OCR Text |
Show All SORTS OfLOTERSL - i I 1 What Kind do the Women Lots Best? Sot the Htadsoai ! Mas. I MRS. FRANK LESLIE'S LETTES The Looking Glwt-The Lson ia Hi gntion-' I Don't Value What NoWjr Else Vtlo.es." WHAT do sit lh women, see to admire ia thu (el-low? (el-low? We men don hko him: prowled a remarkably remark-ably lino, luit remarkably remark-ably unattractive in mi. in in e r, as wo watched Sir. "Nemo Nullu walk. I t ii if up and down thu . j prouicnado with the predict woman ! of the season upon hi arm nil half a down mor looking wistfully I after him. "IVrhap yoa men drat lik hi in jtmt because we women do," replied I urv kindly, and then 1 turned tike th wtvrm. "Hut I'll tell yoa on of th thtarnri woman tec not to aJinur in too, if yoa , uke." "inly nm of thuniT aaked mf frin4 tare a-tu ally. "ln!y oiio at a time. It la la th rrrf . woimt Usto whtlo yoa idt bnU on wo man to how yotutnlf Jnaloua of th at tuition iNiuia other man ia attractinx fiMiu other women. II thnKry, no ma-Ur ma-Ur how f!imy a theory it U, ia th mintl , of every woman U, that aha ia uOraMit , to rngrom all the attention of th man lie ia tulkuif to fur the monnt, and hi ' envy Mr. Nulla N-mo bla little rocrwwt , ia to thow tliat yutt would prefur hi pear , tion to yonr own. I yem rr Oood harenl Do ytm eiippow I would rat her protanat with that pretty baby than to talk with you?" "I don't know, Vmi urf. Tha onlf important tldiitf iu Uia matUr la that you showed m why you ara not a favor lt with women." "Too kind of yont Prrhapa fmt wit! give me tome little instruction in the art ( of becoming so." "If you will unbend tha majesty of your brow, which ia really too altogether apjialUng thero, that ia Isetter I will gtva you one brief, oouiprabeosiva and, most effectual rule; Attend to only coa woman at a tuner , And smdiiig benignly npon a Raaaiaa diplomats Just suaing us, I took hu arm and sauntered away, Inaviiij- my rV-utrk lord to digest my advioa at bia Uisorti. Well, It waa sound. There is nothtnf a woman U quicker to percaiva and surer lo rsrnt than wandering attention, atvl. 1 think It cma wr lo study thacharactcr Utiia of thoae men whoar hiva phenotn uvl success among women, it would in-variably in-variably be found that they post am I ta power of fOMrrtifrnion ia a marked degree. de-gree. Everybody knows that a man need not be handsouie to be admired and beloved. Borne extraordinarily agly inm hav carried car-ried all before them and distanced th A disuses of their day as completely aa Ninon de l'Kncloa did tha fair youn '-tutanlti '-tutanlti of her time. Few men. In fact,' have the strength of mind to bear being handsome without Uuig vain. t have lately said that beautiful women wo-men are seldom vain, althengb perfectly consciona of their beauty. They accept the fact, are grateful for it, waa it as m weapon perhaps, but. If thy kava any brain at all, do not suffer It to absorb their attention or to stamp taaalf npon their manner. It U like the maHlplwa-tion maHlplwa-tion table, a thing to he b-amsfl and sat aside In tha archives of tha mind for nao when it may be required, but not to bj paraded at other times. With men this is not to; beantr wttas them ia an axtraneotia gift; they are tsui born to it, they do sot Med It, it dna not help than on ra life, it ia ac for them tha promise of luva and all that makes life sweet to worn a. An ugly man know very wall that. H he fmmtm even In moderation tha elaw ments of auoffss in th morld, ho can marry, and marry will at any tiro he choose, and bi look will liava very little to do with tha matter, in fact ara rattier a help than hindrance, f ir a ir.-tty woman knows very well that hr gotd looks are never to marked as wheat ant jiff by Ml. ft auty la far mora striking whatt at walk twsido tha beast than when ah promenad'-a with Apollo. The bandavm man drnaea with painful attention to bi eotnpbtxioa and tha color of his eyes; the ugly man it h i thinks at all about his drea wears wha i bia beauty of tho hour tipprov, and if ; Un venture on a bit of color it la sare t S be ber favorite color, although it may b , the most deadly ptsuibU for himalf, awxl beauty like him infinitely hattor for thst cutuplfnwnt lo bar own toato than for any amount of eorrvct last that had b reference to brr. Th handsome man seated hewiti m pretty woman and oprvwit a mtrror teals glancea now and then at his own reflection and, as h faw.