A Study in Mentality of Modern Women We are progressing—or retrogress. sing, I don't know which, writes Mr. Richard King in "Eve."
The following picture of a Modernity has just passed my window. A light cart hiding, I suspect, beneath a few old sacks, piles of potatoes and onions—drawn by a hopeless-looking pony, which, I fear, has never once browsed in a green field; a woman driving it—a woman of the coster type, a man's cloth cap on her head, bunches of obvious cat's skin round her neck, an old coat and skirt which never knew each other until they. met upon her body, and in her mouth—and this was the only remarkable point in a very commonplace morning sight—a cigarette! Well, I have seen telegraph girls smoking} cigarettes, and every kind of worker, and very few among them looked as if they really enjoyed it; if in fact, as if they must smoke or peradventure lose their tempers. But so far 1 had never yet seen a young woman selling potatoes and onions with a cigarette between her lips nor one who rang your front-} door bell asking you to buy her wares while gently puffing. smoke into your face—already hardening into refusal. I wondered. exactly why she did it, what comfort it gave her—since it was so obviously "bad for trade," and against her own interest, even though it. certainly made her look "jaunty."' I came to the conclusion that it was just because it did make her look ''jaunty" that she did it. One Have you never noticed how so many women struggle to achieve a "Jaunty" effect? I have. Women, being by nature cautious, conventional creatures, will go to almost; any lengths to pretend a superficial i devil-may-care. Is it that they adore to assume a "doubtful" appearance, while inwardly they know! they are indisputably respectable? To be good, but to look questionable ~—that seems to be the ideal of so many women of today. Well, perhaps it is better than looking good and being a regular walking ''interrogation mark''—hetter for them, that is.
But, all the same, where is the! satisfaction in looking what you would_be insulted to be mistaken for? Is it that so many women are of that feminine desire to have the cake as well as eat it?' Do they want to attract the attention achieved by women of a very certain uncertain reputation, while avoiding her destiny and her manner of living? Perhaps—who knows? But the fact remains that women are far less afraid of the effect outre than men are. It isn't that they desire to appear outre so much as that they desire to look "jaunty''—and if you can't be "jaunty" by. nature, a flamboyant pose will achievo a very effect. This, of course, makes it extremely difficult for a man to judge a woman by her outward appearance. An overdressed man is a man who is overdressed inwardly as well as outwardly. But an overdressed woman can be a most simple, unsophisticated creature. It is not that they ato more artificial than men are, but they are far more histrionic. Marvellous to relate, most of them seem able to change themselves into the fashionable feminine type at will.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.