Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1890 — STREET MASHING IN GOTHAM. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STREET MASHING IN GOTHAM.

The Perils tliet Beset Young Women.

WELL women of New York are just nowdißcass ngthe question whether it is not more dangerous for a pretty woman to goon the streets alone during the day time kthan at night. ■From personal obIservations, one ■matron declared r that the time will come ere long when New York parents will adopt the rule of the French, and never permit a young woman to go on the street atone without nn attendant. I do not know whether the advent of so many foreigners here has brought about the present repre-

hensible system of street mashing, but certain it is that ladies while walking are now exposed to more rudeness than ever before. Several mashers have been complained of to the police lately, and a few arrests have been made. It is a fact that those arrested have all been foreigners. A very shrewd girl was disposed to rate hes own sex for the increase of the petty depravity. “I believe," said she, “that this city has its fall share of good and dignified men and women, but I also know that there are thousands of women who influence badly the habits of the street. As our careless men go out they find at every turn some woman who encourages them to be insalting. The light-weights among them gradually grow to consider the entire female sex from one point of view, and end by being impudent to any woman that at all attracts their fancies. And that is why you see men sidle up alongside of a pretty girl when she stops to look in at a shop window, or crowd unnecessarily close to her in a street car. She may despise tbeir advances, but she is compelled to suffer nn infliction reared by her own sex. Those insulting men have on more than one occasion been met with encouragement, and, not being philosophers, have taken the contemptible smile? of unworthy women as signs of the best feminino preference. I certainl ■■ do blame my own sex for the increase of masculine brutality. Theie will surely be wholly admirable men in a city like New York, but beastliness must have something to feed upon, and can do no more than exist in a passive state if it finds no means of sustenance.” I found considerable truth in these words when next day my attention was attracted to a truly royal example of the female sex walking alone on Fifth avenue. She was a young, tall, goldenh died girl, a perieot beauty, and her featQies were as delicate and high-bred as those of an ideal princess. As she moved grandly along, a man with black, ugly eyes, a short, pointed beard, and an air of inexpressible conceit, came up swiftly from behind and passed her. As he did so he deliberately turned and stared at her face, for an instant merely, but protractedly and insolently, iu the unmistakable manner of the professional masher. The lovely girl was an honor to her sex at that moment. She held her head at the same angle as before, gazed proudly straight ahead, and never gave the slightest sign that the staring brute was in the world. Within a half minute the masher dropped behind and gave up the-game. It was easy to see then that if all yonng women were as safe in their own pride as that fair girl, itreet mashing would be a starvation employment in very shoit order. A bean took a letter from his pocket iu order to read something from it to a fair cousin who sat by his side. “Ah! she mailed you a kiss,” the girl remarked. “Not that I know of,” was the fellow’s reply. Look there,” and she d ointed to a crinkled place, down at the corner of the sheet, such as a.damp spot might have left. “Haven’t you learned the latest sentimental thiDg? A girl presses the paper to her lips, leaving a mark like that, and so incloses a kiss without writing a word of confession. That’s what Jennie did, and you, goose that you are, never noticed it. The next thing the stationers tarn out may be ready-kissed paper, with a faint tint of red lips and a delicious scent oi fragrant breath pertaining thereto. Art is ever quick to beat nature.

JENNIE DEAN.