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Show MANAGING WOMEN. <br><br> The managing woman is one of the happiest of persons in creation. She is always up to her eyes in business. The business which she prefers to meddle is that of other people. She will help you to a wife one day; she will show you how you ought to manage your house the next. Having decided that it is the bounden duty of Mr. Black and Miss White to make a match of it, she will get up a grand entertainment at her own house and invite them both to it, in order that they may be brought together. As they join their counters at a game of cards, or lurk in dark corners during the intervals between dances, or sit side by side at the festive board, she croons over them as a hen does over a brood of two chickens. She cannot keep her intense satisfaction to herself. She makes a grand tour of her rooms, and with a profusion of nods, shrugs and winks, gives her friends to understand that what in her own mind she desires is already all but a settled thing. She will even go so far as to rally the objects of her tender attention with designs which they could not possibly have entertained if it had not been for her interference. Sometimes, of course, she spoils her game by precipitancy. But if her blundering brings about a fiasco so far as her plans are concerned, the last person she thinks of blaming is herself. She considers, in that case, that the young couple do not know what is good for them. In her eyes their position, their means, their temperaments, and what not are so suitable that it is a direct lying in the face of Providence for them to decline to do as she wishes, though it is not always possible for them to tell what she desires. Of course, she does not carry one out of every ten plans which she forms. But she seldom loses heart on that account. She forgets past failures in future prospects. She is so wrapped up with what she has in hand that she really has no time for mortification. Thus, she is one of those happily constituted mortals who are to be envied. Those, however, whom she takes under her wing have sometimes cause to feel anything but grateful for the attentions of which she makes them the recipients. A nervous young man does not like to hear that he is head over ears in love with, and is about to propose to, a fascinating young lady, and a fascinating young lady who has yielded her heart to a bashful young man, whom she more than suspects of having a sneaking fondness of her, does not like to see him retire from laying siege to her affections because, through the well-intentioned bungling of a managing woman, he has been startled out of himself. These are only some of the more striking examples of the lady's maneuvering which might be cited. It would be a good thing if the managing woman confined her attentions to matchmaking. In that she does not clearly show that she is a selfish as well as domineering person; and so far as it is concerned the laws of social etiquette prevent her from being efficiously meddlesome. But follow her to the home of one of her protégés, who has succeed in getting a husband. Unless the house has been furnished under her control and direction she will, probably, make so many recommendations that the young wife may feel very much tempted to turn the kitchen into the dining-room, the dining-room into the drawing-room, and the drawing-room into the coat-cellar, and will, probably, in sheer desperation, consequent on the tremendous amount of advice which has been given her, consent to commit one or two absurdities, which are sure to offend those most concerned, and which will, probably, have to be undone, in undisguised humiliation, sooner or later. The meddler may be expected to say what the young couple ought to have for dinner and when they should dine, how he should be clothed, etc. She may be listened to patiently for a while, but after that her efficiousness offends, and it is possible that she may be given to understand that she would be more appreciated if she took less upon herself. Then she, in turn, is mortified. But in her mortification she retains a lively sense of her own wisdom and the weakness, if not folly, of those who decline to profit by her wisdom, and that solaces her somewhat. All the same, those who will not continue to bow to her dictation must not expect to remain basking in the sunshine of her smiles. It is seemingly impossible for to her [her to] love those who will not, in some measure, defer to her judgement [judgment] and follow her lead. Even when she associates herself with philanthropic movements, she cannot brook rivalry so far as the direction of affairs is concerned. She may start a Sunday-school and for a while do good work in it. But unless she is allowed to mould the teachers, as well as the scholars, and to manage everything, even to the selection of the bun loaf for the annual treat, it is very unlikely that she will continue to have anything to do with it. Unknown, perhaps, to herself, her ambition is to be a sort of universal social pope-it is possible that she would, if she could, decide how all people should be dressed, how male-kind should wear their beards, and at what hours the old and young should go to bed. But the present is not an era in which social popes are likely to flourish. There are so many persons anxious to be popes, believing that in their personalities is a concentration of the spirit of wisdom of the ages, that it is extremely difficult for any would-be social pope to make much headway.-[Home Journal. |