-i-s, unobserved, puAhc back bia hair, straighten hi mustache or draws a quarter of an inch mora of hi handkerchief out of tu pocket. llie og'y man tuwler tha saxu cinram stance looks at too rtnWttoe of hia coin pa moti's face, and, if bad, murmur something abowt "that c hanun g 4rt nr trppoat," Th hao'ikoina man expect, nay, d-mandi, d-mandi, tha homage of woman as a tort nf dtrin right; ha feel that tb wheat h distinguish by hit favor ia ia a maacar bonsd to b a poo her best bahavior, and show a sen. of her promotion by trt' ing to desert it; if th doeao t, why. there ar always tha others, poor thisgt! No, it U not tha hndseco man wheat women prefer for admirer or fur iwert. Bake indeed it it wry silly, rry waadt. very vapid wonja. who, having bo tail rcpeCt, cannot frl it wonnded. iuuX no attracts, cannot fast thata atightad; they, poor souls, since they never hat been and ncrer hope to t adoTsd, ar quit content to bacom adorer tsad sv-oUto sv-oUto tha sunflower, which, fadt rot4 tii it own qaiet gsri -a plot, follow & gUriuUird a hv U-hjJfro afjtsa aild svich circumstance, aud the man who can listen to these matters with true, sincere and unaffected interest and respond re-spond i'.itelligently, who can remember i and resume the conversation of his own accord, and say, "I have thought a great I deal about what you were telling me, and it seems to mo" this man will be popular among women, will outrank tlie handsome man, the wealthy man, the showy man, will in fact BBsume the position po-sition among women which he had who so irritated my friend quoted a while ago as saying: "What do all the womeu see to admire ad-mire iu that f ollowi'" west, emiiing "upon a thousand other flowers in his course, and meeting her patient morning smile with an unabashed trow. "WU, if it isn't handsome men, who re tho men that succeed with your most unaccountable sex?" asked a friend to whom I had been airing the above views, and I devoted a wakeful hour or two that night to considering the question, ques-tion, coming to this conclusion: , The man who succeeds best with women wo-men must not know too much about them, but must greatly desire to know more. There is no incentive to interest like mystery, and to the average man there is no object in nature so mysterious as the nature, the motives, the instincts of a woman. The really delightful man knows as little about these matters as the noble savage does of a watch. ' When the first missionary showed the first Otaheitan his chronometer and told bini that it was alive and talked to him the Otaheitan worshiped both man and watch, and everybody was very comfortable. comfort-able. Later on, when the missionary's uneasy conscience made him open the watch, show its wheels and springs, show how it was wound up and made to keep time, the Otaheitan felt he had been humbugged hum-bugged and at once proceeded to eat the missionary and spoil the watch by treating treat-ing it with too little instead of too great respect. . Moral: Never tell how the watch goes. But beside a great curiosity and interest inter-est in women the successful man must have a profound admiration for their fault and foibles, as well as for their charms. I have seen men who were too just, too logical, too mathematical to succeed suc-ceed with a sex which is fond of setting its own fancies above the narrow restrictions restric-tions of such ideas. A man may playfully try to make a woman see that her course is opposed both to law and reason, but if she declines de-clines to see anything of the sort he must not appear or indeed feel shocked or dismayed, but gracefully concede the ' point in question. Most women like to be lectured a little, and argued with a little, but they hate to be proved in the wrong. A man must not take the tone of a pedagogue, even if he is asked to teach a pretty woman common law or Euclid. I remember once asking a man to show me something about navigation, and after some bewildering information he began working out a problem in his book. "VtTiat is it? Show mel" said I, wondering won-dering what absorbed him so. "Oh, you m you wouldn't understand" under-stand" murmured