaks; +he has all classic legend under his eye without the trouble of reading, +and mediaeval romance as well; ruins from the time of Theocritus to +Freeman, with no responsibility of describing them; and one of the +loveliest and most majestic of snow mountains, never twice the same in +light and shade, entirely revealed and satisfactory from base to summit, +with no self or otherwise imposed duty of climbing it. Here are most of +the elements of peace and calm spirit. And the town itself is quite dead, +utterly exhausted after a turbulent struggle of twenty-five hundred +years, its poor inhabitants living along only from habit. The only new +things in it--the two caravansaries of the traveler--are a hotel and a +cemetery. One might end his days here in serene retrospection, and more +cheaply than in other places of fewer attractions, for it is all Past and +no Future. Probably, therefore, it would not suit the American, whose +imagination does not work so easily backward as forward, and who prefers +to build his own nest rather than settle in anybody else's rookery. +Perhaps the American deceives himself when he says he wants repose; what +he wants is perpetual activity and change; his peace of mind is postponed +until he can get it in his own way. It is in feeling that he is a part of +growth and not of decay. Foreigners are fond of writing essays upon +American traits and characteristics. They touch mostly on surface +indications. What really distinguishes the American from all others--for +all peoples like more or less to roam, and the English of all others are +globe-trotters--is not so much his restlessness as his entire accord with +the spirit of "go-ahead," the result of his absolute breaking with the +Past. He can repose only in the midst of intense activity. He can sit +down quietly in a town that is growing rapidly; but if it stands still, +he is impelled to move his rocking-chair to one more lively. He wants the +world to move, and to move unencumbered; and Europe seems to him to carry +too much baggage. The American is simply the most modern of men, one who +has thrown away the impedimenta of tradition. The world never saw such a +spectacle before, so vast a territory informed with one uniform spirit of +energy and progress, and people tumbling into it from all the world, +eager for the fair field and free opportunity. The American delights in +it; in Europe he misses the swing and "go" of the new life. + +This large explanation may not account for the summer restlessness that +overtakes nearly everybody. We are the annual victims of the delusion +that there exists somewhere the ideal spot where manners are simple, and +milk is pure, and lodging is cheap, where we shall fall at once into +content. We never do. For content consists not in having all we want, +nor, in not wanting everything, nor in being unable to get what we want, +but in not wanting that we can get. In our summer flittings we carry our +wants with us to places where they cannot be gratified. A few people have +discovered that repose can be had at home, but this discovery is too +unfashionable to find favor; we have no rest except in moving about. +Looked at superficially, it seems curious that the American is, as a +rule, the only person who does not emigrate. The fact is that he can go +nowhere else where life is so uneasy, and where, consequently, he would +have so little of his sort of repose. To put him in another country would +be like putting a nineteenth-century man back into the eighteenth +century. The American wants to be at the head of the procession (as he +fancies he is), where he can hear the band play, and be the first to see +the fireworks of the new era. He thinks that he occupies an advanced +station of observation, from which his telescope can sweep the horizon +for anything new. And with some reason he thinks so; for not seldom he +takes up a foreign idea and tires of it before it is current elsewhere. +More than one great writer of England had his first popular recognition +in America. Even this season the Saturday Review is struggling with +Ibsen, while Boston, having had that disease, has probably gone on to +some other fad. + +Far be it from us to praise the American for his lack of repose; it is +enough to attempt to account for it. But from the social, or rather +society, point of view, the subject has a disquieting aspect. If the +American young man and young woman get it into their heads that repose, +especially of manner, is the correct thing, they will go in for it in a +way to astonish the world. The late cultivation of idiocy by the American +dude was unique. He carried it to an extreme impossible to the youth of +any nation less "gifted." And if the American girl goes in seriously for +"repose," she will be able to give odds to any modern languidity or to +any ancient marble. If what is wanted in society is cold hauteur and +languid superciliousness or lofty immobility, we are confident that with +a little practice she can sit stiller, and look more impassive, and move +with less motion, than any other created woman. We have that confidence +in her ability and adaptability. It is a question whether it is worth +while to do this; to sacrifice the vivacity and charm native to her, and +the natural impulsiveness and generous gift of herself which belong to a +new race in a new land, which is walking always towards the sunrise. + +In fine, although so much is said of the American lack of repose, is it +not best for the American to be content to be himself, and let the +critics adapt themselves or not, as they choose, to a new phenomenon? + +Let us stick a philosophic name to it, and call it repose in activity. +The American might take the candid advice given by one friend to another, +who complained that it was so difficult to get into the right frame of +mind. "The best thing you can do," he said, "is to frame your mind and +hang it up." + + + + +WOMEN--IDEAL AND REAL + +We have not by any means got to the bottom of Realism. It matters very +little what the novelists and critics say about it--what it is and what +it is not; the attitude of society towards it is the important thing. +Even if the critic could prove that nature and art are the same thing, +and that the fiction which is Real is only a copy of nature, or if +another should prove that Reality is only to be found in the Ideal, +little would be gained. Literature is well enough in its place, art is an +agreeable pastime, and it is right that society should take up either in +seasons when lawn-tennis and polo are impracticable and afternoon teas +become flavorless; but the question that society is or should be +interested in is whether the young woman of the future--upon whose +formation all our social hopes depend--is going to shape herself by a +Realistic or an Ideal standard. It should be said in parenthesis that the +young woman of the passing period has inclined towards Realism in manner +and speech, if not in dress, affecting a sort of frank return to the +easy-going ways of nature itself, even to the adoption of the language of +the stock exchange, the race-course, and the clubs--an offering of +herself on the altar of good-fellowship, with the view, no doubt, of +making life more agreeable to the opposite sex, forgetting the fact that +men fall in love always, or used to in the days when they could afford +that luxury, with an ideal woman, or if not with an ideal woman, with one +whom they idealize. And at this same time the world is full of doubts and +questionings as to whether marriage is a failure. Have these questionings +anything to do with the increasing Realism of women, and a consequent +loss of ideals? + +Of course the reader sees that the difficulty in considering this subject +is whether woman is to be estimated as a work of nature or of art. And +here comes in the everlasting question of what is the highest beauty, and +what is most to be desired. The Greek artists, it seems to be well +established, never