29th June.
Borw in comfort, cradled in Inxnry, bred up to look for the immediate gratification of every want, and almost every whim, the omnipresent amah always at her beck and call, the Shanghai girl has had even a better chance of being spoiled than her brother, the Shanghai boy. And if we were to believe the somewhat ill-natured criticisms of "her sisters, her cousins, and her aunts" from home, we should have to acknowledge that she hag made the most of her opportunities in this respect. For, in contra distinction to her brother who has few adverse critics, she has been an object of decided attack, sometimes from one side, sometimes from the other. We propose to come to the rescue, and to show that while some of these strictures are the result of insufficient Knowledge, the remainder are due to minor misunderstandings, As a baby, without'sartorial distinction to denote the difference between herself and her brother, she shared with him the indignity of being referred to, by those unable to distinguish between the he and the she, as "i it." A little later she had her differences with nurse and tencher: the long hair was a nuisance, and the sums never would come right. Now, when a stern-looking virgin of uncertain years tells us of our heroine that "men flirt with, but do not marry her," we murmur some unintelligible deprecation in reply, and muse upon the relation between sour faces and sour fini girl does not in proprie. persona apes, Because, forsooth, the Shang make her own dresses, do her own marketing, and cook her own dinner, the imported hausfrax, British and German, is firmly persuaded that she is no better than she should be. This worthy individual never misses an opportunity of getting out her household scales, cramming an unfortunate Shanghai girl into one, and jumping herself into the other. ''hen as earthy solidity outweighs ethereal grace, she comes down with a bump, and jerks out the triumphant ejaculation: "I told you so!" It really would seem that "The Ascent of Man" has been so recent that many people have not forgotten that woman was once a beast of burden. To such as these there lurk in the easy life of the daughters of the East all. the seeds of all the mischiefs which Dr, Watts tells us are ever ready for idle hands to do."
his accusation of indolence applies of course to the time when our exultant damsel has shut the school door upon herself for the last time, and lessons no longer prevent her pursuit of everything that is pretty.
It dates from the first by the lengthened, dress, and the re-tractory curl or flowing tress has been twisted into the regulation shape which fleeting fashion has ordained. Previous to this she ran her scholastic race in much the same way as her contemporaries in the old countries. It was in her. home life that the differentiation took place. There she was the idol of her father, the torment of her mother, and the spoiled plaything of adult male friends. Pretty, petted, and presentable, she went her way to womanhood with every grace that health and innocence can give. If possibly a few of the airs of Tater life were prematurely developed, that was due to the accident of her position, Many of her superficial critics, possibly affected by their Chinese environment, borrow their opinions from the ancient sages. They are not sufficiently up to date, Time was when their fault-finding might have had some point. Time was when the chief glory of woman was to excel at the needle. Now, when she has every art open to ler, and mechanical invention has done away with the drudgery pathetically described by kindly Tom Hood, needlework, except as a means of aesthetic culture, or for the modest reparative demands of the personal wardrobe, has disappeared for ever.
That the Shanghai girl is not a cook, we must perforce admit, not without an ejaculatory thanksgiving for escape from an otherwise imminent danger. But our sympathies go forth, nevertheless, to the masculine malcontents who so loudly deplore this It ds hard, very hard, that they should not be abi their cook. Phe native article is, unfortunately, of the wrong sex; but there is one consolation left. It'is possible to import—duty free.
In the development of the Far Eastern girl we can trace no deviation from Nature. 'I'he Darwinian theory applies as closely to her as it does to all the rest of God's creatures, and she is exactly what we might have expected her to be, a combination of European natures modified by new surroundings. Though much less free than her brother, she has a large share of outdoor life. Her appetite is fairly good, and her spirits high in proportion. Accustomed to walk and to ride; given to boating, bicycling, and tennis; she has acquired a five scorn for the fashionably delicate, tight-laced damsels of an earlier date. If there be cue of her exercises that we would curtail, it would be that robber of her beauty sleep, the over-done winter dance.
With little occupation and a super-finity of leisure, it was inevitable that the Shanghai girl should become great reader—of novels, This is indeed one of the standing charges against her, and is as well-founded and about as reasonable s the rest. With no practical experience of real life, as yet, she longs to know. The Woman's Bible now being issued, dwells with much time when the trim little ankle is hidden satisfaction upon this trait in the character of her whose disobedience "brought death into the world, and all our woe" Eve. The fruit was one "to be desired to make one wise that was why she took it. For the same reason our girls read novels, Their brothers learn life in business, in clubs, on the exchange, and in the practical affairs of everyday experience. Woman shares in none of these. All that she can know of them, and of the deeper passions, she gets from the novel, and, so it be well-written and true to life, we know no better school for her. That it is not ideal is no sufficient excuse for condemning it. Few things are ideal except in Utopia, Nevertheless, we would like to recommend both for her good, and that of her choice that is to be, some very interesting and instructive little works that are not novels: works that would go far to prepara her for that great role in life which she is destined to fill. There are many "things which a lady ought to know" and can easily learn with little trouble and much benefit, How to ensure a healthful home with cheerful surroundings, how to manage the baby, how to control the chef de cuisine without actually doing his work, how to attain to the ideal laid down by the much-experienced Solomon in the last chapter of the Proverbs—all this and other things may be got almost for the asking, We have heard one really serious objection to the moral character of our fair subject. It comes from the father of a family of boys and girls, but it is not confined to the Far East. He complains that while he can trust to the honour of his boys, he cannot to that of his girls, Not for a moment would we question such experience. But it does seem somewhat ridiculous that parents should first create faults and then complain of them. For to our mind there is no doubt whatever from what source all such faults are derived. They are neither psychological, nor physiological, but are merely the natural outcome of that system of ceaseless espionage to which girls ara so often subjected. Boys, free as the winds, are trustworthy; for as the open air breeds health, so does freedom, honour. Give their sisters the same liberty and we should soon hear no more of the unreliability of women. Which is the more fit to care for herself through life; which, on the whole, has the greater share of that bloom which man calls honour, the hardy growth of the American Public School" system, or the hot-house plant of our European convents? We have no doubt as to the reply, for Nature herself dictates it.
Passing from this ethical question to that of religion, a matter of far greater moment to the feminine than it ever was to the average masculine mind, we wonder what the Shanghai churches would do without the Shanghai girl, With her admirers she fills at least half the seats; she decorates, she sings, she first learns and then teaches in the Sunday School, and if, now and again, during the sermon she indulges in a doy-dream, in which,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.