he, with his whole mind in the figures he was scratching down. Does any woman suppose I ever liked - that man again? Besides interest and admiration, and delighted tolerance of her foibles, the successful man must have an excellent memory and ready wit. Many a woman has felt her regard for a man rise from very temperate to summer heat by perceiving per-ceiving that he remembered her words of a year ago, or the fancy she had once expressed for a particular perfume, a flower, a color, a "fad" of any sort. . A very ugly man made himself charming charm-ing to me the other day by gently taking a sandalwood fan from the hand of a lady sitting next me, and while chatting with her and playing with the fan contriving con-triving to get out the rivet in the handle so that the whole thing collapsed, and he, with ten thousand apologies, put it in his pocket to be repaired. . "I remembered your saying at the Paris exposition that the smell of sandalwood sandal-wood made you ill," said he to me presently, pres-ently, "and I am going out now to put this in my overcoat pocket." . When he came back he smelled of raioko, and I do not at all doubt, when the fan was mended and he carried it home, that he said something very charming charm-ing to the pretty woman who owned it; but nevertheless he said and did the right thing at the right moment for me, and I always like to see him approach. Again, a man must know something and know how to show that he knows it. Women adore power in a man. It is one of the innate instincts of the sex. Among savages and the classes which come next to them in our civilization the strongest and biggest man is the one who can take his choice among the women of his circle, and in the very most exalted planes of the highest civilization the man who can command the respect, the attention, at-tention, the obedience of his fellow men is he whose homage raoBt delights woman. A man who is the jest and the butt of ether men, or even he who is treated with a good humored familiarity bordering border-ing on contempt, by his fellows, will perhaps per-haps arouse in women's breasts a certain tolerating acceptance, a half pity, half amusement, very like that bestowed upon the court jestor or their own pet dwarf by the court ladies of the olden time, but he never will command more. "I don't value what nobody else values,"' val-ues,"' said a woman the other day in speaking of one of these court jesters, who was disposed to be very attentive to her, and I replied: "My dear, you are enunciating one ol the great dogmas of our faith." ' But after all the very most attractive trait a man can possibly possess, and the one surest to make him a universal favorite fa-vorite among women, is intensity, A blusi, washed out, bored and languid man never can be very much liked or desired de-sired by women who have to fight against all those tendencies in themselves. them-selves. They want a man to be all alive, to care very much about things, to put his whole soul into the question of where one's new picture should be hung, or whether Russian tea or Soman punch is the more refreshing. One likes to lean back in the corner of the sofa or a comfortable chair and watch one of these vivid and earnest creatures as he rearranges some ornament on the etagere, or demonstrates with pencil and naper Just where the boats lay in the lato regatta, or enthusiastically describes the ?'close shave" he had in driving his tandem in the park yesterday. ' And with all his enthusiasm and earnestness earn-estness he must be capable of instantly perceiving when his energy is becoming a little oppressive, and change to quietude and gentleness with perfect good humor and perfect contentment Another thing all women demand and very few women, or for that matter men either, obtain, is a true and earnest sympathy. sym-pathy. The man who succeeds best is he who can put himself out of the question and listen and divine and meet one's confidences half way and "really and truly care" for one's troubles or perplexities perplex-ities or loneliness, or even one's fantasies. Most women love dearly to talk of themselves, to discuss and analyze their I own character, to tell their own expert-! 1'iu-es, and to aik what the confidant ! thinks they ought to have done under such ' |