used a model, as our artists almost invariably do, in +their plastic and pictorial creations. The antique Greek statues, or +their copies, which give us the highest conceptions of feminine charm and +manly beauty, were made after no woman, or man born of woman, but were +creations of the ideal raised to the highest conception by the passionate +love and long study of nature, but never by faithful copying of it. The +Romans copied the Greek art. The Greek in his best days created the ideal +figure, which we love to accept as nature. Generation after generation +the Greek learned to draw and learned to observe, until he was able to +transmute his knowledge into the forms of grace and beauty which satisfy +us as nature at her best; just as the novelist trains all his powers by +the observation of life until he is able to transmute all the raw +material into a creation of fiction which satisfies us. We may be sure +that if the Greek artist had employed the service of models in his +studio, his art would have been merely a passing phase in human history. +But as it is, the world has ever since been in love with his ideal woman, +and still believes in her possibility. + +Now the young woman of today should not be deceived into the notion of a +preferable Realistic development because the novelist of today gets her +to sit to him as his model. This may be no certain indication that she is +either good art or good nature. Indeed she may be quite drifting away +from the ideal that a woman ought to aim at if we are to have a society +that is not always tending into a realistic vulgarity and commonplace. It +is perfectly true that a woman is her own excuse for being, and in a way +she is doing enough for the world by simply being a woman. It is +difficult to rouse her to any sense of her duty as a standard of +aspiration. And it is difficult to explain exactly what it is that she is +to do. If she asks if she is expected to be a model woman, the reply must +be that the world does not much hanker after what--is called the "model +woman." It seems to be more a matter of tendency than anything else. Is +she sagging towards Realism or rising towards Idealism? Is she content to +be the woman that some of the novelists, and some of the painters also, +say she is, or would she prefer to approach that ideal which all the +world loves? It is a question of standards. + +It is natural that in these days, when the approved gospel is that it is +better to be dead than not to be Real, society should try to approach +nature by the way of the materialistically ignoble, and even go such a +pace of Realism as literature finds it difficult to keep up with; but it +is doubtful if the young woman will get around to any desirable state of +nature by this route. We may not be able to explain why servile imitation +of nature degrades art and degrades woman, but both deteriorate without +an ideal so high that there is no earthly model for it. Would you like to +marry, perhaps, a Greek statue? says the justly contemptuous critic. + +Not at all, at least not a Roman copy of one. But it would be better to +marry a woman who would rather be like a Greek statue than like some of +these figures, without even an idea for clothing, which are lying about +on green banks in our spring exhibitions. + + + + +THE ART OF IDLENESS + +Idleness seems to be the last accomplishment of civilization. To be idle +gracefully and contentedly and picturesquely is an art. It is one in +which the Americans, who do so many things well, do not excel. They have +made the excuse that they have not time, or, if they have leisure, that +their temperament and nervous organization do not permit it. This excuse +will pass for a while, for we are a new people, and probably we are more +highly and sensitively organized than any other nation--at least the +physiologists say so; but the excuse seems more and more inadequate as we +accumulate wealth, and consequently have leisure. We shall not criticise +the American colonies in Paris and Rome and Florence, and in other +Continental places where they congregate. They know whether they are +restless or contented, and what examples they set to the peoples who get +their ideas of republican simplicity and virtue from the Americans who +sojourn among them. They know whether with all their leisure they get +placidity of mind and the real rest which the older nations have learned +to enjoy. It may not be the most desirable thing for a human being to be +idle, but if he will be, he should be so in a creditable manner, and with +some enjoyment to himself. It is no slander to say that we in America +have not yet found out the secret of this. Perhaps we shall not until our +energies are spent and we are in a state of decay. At present we put as +much energy into our pleasure as into our work, for it is inbred in us +that laziness is a sin. This is the Puritan idea, and it must be said for +it that in our experience virtue and idleness are not commonly +companions. But this does not go to the bottom of the matter. + +The Italians are industrious; they are compelled to be in order to pay +their taxes for the army and navy and get macaroni enough to live on. But +see what a long civilization has done for them. They have the manner of +laziness, they have the air of leisure, they have worn off the angular +corners of existence, and unconsciously their life is picturesque and +enjoyable. Those among them who have money take their pleasure simply and +with the least expense of physical energy. Those who have not money do +the same thing. This basis of existence is calm and unexaggerated; life +is reckoned by centimes, not by dollars. What an ideal place is Venice! +It is not only the most picturesque city in the world, rich in all that +art can invent to please the eye, but how calm it is! The vivacity which +entertains the traveler is all on the surface. The nobleman in his palace +if there be any palace that is not turned into a hotel, or a magazine of +curiosities, or a municipal office--can live on a diet that would make an +American workman strike, simply because he has learned to float through +life; and the laborer is equally happy on little because he has learned +to wait without much labor. The gliding, easy motion of the gondola +expresses the whole situation; and the gondolier who with consummate +skill urges his dreamy bark amid the throng and in the tortuous canals +for an hour or two, and then sleeps in the sun, is a type of that rest in +labor which we do not attain. What happiness there is in a dish of +polenta, or of a few fried fish, in a cup of coffee, and in one of those +apologies for cigars which the government furnishes, dear at a cent--the +cigar with a straw in it, as if it were a julep, which it needs five +minutes to ignite, and then will furnish occupation for a whole evening! +Is it a hard lot, that of the fishermen and the mariners of the Adriatic? +The lights are burning all night long in a cafe on the Riva del +Schiavoni, and the sailors and idlers of the shore sit there jabbering +and singing and trying their voices in lusty hallooing till the morning +light begins to make the lagoon opalescent. The traveler who lodges near +cannot sleep, but no more can the sailors, who steal away in the dawn, +wafted by painted sails. In the heat of the day, when the fish will not +bite, comes the siesta. Why should the royal night be wasted in slumber? +The shore of the Riva, the Grand Canal, the islands, gleam with twinkling +lamps; the dark boats glide along with a star in the prow, bearing youth +and beauty and sin and ugliness, all alike softened by the shadows; the +electric lights from the shores and the huge steamers shoot gleams on +towers and facades; the moon wades among the fleecy clouds; here and +there a barge with colored globes of light carries a band of singing men +and women and players on the mandolin and the fiddle, and from every side +the songs of Italy, pathetic in their worn