THEIR VARYING CHARMS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 798, 22 April 1910, Page 3

THEIR VARYING CHARMS.

■■;-. „.'•■,!-. N .. ; . Mrs.' Gertrude Atherton, the author of "American Wives and, English Hus:'bahds," been esplaining. to the 'world why American women , prefer, Englishmen to their own "countrjinen, and only a. littlo while .beforp r Miss Dora' ,'d'Espaiguo fully explaining why Englishmen "were; jjbfc attracted by. their; own countrj , - >voirien' as .by :tHe. fair American m-'. vaders. --It only'-remains 'ior''a third writer to explain, tho mutual attraction between American men and English women, a task in which Henry James was unsuccessful. :

The American woman's opinion'on the reason.why. there are so many unmar- 1 ried English girls, a reason that is shared by Australians, too, whose upbringing is much like that of their American sisters, 1 is, first of all, that American parents do not show themselves- so desirous to be rid of their, daughters as English parents do.' . , "Of course, Britishers are used to it, so maybo it doesn't affect them tho '"same- way," 'said one American woman. "But when an American man sees a mother desperately keen to make, over her daughter to somebody else's caro it sets him wondering whether tho daughter can be such, a treasure in her own home that he would be-wiso, in transplanting her to his! .; Now, ■ however homely an American girl may be, the man who wants her -is' bound to have two rivals ', anyway, to" contend with—her 'Poppa' and 'Momma.' Our men have regularly to fight for us with our. parents—and even ,the nicest man seems to ,like a 'girl _ better that Way than when ne is tacitly told he has only got to throw the handkerchief! The ; odd thing is that, for all they're so dead anxious to marry their girls, English- mothers don't a bit know how io do ■ it. They're right back in the Middle Ages in their ideas. They think a girl should be good, and quiet, and not too smart, and not too talkative, and not different from any other girl. Above everything on earth she is not to be conspicuous. From what English girls have confided to my sympathetic ear, I should judgo that conspicuousness is looked upon over here as one of the seven deadly sins. Englishwomen generally have their individuality quenched, by parents who want their offspring to be lay-figures draped .to copy mamma. 'Atthe best, they seldom develop a marked personality till they are nearing 30/ and have lost their bloom of youth, and the cream of what —to the American girl—are the happiest years of her life." ''.One of the; most pathetic sights. in the world to me," continued the sacio woman, "is an English ballroom,, full of young girls, all muoh of a muchness' In white, and all shy, gauche,' self-con-, scious,' unfledged hobbledehoys still, instead of having entered into their Kingdom of charming womanhood. American girls even choose their clothes, so as to express their own individuality. Even in the tiniest one-horse town the girl ■who makes her own frock will try that it shall be different from all the other girls. In England her thought would be to get it so liko that she would pass unnoticed. Don't girls just love to marry heroes and famous men, and young men who 'somebody,' and liave done something, if it's only, to win tho local whist drive. .Well, isn't it natural, then,'that men should like to marry 'somebody,' too? The American girl romps homo every time because she is not just mamma's echo and the dressmaker's dummy, and a lesson in deportment, but a woman with a 'soul and style-of her own! And though she doesn't fix. every bachelor with a hopeful eye, she does wish to please' him, just as she'expects him to try 1 and please her in return. And his efforts to do so lire not quelled by any fear that her parents may be lurking in the hallway io ask him what his 'intentions' are as he goes homo! It's tho whole social attitude in England that handicaps tho English girl, and protects the American market!" . . .