Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... IS THE MODERN GIRL VIRTUOUS? I can picture the indignant consternation of the modern girl as she reads the subject text of this article: "Is the modern girl virtuous?" But she does not know, as I know, how much this question is discussed among men. She does not realize that young men have a strange misconception of her; and that the common belief of the day is that the modern girl is more lax in her estimate of what constitutes pure womanhood than the girl of a score of years ago. Such being the facts, a careful analysis of the causes which lead to this belief in the minds of men seems timely. To me it is evident that the American girl grows constantly more reserved and prudent with every year. That men should hold an opposite opinion is due to three causes: First, our intimacy with and aping after foreign countries; second, the contagion of the chaperoning system; third, the increased knowledge of herself possessed by the woman of to-day. In our close neighboring with foreign lands we have to a remarkable degree become imbued with their prejudices. Our American eagle screams as loud as ever, but his scream of late years has taken on a foreign accent. Because the American girl is the only girl on earth who is allowed independence and freedom of conduct, our men and our cynical Anglo-maniac women are beginning to question her use of that independence. A foreigner said to me one day: "I have about made up my mind that the man who marries an American girl must be one of three things: indifferent, trusting or a fool." I asked him to explain himself. "Because he knows absolutely nothing of the girl he marries," the foreigner replied. The customs of your country render it impossible for him to know whether he is marrying a virtuous girl or...