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Show THE MAN WOMAN HUNTS. A Cherished hut False Illusion, as to Which. Ono Is the Scoker. One of the most false and, possibly, for that reason, the most cherished, Illusions Il-lusions of man Is the Idea that he chooses his own wife, when, as a matter mat-ter of fact, he merely succumbs to a young person that has marked him for her own as Inevitably as smallpox or the black hand. The much-quoted statement that any woman can marry any man she wants to, like most other glittering generalities, generali-ties, lacks confirmation In fact. But It would be very much truer If the fair participants In the man hunt would devote de-vote their attention to a particular man Instead of wasting time In a scattering fire. Very often they undertake too much, und In trying to bring Tom and Dick and Harry to the proposal point at once fall with all three. Tho same amount of attention given to one of the trio would have convinced him that tho dearest woman In the world might, with a great deal of persuasion, consent to marry him and make him the most blessed among his kind. How this wonderful result Is brought about only the girl knows though very often Bhe doesn't know, but It Is, like the selected husband, Just an obedient pawn In the hands of her wise and elderly el-derly female relatives. For a homely girl with an experienced mother has Just about forty times as great a chancec to capture a man as a pretty girl without one. For the pretty orphan Is frequently frequent-ly Ingenuous enough to think that tho .feminine role In courtship consists In breathing a whispered yes to the most favored of half a dozen ardent suitors, and so leaves to chance what the wiser maiden accomplishes by cold science. Of course, only a widow has the science sci-ence of man-trapping thoroughly mastered, mas-tered, and a new occupation might be furnished Impecunious relicts If some kind philanthropists would only endow a school of courtship for women and employ the widows to give object lessons les-sons In subtle love-making to the Inexperienced Inex-perienced of their sex. However, to give reality to the lessons, les-sons, men would probably have to take the passive part In them, which fate assigns as-signs the prospective husbands In real life. And In this event the widows would probably gobble them up faster than the faculty could supply them. For any widow can marry any man she wants, unless he Is warned In time and hag himself sentenced to life Imprisonment Imprison-ment In Sing Sing or Auburn In self-defense. And even then, It would be by no means certain that she wouldn't get him. We cannot all be widows, howover, and those of us not of that privileged class can only cudgel our dull wits over the "preliminaries of marriage." as they were styled In the Passionist father's address, and do the best we can In the serene anticipation that some time even our day of widow's weeds and wiles may dawn. Nlxola Greeley Smith, in New York World. |