gayety, float to the entranced +ears of those who lean from balconies, or lounge in gondolas and listen +with hearts made a little heavy and wistful with so much beauty. + +Can any one float in such scenes and be so contentedly idle anywhere in +our happy land? Have we learned yet the simple art of easy enjoyment? Can +we buy it with money quickly, or is it a grace that comes only with long +civilization? Italy, for instance, is full of accumulated wealth, of art, +even of ostentation and display, and the new generation probably have +lost the power to conceive, if not the skill to execute, the great works +which excite our admiration. Nothing can be much more meretricious than +its modern art, when anything is produced that is not an exact copy of +something created when there was genius there. But in one respect the +Italians have entered into the fruits of the ages of trial and of +failure, and that, is the capacity of being idle with much money or with +none, and getting day by day their pay for the bother of living in this +world. It seems a difficult lesson for us to learn in country or city. +Alas! when we have learned it shall we not want to emigrate, as so many +of the Italians do? Some philosophers say that men were not created to be +happy. Perhaps they were not intended to be idle. + + + + +IS THERE ANY CONVERSATION + +Is there any such thing as conversation? It is a delicate subject to +touch, because many people understand conversation to be talk; not the +exchange of ideas, but of words; and we would not like to say anything to +increase the flow of the latter. We read of times and salons in which +real conversation existed, held by men and women. Are they altogether in +the past? We believe that men do sometimes converse. Do women ever? +Perhaps so. In those hours sacred to the relaxation of undress and the +back hair, in the upper penetralia of the household, where two or three +or six are gathered together on and about the cushioned frame intended +for repose, do they converse, or indulge in that sort of chat from which +not one idea is carried away? No one reports, fortunately, and we do not +know. But do all the women like this method of spending hour after hour, +day after day-indeed, a lifetime? Is it invigorating, even restful? Think +of the talk this past summer, the rivers and oceans of it, on piazzas and +galleries in the warm evenings or the fresher mornings, in private +houses, on hotel verandas, in the shade of thousands of cottages by the +sea and in the hills! As you recall it, what was it all about? Was the +mind in a vapid condition after an evening of it? And there is so much to +read, and so much to think about, and the world is so interesting, if you +do think about it, and nearly every person has some peculiarity of mind +that would be worth study if you could only get at it! It is really, we +repeat, such an interesting world, and most people get so little out of +it. Now there is the conversation of hens, when the hens are busy and not +self-conscious; there is something fascinating about it, because the +imagination may invest it with a recondite and spicy meaning; but the +common talk of people! We infer sometimes that the hens are not saying +anything, because they do not read, and consequently their minds are +empty. And perhaps we are right. As to conversation, there is no use in +sending the bucket into the well when the well is dry--it only makes a +rattling of windlass and chain. We do not wish to be understood to be an +enemy of the light traffic of human speech. Deliver us from the didactic +and the everlastingly improving style of thing! Conversation, in order to +be good, and intellectually inspiring, and spiritually restful, need not +always be serious. It must be alert and intelligent, and mean more by its +suggestions and allusions than is said. There is the light touch-and-go +play about topics more or less profound that is as agreeable as +heat-lightning in a sultry evening. Why may not a person express the +whims and vagaries of a lambent mind (if he can get a lambent mind) +without being hauled up short for it, and plunged into a heated dispute? +In the freedom of real conversation the mind throws out half-thoughts, +paradoxes, for which a man is not to be held strictly responsible to the +very roots of his being, and which need to be caught up and played with +in the same tentative spirit. The dispute and the hot argument are +usually the bane of conversation and the death of originality. We like to +express a notion, a fancy, without being called upon to defend it, then +and there, in all its possible consequences, as if it were to be an +article in a creed or a plank in a platform. Must we be always either +vapid or serious? + +We have been obliged to take notice of the extraordinary tendency of +American women to cultivation, to the improvement of the mind, by means +of reading, clubs, and other intellectual exercises, and to acknowledge +that they are leaving the men behind; that is, the men not in the +so-called professions. Is this intellectualization beginning to show in +the conversation of women when they are together, say in the hours of +relaxation in the penetralia spoken of, or in general society? Is there +less talk about the fashion of dress, and the dearness or cheapness of +materials, and about servants, and the ways of the inchoate citizen +called the baby, and the infinitely little details of the private life of +other people? Is it true that if a group of men are talking, say about +politics, or robust business, or literature, and they are joined by women +(whose company is always welcome), the conversation is pretty sure to +take a lower mental plane, to become more personal, more frivolous, +accommodating itself to quite a different range? Do the well-read, +thoughtful women, however beautiful and brilliant and capable of the +gayest persiflage, prefer to talk with men, to listen to the conversation +of men, rather than to converse with or listen to their own sex? If this +is true, why is it? Women, as a rule, in "society" at any rate, have more +leisure than men. In the facilities and felicities of speech they +commonly excel men, and usually they have more of that vivacious dramatic +power which is called "setting out a thing to the life." With all these +advantages, and all the world open to them in newspapers and in books, +they ought to be the leaders and stimulators of the best conversation. +With them it should never drop down to the too-common flatness and +banality. Women have made this world one of the most beautiful places of +residence to be conceived. They might make it one of the most +interesting. + + + + +THE TALL GIRL + +It is the fashion for girls to be tall. This is much more than saying +that tall girls are the fashion. It means not only that the tall girl has +come in, but that girls are tall, and are becoming tall, because it is +the fashion, and because there is a demand for that sort of girl. There +is no hint of stoutness, indeed the willowy pattern is preferred, but +neither is leanness suggested; the women of the period have got hold of +the poet's idea, "tall and most divinely fair," and are living up to it. +Perhaps this change in fashion is more noticeable in England and on the +Continent than in America, but that may be because there is less room for +change in America, our girls being always of an aspiring turn. Very +marked the phenomenon is in England; on the street, at any concert or +reception, the number of tall girls is so large as to occasion remark, +especially among the young girls just coming into the conspicuousness of +womanhood. The tendency of the new generation is towards unusual height +and gracious slimness. The situation would be embarrassing to thousands +of men who have been too busy to think about growing upward, were it not +for the fact that the tall girl, who must be looked up to, is almost +invariably benignant, and bears her height with a sweet