As We Go | Page 7

expensive country, especially so in the
matter of education, and one cannot but reflect whether the result is in
proportion to the outlay. It costs a great many thousands of dollars and
over four years of time to produce a really good base-ball player, and
the time and money invested in the production of a society young
woman are not less. No complaint is made of the cost of these schools
of the higher education; the point is whether they produce interesting
people. Of course all women are interesting. It has got pretty well
noised about the world that American women are, on the whole, more
interesting than any others. This statement is not made boastfully, but
simply as a market quotation, as one might say. They are sought for;
they rule high. They have a "way"; they know how to be fascinating, to
be agreeable; they unite freedom of manner with modesty of behavior;
they are apt to have beauty, and if they have not, they know how to

make others think they have. Probably the Greek girls in their highest
development under Phidias were never so attractive as the American
girls of this period; and if we had a Phidias who could put their charms
in marble, all the antique galleries would close up and go out of
business.
But it must be understood that in regard to them, as to the dictionaries,
it is necessary to "get the best." Not all women are equally interesting,
and some of those on whom most educational money is lavished are the
least so. It can be said broadly that everybody is interesting up to a
certain point. There is no human being from whom the inquiring mind
cannot learn something. It is so with women. Some are interesting for
five minutes, some for ten, some for an hour; some are not exhausted in
a whole day; and some (and this shows the signal leniency of
Providence) are perennially entertaining, even in the presence of
masculine stupidity. Of course the radical trouble of this world is that
there are not more people who are interesting comrades, day in and day
out, for a lifetime. It is greatly to the credit of American women that so
many of them have this quality, and have developed it, unprotected, in
free competition with all countries which have been pouring in women
without the least duty laid upon their grace or beauty. We, have a tariff
upon knowledge--we try to shut out all of that by a duty on books; we
have a tariff on piety and intelligence in a duty on clergymen; we try to
exclude art by a levy on it; but we have never excluded the raw
material of beauty, and the result is that we can successfully compete in
the markets of the world.
This, however, is a digression. The reader wants to know what this
quality of being interesting has to do with girls' schools. It is admitted
that if one goes into a new place he estimates the agreeableness of it
according to the number of people it contains with whom it is a
pleasure to converse, who have either the ability to talk well or the
intelligence to listen appreciatingly even if deceivingly, whose society
has the beguiling charm that makes even natural scenery satisfactory. It
is admitted also that in our day the burden of this end of life, making it
agreeable, is mainly thrown upon women. Men make their business an
excuse for not being entertaining, or the few who cultivate the mind
(aside from the politicians, who always try to be winning) scarcely
think it worth while to contribute anything to make society bright and

engaging. Now if the girls' schools and colleges, technical and other,
merely add to the number of people who have practical training and
knowledge without personal charm, what becomes of social life? We
are impressed with the excellence of the schools and colleges for
women-- impressed also with the co-educating institutions. There is no
sight more inspiring than an assemblage of four or five hundred young
women attacking literature, science, and all the arts. The grace and
courage of the attack alone are worth all it costs. All the arts and
science and literature are benefited, but one of the chief purposes that
should be in view is unattained if the young women are not made more
interesting, both to themselves and to others. Ability to earn an
independent living may be conceded to be important, health is
indispensable, and beauty of face and form are desirable; knowledge is
priceless, and unselfish amiability is above the price of rubies; but how
shall we set a value, so far as the pleasure of living is concerned, upon
the power to be interesting? We