The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 1, July 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 1, July 1837
Various
Periodicals
They are without doubt the most fascinating women in the world; and
are sought in matrimony by city merchants and lawyers, who have
amassed fortunes, and begin to look about for some domestic comfort,
while the city miss, who is never in public without being absorbed
in her appearance, and dress, and walk, and who is always under the
restraint of some forced prettiness, as she thinks it, is suffered to
dash the years away in idleness and folly, till her nerves are worn
out, and her health and beauty gone, beyond the arts of paint; or she
marries very young, and soon fades, and is laid on the shelf; or she
devotes herself to living her life over again in her daughter, her
counterpart.
I soon found myself, in the society of this village, visiting every
day. I could not withstand the temptation. It was all novelty.
Such fine healthy countenances, open air, engaging conversation,
offered in every house, that from law I turned to love. Blessed
exchange!--from baron and femme, and contingent remainders, to ponder
over the unwritten poetry of beauty, and the silver-tongued voices of
young, imaginative maids, who treat you as if you were their brother,
the moment their parents show, by their deportment, that they have
confidence that you are a gentleman.
How seldom is this confidence abused by an American? Who ever heard
a case of seduction, in one of our country villages, among the
better classes of society--among equals? These accidents, which our
city-calendars register in the city, are mostly the handiwork of
foreigners. Gallantry, conjugal infidelity, is not a vice of good
society here, as in France or England. Men and women can be elegant,
and happy, and contented, without the excitement of intrigue, to give
a dash of romance to the career of a fine Lady Anybody, or bewitching
Sir Nobody.
I defy the nicest art to circumvent one of our American girls,
brought up as young ladies are brought up in our opulent country
villages. Her very innocence protects her. She will not understand
your passion, if it verges to freedom; think you drunk or crazy; any
thing, but serious in your wild words and looks, and escape from you
as soon as she can, and probably go and tell her mother, who will
take care you do not see her very often. And this shall all be done,
and brought about, and no fuss be made, either.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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