timidity that +disarms fear. Besides, the tall girl has now come on in such force that +confidence is infused into the growing army, and there is a sense of +support in this survival of the tallest that is very encouraging to the +young. + +Many theories have been put forward to account for this phenomenon. It is +known that delicate plants in dark places struggle up towards the light +in a frail slenderness, and it is said that in England, which seems to +have increasing cloudiness, and in the capital more and more months of +deeper darkness and blackness, it is natural that the British girl should +grow towards the light. But this is a fanciful view of the case, for it +cannot be proved that English men have proportionally increased their +stature. The English man has always seemed big to the Continental +peoples, partly because objects generally take on gigantic dimensions +when seen through a fog. Another theory, which has much more to commend +it, is that the increased height of women is due to the aesthetic +movement, which has now spent its force, but has left certain results, +especially in the change of the taste in colors. The woman of the +aesthetic artist was nearly always tall, usually willowy, not to say +undulating and serpentine. These forms of feminine loveliness and +commanding height have been for many years before the eyes of the women +of England in paintings and drawings, and it is unavoidable that this +pattern should not have its effect upon the new and plastic generation. +Never has there been another generation so open to new ideas; and if the +ideal of womanhood held up was that of length and gracious slenderness, +it would be very odd if women should not aspire to it. We know very well +the influence that the heroines of the novelists have had from time to +time upon the women of a given period. The heroine of Scott was, no +doubt, once common in society--the delicate creature who promptly fainted +on the reminiscence of the scent of a rose, but could stand any amount of +dragging by the hair through underground passages, and midnight rides on +lonely moors behind mailed and black-mantled knights, and a run or two of +hair-removing typhoid fever, and come out at the end of the story as +fresh as a daisy. She could not be found now, so changed are the +requirements of fiction. We may assume, too, that the full-blown +aesthetic girl of that recent period--the girl all soul and faded +harmonies--would be hard to find, but the fascination of the height and +slenderness of that girl remains something more than a tradition, and is, +no doubt, to some extent copied by the maiden just coming into her +kingdom. + +Those who would belittle this matter may say that the appearance of which +we speak is due largely to the fashion of dress--the long unbroken lines +which add to the height and encourage the appearance of slenderness. But +this argument gives away the case. Why do women wear the present +fascinating gowns, in which the lithe figure is suggested in all its +womanly dignity? In order that they may appear to be tall. That is to +say, because it is the fashion to be tall; women born in the mode are +tall, and those caught in a hereditary shortness endeavor to conform to +the stature of the come and coming woman. + +There is another theory, that must be put forward with some hesitation, +for the so-called emancipation of woman is a delicate subject to deal +with, for while all the sex doubtless feel the impulse of the new time, +there are still many who indignantly reject the implication in the +struggle for the rights of women. To say, therefore, that women are +becoming tall as a part of their outfit for taking the place of men in +this world would be to many an affront, so that this theory can only be +suggested. Yet probably physiology would bear us out in saying that the +truly emancipated woman, taking at last the place in affairs which men +have flown in the face of Providence by denying her, would be likely to +expand physically as well as mentally, and that as she is beginning to +look down upon man intellectually, she is likely to have a corresponding +physical standard. + +Seriously, however, none of these theories are altogether satisfactory, +and we are inclined to seek, as is best in all cases, the simplest +explanation. Women are tall and becoming tall simply because it is the +fashion, and that statement never needs nor is capable of any +explanation. Awhile ago it was the fashion to be petite and arch; it is +now the fashion to be tall and gracious, and nothing more can be said +about it. Of course the reader, who is usually inclined to find the +facetious side of any grave topic, has already thought of the application +of the self-denying hymn, that man wants but little here below, and wants +that little long; but this may be only a passing sigh of the period. We +are far from expressing any preference for tall women over short women. +There are creative moods of the fancy when each seems the better. We can +only chronicle, but never create. + + + + +THE DEADLY DIARY + +Many people regard the keeping of a diary as a meritorious occupation. +The young are urged to take up this cross; it is supposed to benefit +girls especially. Whether women should do it is to some minds not an open +question, although there is on record the case of the Frenchman who tried +to shoot himself when he heard that his wife was keeping a diary. This +intention of suicide may have arisen from the fear that his wife was +keeping a record of his own peccadilloes rather than of her own thoughts +and emotions. Or it may have been from the fear that she was putting down +those little conjugal remarks which the husband always dislikes to have +thrown up to him, and which a woman can usually quote accurately, it may +be for years, it may be forever, without the help of a diary. So we can +appreciate without approving the terror of the Frenchman at living on and +on in the same house with a growing diary. For it is not simply that this +little book of judgment is there in black and white, but that the maker +of it is increasing her power of minute observation and analytic +expression. In discussing the question whether a woman should keep a +diary it is understood that it is not a mere memorandum of events and +engagements, such as both men and women of business and affairs +necessarily keep, but the daily record which sets down feelings, +emotions, and impressions, and criticises people and records opinions. +But this is a question that applies to men as well as to women. + +It has been assumed that the diary serves two good purposes: it is a +disciplinary exercise for the keeper of it, and perhaps a moral guide; +and it has great historical value. As to the first, it may be helpful to +order, method, discipline, and it may be an indulgence of spleen, whims, +and unwholesome criticism and conceit. The habit of saying right out what +you think of everybody is not a good one, and the record of such opinions +and impressions, while it is not so mischievous to the public as talking +may be, is harmful to the recorder. And when we come to the historical +value of the diary, we confess to a growing suspicion of it. It is such a +deadly weapon when it comes to light after the passage of years. It has +an authority which the spoken words of its keeper never had. It is 'ex +parte', and it cannot be cross-examined. The supposition is that being +contemporaneous with the events spoken of, it must be true, and that it +is an honest record. Now, as a matter of fact, we doubt if people are any +more honest as to themselves or others in a diary than out of it; and +rumors, reported facts, and impressions set down daily in the heat and +haste of the prejudicial hour are about as likely to be wrong as right. +Two diaries of the same events rarely agree. And in turning over an old +diary we never know what to allow for the personal equation. The diary is +greatly relied on by the writers of