The Women Of Our Time.

The fast young lady in dress and appearance too often cuts her hair short round her forehead , as if a stable-boy had held a circular basin over the " caput " and the old family coachman had clipped it as only coachmen can clip hair . And though I admit freely that such a style often adds

" piquancy " to laughing faces and bri ght eyes , yet I must fairly say I can't abide it . Neither do I like the frizzy style , or the French poodle fashion , nor the hair turned back over the head , nor the " Postilion de Longumeau " " chic , " and one hardly knows

what or next . Of course , it is a very difficult thing for any gentleman to profess to decide how a woman should weather hair , but all fashions based on some vitiated taste of the clay are to be greatly deprecatedin my opinion . I likeas an

, , old staff officer said the other day , to see a girl " neat about the head , " and , while nothing so much adds to the appearance of our young women as hair well and becomingly arranged , so nothing takes away so muchfrom their " tout en semble " as

untidy hair , uncared-for hair , or hair crimped or frizzed , or "bedevilled , sir , " as my gallant friend so pointedly observed . Then , as to dress , they say our girls dress too high and too low all at the same time . I do not believe it as a rule . It is , if anythingthe token of an older

gene-, ration , which still will be young , despite years and wrinkles , and " Time ' s withering hand . " Extravagance in dress is an old cry , and one which I have heard all my life , and under this head , despite , no doubt , much of much foolish expenditure , it is the few

not the many who err . But one thing I do abominate , and that is the " peg-tops , " and the " springs , " and the "Grecian bend , " and "female doubling-up , " and that ungraceful walk which pull-backs , or peg-topsare giving to our litheactive

, , , handsome English girls ! The best defence I ever heard of " peg-tops" was from a young lady , who said that they " kept her feet dry , and that before she wore them she was always catching cold . " 0 , fail-Jesuit ! There are fast young women in

language ! I confess that I do riot believe that under this head there is much harm to be found , or much blame to be awarded after all . I admit when a young lady tells you confidentially that '' we put on our nose-bags at two , " thereby inviting you to

luncheon , or that she means to " wire-in into the phiz , " or that she intends to " rub it in well into her pater and mater , " one regrets the perversity of language , and wishes both for a more feminine and classical utterance , But all this is , after allonly a passing follyand one that is

, , sure to wear itself out . Ethel , so fast and noisy to-day , will soon settle down into a sleek and decorous young married woman , andso letus laugh at this " rococo" language of young women to-day , as knowing that their hearts , after all , " by the mass , are in

the trim , " and that theirs is only a little exuberance of frolic , and that they certainly mean no harm . I confess , though I may be wrong , that I prefer Ethel ' s scampering lingo to Mrs . Manfuddle ' s choice outpourings , who , if report be true ,

is a bad-tempered old cat , and has been heard using expletives to her patient maid . Then we have the fast young women as to habits and manners . They are generally , as they say , given to the " stable , " and talk knowingly of horses in " horsey " vernacular , and speak of Dick , aud Kit , and Ben , and Watty familiarly .

These young paragons wear the colours of of the " animals" they have backed for a " pot ; " and they make bets at the Derby and Oaks , and Goodwood and Ascot , and have regular little " Books . " They have been known to smoke " cigarettes , " and to say that " girls can take care of

themselves , " and that "they don't want ' chaperons , '" nor do they mind what other people say . " Let all such be warned affectionately in time . They are treading on very slippery ground , rather dangerous ground ; for nothing in this world has so

tended to confound the distinction between right and wrong , virtue and vice , as that very affeclation of despising the opinion of others . After all , public opinion , if somewhat apt to be extravagant at times , is a great moral restraint , and a good

moral restraint on us all alike—a valuable social strainer , and regulator , and ventilator ; and all who perversely set themselves against the " dicta " of society ' s recognized code of what is , and what is not , " polities mceurs , " in my opinion , act very foolishly and very wrongly—I don ' t care who they be . I hope all my young lady readers will not be angry if a very old boy says to