A PLEA FOR PLAIN HUSBANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3, 3 January 1903, Page 3

A PLEA FOR PLAIN HUSBANDS.

WHY THEY ARE MOEE POPULAB THAN HANDSOME MEN..

Ah the result of examining a very extensive collection of portraits of the newly-married obtained from the illustrated papers, the present writer has come to the conclusion that the plain man is just now in the heyday of his popularity, matrimonially speaking 1

It would seem that while the handsome man is charming to dally with, someone whose features are homely, indeed, even ugly, is regarded &9 the wiser matrimonial venture.

The wife of the modern Adonis appears to have discovered, in fact, that by her own act she has created a problem that may bring her many hours of uneasiness, if not of actual pain.

Her husband lives upon the approbation of others. Her own worship of him may' for a while suffice to satisfy him; but later on he will assuredly need that of the outside world. And the outside world is only too pleased to grant him all the admiration he requires. Balls, dinnerparties, picnics, demand his presence constantly, but make no point of his wife being there at all, a fact she quickly discerns and proportionately resents. Should she absent herself from siich gaieties she imagines her husband making himself too agreeable to this pretty woman or that, and should she become a hanger-on of his popularity, she is all the while seething with hatred for her equivocal position.

Much of the vanity of the handsome man arises from the indiscreet adoration showered upon him in childhooo. As he grows up he is made much of outside the family circle, because it is pleasant to have in a room full of guests as many handsome men as possible. And the sequel? Is it not obvious? When he fell in love ft was not altogether because his choice was fair and sweet, but because she, too, paid him the tribute of admiration.

Now, it is all very well to put a man on a pedestal and wreathe him with bays before marriage; but what a woman wants after marriage is a good and serviceable article in the way of a husband.

It is excessively annoying to & woman always to have to play second fiddle pianissimo when the beauty question is uppermost. Breathes there the wife in any household who dislikes some little passing , mention made from time to time about her good looks and charming individuality? But the wife of an Adonis obtafns Httle of this sweet incense.

Sweep away this picture and contemplate the companion one of the plain husband. His object is to make life a bed of roses for his wife and family. Unselfishly the plaJn man toils.

The plain husband "puts up" with things. Did ever a handsome one brook the domestic trials he cheerfully endures? Somehow the handsome man is expected to regard calamities from quite a different standpoint. Nay, more, the ugly, pood-hu-moured head of a household is expected to be the handy man of the family. If a chimney smokes, his plain features must be begrimed in an attempt to g-et at the root of the mischief; if a pipe leaks, his red and uncultured paws are quite good enough to probe the defect to its very depths. What handsome curled darling , could possibly be expected to risk his good looks by performing such nasty tasks as these?—" Daily Mail."