history, but it is doubtful if there +is any such liar in the world, even when the keeper of it is honest. It +is certain to be partisan, and more liable to be misinformed than a +newspaper, which exercises some care in view of immediate publicity. The +writer happens to know of two diaries which record, on the testimony of +eye-witnesses, the circumstances of the last hours of Garfield, and they +differ utterly in essential particulars. One of these may turn up fifty +years from now, and be accepted as true. An infinite amount of gossip +goes into diaries about men and women that would not stand the test of a +moment's contemporary publication. But by-and-by it may all be used to +smirch or brighten unjustly some one's character. Suppose a man in the +Army of the Potomac had recorded daily all his opinions of men and +events. Reading it over now, with more light and a juster knowledge of +character and of measures, is it not probable that he would find it a +tissue of misconceptions? Few things are actually what they seem today; +they are colored both by misapprehensions and by moods. If a man writes a +letter or makes report of an occurrence for immediate publication, +subject to universal criticism, there is some restraint on him. In his +private letter, or diary especially, he is apt to set down what comes +into his head at the moment, often without much effort at verification. + +We have been led to this disquisition into the fundamental nature of this +private record by the question put to us, whether it is a good plan for a +woman to keep a diary. Speaking generally, the diary has become a sort of +fetich, the authority of which ought to be overthrown. It is fearful to +think how our characters are probably being lied away by innumerable pen +scratches in secret repositories, which may some day come to light as +unimpeachable witnesses. The reader knows that he is not the sort of man +which the diarist jotted him down to be in a single interview. The diary +may be a good thing for self-education, if the keeper could insure its +destruction. The mental habit of diarizing may have some value, even when +it sets undue importance upon trifles. We confess that, never having seen +a woman's private diary (except those that have been published), we do +not share the popular impression as to their tenuity implied in the +question put to us. Taking it for granted that they are full of noble +thoughts and beautiful imaginings, we doubt whether the time spent on +them could not be better employed in acquiring knowledge or taking +exercise. For the diary forgotten and left to the next generation may be +as dangerous as dynamite. + + + + +THE WHISTLING GIRL + +The wisdom of our ancestors packed away in proverbial sayings may always +be a little suspected. We have a vague respect for a popular proverb, as +embodying folk-experience, and expressing not the wit of one, but the +common thought of a race. We accept the saying unquestioning, as a sort +of inspiration out of the air, true because nobody has challenged it for +ages, and probably for the same reason that we try to see the new moon +over our left shoulder. Very likely the musty saying was the product of +the average ignorance of an unenlightened time, and ought not to have the +respect of a scientific and traveled people. In fact it will be found +that a large proportion of the proverbial sayings which we glibly use are +fallacies based on a very limited experience of the world, and probably +were set afloat by the idiocy or prejudice of one person. To examine one +of them is enough for our present purpose. + + "Whistling girls and crowing hens + Always come to some bad ends." + +It would be interesting to know the origin of this proverb, because it is +still much relied on as evincing a deep knowledge of human nature, and as +an argument against change, that is to say, in this case, against +progress. It would seem to have been made by a man, conservative, perhaps +malevolent, who had no appreciation of a hen, and a conservatively poor +opinion of woman. His idea was to keep woman in her place--a good idea +when not carried too far--but he did not know what her place is, and he +wanted to put a sort of restraint upon her emancipation by coupling her +with an emancipated hen. He therefore launched this shaft of ridicule, +and got it to pass as an arrow of wisdom shot out of a popular experience +in remote ages. + +In the first place, it is not true, and probably never was true even when +hens were at their lowest. We doubts its Sanscrit antiquity. It is +perhaps of Puritan origin, and rhymed in New England. It is false as to +the hen. A crowing hen was always an object of interest and distinction; +she was pointed out to visitors; the owner was proud of her +accomplishment, he was naturally likely to preserve her life, and +especially if she could lay. A hen that can lay and crow is a 'rara +avis'. And it should be parenthetically said here that the hen who can +crow and cannot lay is not a good example for woman. The crowing hen was +of more value than the silent hen, provided she crowed with discretion; +and she was likely to be a favorite, and not at all to come to some bad +end. Except, indeed, where the proverb tended to work its own +fulfillment. And this is the regrettable side of most proverbs of an +ill-nature, that they do help to work the evil they predict. Some foolish +boy, who had heard this proverb, and was sent out to the hen-coop in the +evening to slay for the Thanksgiving feast, thought he was a justifiable +little providence in wringing the neck of the crowing hen, because it was +proper (according to the saying) that she should come to some bad end. +And as years went on, and that kind of boy increased and got to be a man, +it became a fixed idea to kill the amusing, interesting, spirited, +emancipated hen, and naturally the barn-yard became tamer and tamer, the +production of crowing hens was discouraged (the wise old hens laid no +eggs with a crow in them, according to the well-known principle of +heredity), and the man who had in his youth exterminated the hen of +progress actually went about quoting that false couplet as an argument +against the higher education of woman. + +As a matter of fact, also, the couplet is not true about woman; whether +it ought to be true is an ethical question that will not be considered +here. The whistling girl does not commonly come to a bad end. Quite as +often as any other girl she learns to whistle a cradle song, low and +sweet and charming, to the young voter in the cradle. She is a girl of +spirit, of independence of character, of dash and flavor; and as to lips, +why, you must have some sort of presentable lips to whistle; thin ones +will not. The whistling girl does not come to a bad end at all (if +marriage is still considered a good occupation), except a cloud may be +thrown upon her exuberant young life by this rascally proverb. Even if +she walks the lonely road of life, she has this advantage, that she can +whistle to keep her courage up. But in a larger sense, one that this +practical age can understand, it is not true that the whistling girl +comes to a bad end. Whistling pays. It has brought her money; it has +blown her name about the listening world. Scarcely has a non-whistling +woman been more famous. She has set aside the adage. She has done so much +towards the emancipation of her sex from the prejudice created by an +ill-natured proverb which never had root in fact. + +But has the whistling woman come to stay? Is it well for woman to +whistle? Are the majority of women likely to be whistlers? These are +serious questions, not to be taken up in a light manner at the end of a +grave paper. Will woman ever learn to throw a stone? There it is. The +future is inscrutable. We only know that whereas they did not whistle +with approval, now they do; the prejudice of generations gradually melts +away. And woman's destiny is not linked with that of the hen, nor to be +controlled by a proverb--perhaps not by anything. + + + + +BORN OLD AND RICH + +We have been remiss in not proposing a remedy for our present social and +economic condition. Looking backward, we see this. The scheme may not be +practical, any more than the Utopian plans that have been put forward, +but it is radical and interesting, and requires, as the other schemes do, +a total change in human nature (which may be a good thing to bring +about), and a general recasting of the conditions of life. This is and +should be no objection to a socialistic scheme. Surface measures will not +avail. The suggestion for a minor alleviation of inequality, which seems +to have been acted on, namely, that women should propose, has not had the +desired effect if it is true, as reported, that the eligible young men +are taking to the woods. The workings of such a measure are as impossible +to predict in advance as the operation of the McKinley tariff. It might +be well to legislate that people should be born equal (including equal +privileges of the sexes), but the practical difficulty is to keep them +equal. Life is wrong somehow. Some are born rich and some are born poor, +and this inequality makes misery, and then some lose their possessions, +which others get hold of, and that makes more misery. We can put our +fingers on the two great evils of life as it now is: the first is +poverty; and the second is infirmity, which is the accompaniment of +increasing years. Poverty, which is only the unequal distribution of +things desired, makes strife, and is the opportunity of lawyers; and +infirmity is the excuse for doctors. Think what the world would be +without lawyers and doctors! + +We are all born young, and most of us are born poor. Youth is delightful, +but we are always getting away from it. How different it would be if we +were always going towards it! Poverty is unpleasant, and the great +struggle of life is to get rid of it; but it is the common fortune that +in proportion as wealth is attained the capacity of enjoying it departs. +It seems, therefore, that our life is wrong end first. The remedy +suggested is that men should be born rich and old. Instead of the +necessity of making a fortune, which is of less and less value as death +approaches, we should have only the privilege of spending it, and it +would have its natural end in the cradle, in which we should be rocked +into eternal sleep. Born old, one would, of course, inherit experience, +so that wealth could be made to contribute to happiness, and each day, +instead of lessening the natural powers and increasing infirmities, would +bring new vigor and capacity of enjoyment. It would be going from winter +to autumn, from autumn to summer, from summer to spring. The joy of a +life without care as to ways and means, and every morning refitted with +the pulsations of increasing youth, it is almost impossible to imagine. +Of course this scheme has difficulties on the face of it. The allotting +of the measure of wealth would not be difficult to the socialists, +because they would insist that every person should be born with an equal +amount of property. What this should be would depend upon the length of +life; and how should this be arrived at? The insurance companies might +agree, but no one else would admit that he belongs in the average. +Naturally the Biblical limit of threescore and ten suggests itself; but +human nature is very queer. With the plain fact before them that the +average life of man is less than thirty-four years, few would be willing, +if the choice were offered, to compromise on seventy. Everybody has a +hope of going beyond that, so that if seventy were proposed as the year +at birth, there would no doubt be as much dissatisfaction as there is at +the present loose arrangement. Science would step in, and demonstrate +that there is no reason why, with proper care of the system, it should +not run a hundred years. It is improbable, then, that the majority could +be induced to vote for the limit of seventy years, or to exchange the +exciting uncertainty of adding a little to the period which must be +accompanied by the weight of the grasshopper, for the certainty of only +seventy years in this much-abused world. + +But suppose a limit to be agreed on, and the rich old man and the rich +old woman (never now too old to marry) to start on their career towards +youth and poverty. The imagination kindles at the idea. The money would +hold out just as long as life lasted, and though it would all be going +downhill, as it were, what a charming descent, without struggle, and with +only the lessening infirmities that belong to decreasing age! There would +be no second childhood, only the innocence and elasticity of the first. +It all seems very fair, but we must not forget that this is a mortal +world, and that it is liable to various accidents. Who, for instance, +could be sure that he would grow young gracefully? There would be the +constant need of fighting the hot tempers and impulses of youth, growing +more and more instead of less and less unreasonable. And then, how many +would reach youth? More than half, of course, would be cut off in their +prime, and be more and more liable to go as they fell back into the +pitfalls and errors of childhood. Would people grow young together even +as harmoniously as they grow old together? It would be a pretty sight, +that of the few who descended into the cradle together, but this +inversion of life would not escape the woes of mortality. And there are +other considerations, unless it should turn out that a universal tax on +land should absolutely change human nature. There are some who would be +as idle and spendthrift going towards youth as they now are going away +from it, and perhaps more, so that half the race on coming to immaturity +would be in child asylums. And then others who would be stingy and greedy +and avaricious, and not properly spend their allotted fortune. And we +should have the anomaly, which is so distasteful to the reformer now, of +rich babies. A few babies inordinately rich, and the rest in asylums. + +Still, the plan has more to recommend it than most others for removing +poverty and equalizing conditions. We should all start rich, and the +dying off of those who would never attain youth would amply provide +fortunes for those born old. Crime would be less also; for while there +would, doubtless, be some old sinners, the criminal class, which is very +largely under thirty, would be much smaller than it is now. Juvenile +depravity would proportionally disappear, as not more people would reach +non-age than now reach over-age. And the great advantage of the scheme, +one that would indeed transform the world, is that women would always be +growing younger. + + + + +THE "OLD SOLDIER" + +The "old soldier" is beginning to outline himself upon the public mind as +a distant character in American life. Literature has not yet got hold of +him, and perhaps his evolution is not far enough advanced to make him as +serviceable as the soldier of the Republic and the Empire, the relic of +the Old Guard, was to Hugo and Balzac, the trooper of Italy and Egypt, +the maimed hero of Borodino and Waterloo, who expected again the coming +of the Little Corporal. It takes time to develop a character, and to +throw the glamour of romance over what may be essentially commonplace. A +quarter of a century has not sufficed to separate the great body of the +surviving volunteers in the war for the Union from the body of American +citizens, notwithstanding the organization of the Grand Army of the +Republic, the encampments, the annual reunions, and the distinction of +pensions, and the segregation in Soldiers' Homes. The "old soldier" +slowly eliminates himself from the mass, and begins to take, and to make +us take, a romantic view of his career. There was one event in his life, +and his personality in it looms larger and larger as he recedes from it. +The heroic sacrifice of it does not diminish, as