ENGLISH V. COLONIAL LIFE FOR GIRLS. [To THE EDITO8 Or

THJA "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The most striking points of difference between English and Colonial girls of the same class—and I am speaking of the daughters of gentlemen—are to be noticed in the home life, and may be briefly summed up as the dependence and helplessness of the one against the resourcefulness and alert- ness of the other. "But," it will be argued, "in these days of advanced views on every subject in earth and heaven, our women are, if anything, too independent ! " True in one sense, and that a wrong one. • -Modem women are able to dispense with the chivalrous' attentions of men, to stride about the country, to hold meetings and fight with constables. But in the home life ? If the cook is found drunk in the kitchen, can the average daughter of the house take matters into her own hands and send up a good dinner? If the youngest child has croup in the small hours of the morning, does the elder -sister get a hot bath ready -and administer ipecaeuanha P If a beak- has come out of a wardrobe, a shelf loose from a cupboard, or if the bath needs recoating with enamel, is it not - a sine quit non that a workman should be sent for ? Her Colonial sister, would _very soon put these matters right herself. Are tea-stains to be got out of a tablecloth, or grease-spots out of a coat? The housemaid or children's maid is promptly requisitioned to perform the operation. If the furnitUre -covers-are shabby, will Laura yil3 off the braid, extract the nails, cut out, sew, and reclothe the chairs and sofas P No! The English girl, whose father has an income of anything from 2500 to 21,000 a year, meet employ a. smell army of people to wrestle with all domestic emergencies, and paterfamilias has, bon gre In.92 gre; to foot the bill ! I am not speaking of the rich, nor of the poor, but of the average well-to-do professional man's daughters,—girls who have no definite occupations or duties, but who spend their days in athletics or shopping or novel- reading, and their evenings in playing Bridge. Later on, tiring of these pursuits, and having proved unsuccessful in the matrimonial market, they whip up their flagging energies in the cause of "votes for women," forgetting that a woman who has shown herself a failure in her own vocation is not likely to be able to handle that of men with any marked

amen.

A Colonial girl cannot get the job-cook, the doctor, the carpenter, the seamstress at a moment's notice ; therefore she learns how to turn her hand to anything, and is healthier and happier in consequence. If the sitting-room in her thatched Colonial home needs a new calico ceiling, her brother, or better still- her brother's friend, is there to assist her, and delighted to dd it. Should she be laboriously kneading bread

some hot morning and he rides- up; he offers- with alacrity to wash his hands and help her; or she may be pressing the tablecloths and sheets through the wringer, and it is comfort- ing to have a strong arm to turn the handle for her, and to rub the irons clean before she uses them.

In her schooldays the Colonial girl works as hard as her

English high-school sister, but in the holidays she bakes and brews, and sews, or nurses the sick. She has her recreations, too, as a first-rate dancer and horsewoman and tennis-player. The Colonial girl reads the English newspapers, and occa- sionally longs with a sigh for the pleasant dissipations of a big town, but she invariably cheers herself up with the hope that some day she may perhaps have "a trip home," whereas the average English girl of the same class rarely dreams of a trip to the Colonies. It is certainly true that lately there have sprung up in England various domestic Training Colleges where a young lady learns to make sweets and cakes with every appliance ready to hand; but set her down in a "wattle and dab" hut up country, with an outside kitchen and three bricks and a baking-pot in place of the well-appointed English range, and her men-folk would be well advised not to stake their bottom dollar on their chance of a decent dinner.

At the present moment the writer knows of two Colonial

girls, the daughters of a poor parson in South Africa, who as teachers (and all the time contributing to the family exchequer in a few years by dint of hard work saved sufficient money to treat themselves to a visit to England, and who started with 2200 to spend on travelling and sight-seeing. Where is the average young English ,teacher who could do this, or who

would care to spend so much money with the object of

enlarging her mind and her outlook- on life ? It is very nice to know how to make marrcm.s.glaces, to knit, ties, and to be able to trim ahat; but it is better to live in a place where ties are seldom worn, but where it is advisable to know how to prevent flannel shirts from shrinking in the wash, where chocolate creams are unattainable, hut where hungry brothers consume big home-made loaves and thirsty ones drink gallons of home-brewed beer. There is something really pleasurable and satisfying in gazing at shelves full of jam and pickles all of one's own making!

English girls are too much afraid of roughing it ; and their

parents, with the extraordinary blind selfishness of the most kind-hearted, prefer to keep half-a-dozen daughters at home, treading on each other's toes, rather than allow them to fare forth, while youth and spirit are eager within them, to that larger, freer "England beyond the seas," where life is lived On less conventional lines, and where true happiness is as often found in the farm, or the shack, or the shanty as in the well-furnished mansion at home. I am not speaking of the large class of poor gentlefolk in England, where a couple of daughters are perfeece kept at , home:to_ carry out the deity routine of life in place..of well-traieed servants, and whose duties are multifarious and bewildering. They often have to endure all the hardships of Colonial life without the gaiety and bonhomie which make such .life endurable, and even delightful, in the Colonies themselves. Their life is frequently one of noble and, patient courage amidst uncongenial sur; roundings ; all the available money of the family goes to give the Elena a good Start in life, while the girls must just stay at home and feel their youth slipping away until they become clever and embittered, or insipid and fussy, old maids. The -Colonies are full of young men who sorely need the civilising and restraining influence of the better class of English woman. It is difficult not to take to the inevitable whisky or gin and -soda when one cornea home tired out to find a fire of dead ashes, while a black " boy " leisurely concocts an unappetising supper of mealie-meal porridge and half-cooked, cindery meat.

You- will probably think my Colonial girl very primitive

and sordid and " Hau.sfrau-ish "1 Primitive? Yes ; but the truest happiness lies in the simplest and most primitive pleasures. Sordid P Is it not far more sordid to spend whol3 afternoons in playing Bridge for money? " Hausfrau-ish P" Yes, indeed; and if it is your own house there is more joy to be found . in managing it than in walking in processions through the streets of London.—I am, Sir, &c.,

A 13NTURNED SOUTH AFRICAN.

[We deal with our correspondent's letter - in- another. column.—ED. Spectator.]