1896.]
problem of life. But, no lam one of the town's ' 400 ' and
must keep my head up in the air and spend my time in gayety
and wearing good clothes, I can almost sympathize with these
new women. They, of course, go to extremes with their Woman's
Bible and their " bloomers " and masculine costumes, but their
fundamental idea is right. Woman has been oppressed, and espe
cially in the higher walks of life."
" There is one thing I will do. I will make a literary career
for myself, and as for my ever getting married the idea is pre
posterous. I don't ever expect to see the man I would be willing
to surrender my independence to and marry. Palling in love
is absolutely out of the question. My nature is too hard and
calculating. I know this is rank treason to Papa and Jack. Jack
always laughs at me when I talk this way, and holds tip Miss
Smythe as an awful example of the old maid. Dear old Jack, I
might consent to marry a man who was as good and kind as he is.
Did ever a girl have such a brother? I know he would rather
have taken one of those pretty Virginians visiting Mrs.
Roberts; but he knew I would not go unless he took me, and so
he gave up the idea. I'm real ungrateful, and must get myself in
better humor or I will spoil his evening for him, .. will have to
stop this rebellious train of thought."
" Jack says that big brute half back and captain of the univer
sity football team, the lion of the hour, is to be there to-night,
and he is going to introduce me first thing. Lion—forsooth, I
think it is ridiculous the way people are raving over football. It
is a brutal game, fit only for savages and barbarians. I know
very few agree with me. Jack says it is a noble sport, and he
would have played when at college but his health wouldn't stand
it. I know that was not so. He was too much of a gentleman to
engage in such a rough uncivilized contest. I admire track
athletics, and I enjoy baseball or a cricket match; but I will never
get me to another' football game as long as I live. To please him
I accompanied him on Thanksgiving Day to the greatest battle of
the year. If I didn't have another single reason, I would condem
the game for the effect it had on my usually well-behaved and
decorous brother. He yelled and howled like a red Indian, and
jumped up and down and waved his flag so violently that I would
have been mortified had not all the men and half the girls around
us been doing the same thing. And then this hero, this lion that
lam to meet to-night, was the arch-brute of them all. He did
A Football Victory