it should not, in our +estimation, and he helps us to keep glowing a lively sense of it. The +past centres about him and his great achievement, and the whole of life +is seen in the light of it. In his retreat in the Home, and in his +wandering from one Home to another, he ruminates on it, he talks of it; +he separates himself from the rest of mankind by a broad distinction, and +his point of view of life becomes as original as it is interesting. In +the Homes the battered veterans speak mainly of one thing; and in the +monotony of their spent lives develop whimseys and rights and wrongs, +patriotic ardors and criticisms on their singular fate, which are +original in their character in our society. It is in human nature to like +rest but not restriction, bounty but not charity, and the tired heroes of +the war grow restless, though every physical want is supplied. They have +a fancy that they would like to see again the homes of their youth, the +farmhouse in the hills, the cottage in the river valley, the lonesome +house on the wide prairie, the street that ran down to the wharf where +the fishing-smacks lay, to see again the friends whom they left there, +and perhaps to take up the occupations that were laid down when they +seized the musket in 1861. Alas! it is not their home anymore; the +friends are no longer there; and what chance is there of occupation for a +man who is now feeble in body and who has the habit of campaigning? This +generation has passed on to other things. It looks upon the hero as an +illustration in the story of the war, which it reads like history. The +veteran starts out from the shelter of the Home. One evening, towards +sunset, the comfortable citizen, taking the mild air on his piazza, sees +an interesting figure approach. Its dress is half military, half that of +the wanderer whose attention to his personal appearance is only +spasmodic. + +The veteran gives the military salute, he holds himself erect, almost too +erect, and his speech is voluble and florid. It is a delightful evening; +it seems to be a good growing-time; the country looks prosperous. He is +sorry to be any trouble or interruption, but the fact is--yes, he is on +his way to his old home in Vermont; it seems like he would like to taste +some home cooking again, and sit in the old orchard, and perhaps lay his +bones, what is left of them, in the burying-ground on the hill. He pulls +out his well-worn papers as he talks; there is the honorable discharge, +the permit of the Home, and the pension. Yes, Uncle Sam is generous; it +is the most generous government God ever made, and he would willingly +fight for it again. Thirty dollars a month, that is what he has; he is +not a beggar; he wants for nothing. But the pension is not payable till +the end of the month. It is entirely his own obligation, his own fault; +he can fight, but he cannot lie, and nobody is to blame but himself; but +last night he fell in with some old comrades at Southdown, and, well, you +know how it is. He had plenty of money when he left the Home, and he is +not asking for anything now, but if he had a few dollars for his railroad +fare to the next city, he could walk the rest of the way. Wounded? Well, +if I stood out here against the light you could just see through me, +that's all. Bullets? It's no use to try to get 'em out. But, sir, I'm not +complaining. It had to be done; the country had to be saved; and I'd do +it again if it were necessary. Had any hot fights? Sir, I was at +Gettysburg! The veteran straightens up, and his eyes flash as if he saw +again that sanguinary field. Off goes the citizen's hat. Children, come +out here; here is one of the soldiers of Gettysburg! Yes, sir; and this +knee--you see I can't bend it much--got stiffened at Chickamauga; and +this scratch here in the neck was from a bullet at Gaines Mill; and this +here, sir--thumping his chest--you notice I don't dare to cough much +--after the explosion of a shell at Petersburg I found myself lying on +my-back, and the only one of my squad who was not killed outright. Was it +the imagination of the citizen or of the soldier that gave the impression +that the hero had been in the forefront of every important action of the +war? Well, it doesn't matter much. The citizen was sitting there under +his own vine, the comfortable citizen of a free republic, because of the +wounds in this cheerful and imaginative old wanderer. There, that is +enough, sir, quite enough. I am no beggar. I thought perhaps you had +heard of the Ninth Vermont. Woods is my name--Sergeant Woods. I trust +some time, sir, I shall be in a position to return the compliment. +Good-evening, sir; God bless your honor! and accept the blessing of an +old soldier. And the dear old hero goes down the darkening avenue, not so +steady of bearing as when he withstood the charge of Pickett on Cemetery +Hill, and with the independence of the American citizen who deserves well +of his country, makes his way to the nearest hospitable tavern. + + + + +THE ISLAND OF BIMINI + +To the northward of Hispaniola lies the island of Bimini. It may not be +one of the spice islands, but it grows the best ginger to be found in the +world. In it is a fair city, and beside the city a lofty mountain, at the +foot of which is a noble spring called the 'Fons Juventutis'. This +fountain has a sweet savor, as of all manner of spicery, and every hour +of the day the water changes its savor and its smell. Whoever drinks of +this well will be healed of whatever malady he has, and will seem always +young. It is not reported that women and men who drink of this fountain +will be always young, but that they will seem so, and probably to +themselves, which simply means, in our modern accuracy of language, that +they will feel young. This island has never been found. Many voyages have +been made in search of it in ships and in the imagination, and Liars have +said they have landed on it and drunk of the water, but they never could +guide any one else thither. In the credulous centuries when these voyages +were made, other islands were discovered, and a continent much more +important than Bimini; but these discoveries were a disappointment, +because they were not what the adventurers wanted. They did not +understand that they had found a new land in which the world should renew +its youth and begin a new career. In time the quest was given up, and men +regarded it as one of the delusions which came to an end in the sixteenth +century. In our day no one has tried to reach Bimini except Heine. Our +scientific period has a proper contempt for all such superstitions. We +now know that the 'Fons Juventutis' is in every man, and that if actually +juvenility cannot be renewed, the advance of age can be arrested and the +waste of tissues be prevented, and an uncalculated length of earthly +existence be secured, by the injection of some sort of fluid into the +system. The right fluid has not yet been discovered by science, but +millions of people thought that it had the other day, and now confidently +expect it. This credulity has a scientific basis, and has no relation to +the old absurd belief in Bimini. We thank goodness that we do not live in +a credulous age. + +The world would be in a poor case indeed if it had not always before it +some ideal or millennial condition, some panacea, some transmutation of +base metals into gold, some philosopher's stone, some fountain of youth, +some process of turning charcoal into diamonds, some scheme for +eliminating evil. But it is worth mentioning that in the historical +evolution we have always got better things than we sought or imagined, +developments on a much grander scale. History is strewn with the wreck of +popular delusions, but always in place of them have come realizations +more astonishing than the wildest fancies of the dreamers. Florida was a +disappointment as a Bimini, so were the land of the Ohio, the land of the +Mississippi, the Dorado of the Pacific coast. But as