combined to make Boston belles pink, pretty,-and piquante; while the
western states, by drawing fully half their male population from New
England, make the preponderance of the female element apparent at a
glance. The ladies, thus left at home, have not been idle: their
colleges, their clubs, their reading-classes are numerous; like the man
in "Hudibras,"

"'Tis known they can speak Greek as naturally as pigs squeak;"

and it is probable that no city in the world can boast so high a standard
of female education as Boston: nevertheless, it must be regretted that
this standard of mental excellence attributable to the ladies of Boston
should not have been found capable of association with the duties of
domestic life. Without going deeper into topics which are better
understood in America than in England, and which have undergone most
eloquent elucidation at the hands of Mr. Hepworth Dixon, but which are
nevertheless dlightly nauseating, it may safely be observed, that the
inculcation at ladies colleges of that somewhat rude but forcible home
truth, enunciated by the first Napoleon in reply to the most illustrious
Frenchwoman of her day, when questioned Upon the subject of female
excellence, should not be forgotten.

There exists a very generally received idea that strangers are more
likely to notice and complain of the short-comings of a social habit or
system than are residents who have grown old under that infliction; but I
cannot help thinking that there exists a considerable amount of error in
this opinion. A stranger will frequently submit to extortion, to
insolence, or to inconvenience, because, being a stranger, he believes
that extortion, insolence, and inconvenience are the habitual
characteristics of the new place in which he finds himself: they do not