the illusions, +pushed always westward, vanished in the light of common day, lo! a +continent gradually emerged, with millions of people animated by +conquering ambition of progress in freedom; an industrial continent, +covered with a network of steel, heated by steam, and lighted by +electricity. What a spectacle of youth on a grand scale is this! +Christopher Columbus had not the slightest conception of what he was +doing when he touched the button. But we are not satisfied. Quite as far +from being so as ever. The popular imagination runs a hard race with any +possible natural development. Being in possession of so much, we now +expect to travel in the air, to read news in the sending mind before it +is sent, to create force without cost, to be transported without time, +and to make everybody equal in fortune and happiness to everybody else by +act of Congress. Such confidence have we in the power of a "resolution" +of the people and by the people that it seems feasible to make women into +men, oblivious of the more important and imperative task that will then +arise of making men into women. Some of these expectations are only +Biminis of the present, but when they have vanished there will be a +social and industrial world quite beyond our present conceptions, no +doubt. In the article of woman, for instance, she may not become the +being that the convention expects, but there may appear a Woman of whom +all the Aspasias and Helens were only the faintest types. And although no +progress will take the conceit out of men, there may appear a Man so +amenable to ordinary reason that he will give up the notion that he can +lift himself up by his bootstraps, or make one grain of wheat two by +calling it two. + +One of the Biminis that have always been looked for is an American +Literature. There was an impression that there must be such a thing +somewhere on a continent that has everything else. We gave the world +tobacco and the potato, perhaps the most important contributions to the +content and the fatness of the world made by any new country, and it was +a noble ambition to give it new styles of art and literature also. There +seems to have been an impression that a literature was something +indigenous or ready-made, like any other purely native product, not +needing any special period of cultivation or development, and that a +nation would be in a mortifying position without one, even before it +staked out its cities or built any roads. Captain John Smith, if he had +ever settled here and spread himself over the continent, as he was +capable of doing, might have taken the contract to furnish one, and we +may be sure that he would have left us nothing to desire in that +direction. But the vein of romance he opened was not followed up. Other +prospectings were made. Holes, so to speak, were dug in New England, and +in the middle South, and along the frontier, and such leads were found +that again and again the certainty arose that at last the real American +ore had been discovered. Meantime a certain process called civilization +went on, and certain ideas of breadth entered into our conceptions, and +ideas also of the historical development of the expression of thought in +the world, and with these a comprehension of what American really is, and +the difficulty of putting the contents of a bushel measure into a pint +cup. So, while we have been expecting the American Literature to come out +from some locality, neat and clean, like a nugget, or, to change the +figure, to bloom any day like a century-plant, in one striking, fragrant +expression of American life, behold something else has been preparing and +maturing, larger and more promising than our early anticipations. In +history, in biography, in science, in the essay, in the novel and story, +there are coming forth a hundred expressions of the hundred aspects of +American life; and they are also sung by the poets in notes as varied as +the migrating birds. The birds perhaps have the best of it thus far, but +the bird is limited to a small range of performances while he shifts his +singing-boughs through the climates of the continent, whereas the poet, +though a little inclined to mistake aspiration for inspiration, and +vagueness of longing for subtlety, is experimenting in a most hopeful +manner. And all these writers, while perhaps not consciously American or +consciously seeking to do more than their best in their several ways, are +animated by the free spirit of inquiry and expression that belongs to an +independent nation, and so our literature is coming to have a stamp of +its own that is unlike any other national stamp. And it will have this +stamp more authentically and be clearer and stronger as we drop the +self-consciousness of the necessity of being American. + + + + +JUNE + +Here is June again! It never was more welcome in these Northern +latitudes. It seems a pity that such a month cannot be twice as long. It +has been the pet of the poets, but it is not spoiled, and is just as full +of enchantment as ever. The secret of this is that it is the month of +both hope and fruition. It is the girl of eighteen, standing with all her +charms on the eve of womanhood, in the dress and temperament of spring. +And the beauty of it is that almost every woman is young, if ever she +were young, in June. For her the roses bloom, and the red clover. It is a +pity the month is so short. It is as full of vigor as of beauty. The +energy of the year is not yet spent; indeed, the world is opening on all +sides; the school-girl is about to graduate into liberty; and the young +man is panting to kick or row his way into female adoration and general +notoriety. The young men have made no mistake about the kind of education +that is popular with women. The women like prowess and the manly virtues +of pluck and endurance. The world has not changed in this respect. It was +so with the Greeks; it was so when youth rode in tournaments and unhorsed +each other for the love of a lady. June is the knightly month. On many a +field of gold and green the heroes will kick their way into fame; and +bands of young women, in white, with their diplomas in their hands, +star-eyed mathematicians and linguists, will come out to smile upon the +victors in that exhibition of strength that women most admire. No, the +world is not decaying or losing its juvenility. The motto still is, +"Love, and may the best man win!" How jocund and immortal is woman! Now, +in a hundred schools and colleges, will stand up the solemn, +well-intentioned man before a row of pretty girls, and tell them about +Womanhood and its Duties, and they will listen just as shyly as if they +were getting news, and needed to be instructed by a man on a subject +which has engaged their entire attention since they were five years old. +In the light of science and experience the conceit of men is something +curious. And in June! the most blossoming, riant, feminine time of the +year. The month itself is a liberal education to him who is not +insensible to beauty and the strong sweet promise of life. The streams +run clear then, as they do not in April; the sky is high and transparent; +the world seems so large and fresh and inviting. Our houses, which six +months in the year in these latitudes are fortifications of defense, are +open now, and the breath of life flows through them. Even over the city +the sky is benign, and all the country is a heavenly exhibition. May was +sweet and capricious. This is the maidenhood deliciousness of the year. +If you were to bisect the heart of a true poet, you would find written +therein JUNE. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of As We Go, by Charles Dudley Warner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AS WE GO *** + +***** This file should be named 3107.txt or 3107.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/0/3107/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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