THE YOUNG WOMAN AND THE YOUNG MAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 89, 15 April 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE YOUNG WOMAN AND THE YOUNG MAN.

FROM A TWENTIETH CENTURY,

STANDPOINT.

The horizon of the young woman of the present day is not bounded by the young man. The novels of one hundred years ago show us Avomen to Avhom hus-band-hunting seemed no disgrace. They wanted to be married, and they frankly and openly rfolloAved the chase. Single blessedness Avas then unblessedness, and few women chose to live alone. Perhaps the women of this century go to the other extreme. Seeing the delights of so-called independence, they pass the outstretched hands of Avould-be lovers, tb find too late that the passage through the dark valley of loneliness has been too much for their courage, and they come to the end of the journey tired, faded and cynical. This article, however, has nothing to do with her who chooses the but will take up some of tlie pro-lenS that comfort the young woman who has chosen the Avay matrimonial. , If you decide to marry you must study the man and knoAV him as he is. • He is, as are you, essentially a twentieth century product. ~ Primarily,he is not a sentimental man. , To-day weknowlittle of sighing lovers. 'Ofyeourse, the great world stories of passion are still.being told, for men and Avomen still, love. But the young man whom you Avill meet is, as a rule, not romantic, however much he may possess :6i true; sentiment. y Why the change? One hundred years ago, outside of the family, a young Avoman knew the young man only as a suitor. To-day she is meeting him as friend, employer, costudent, and co-worker in the professions. • .Then there/was around her the mystery of the unknown. To-day she is seen in the clear" light of every-day contact. Then she coquetted and broke hearts by the .dozen. But those days are > gone, and while she will always have for him the attraction of the eternal feminine, they meet to-day as man and woman who must work and fight together. , : I Of course, it goes without saying that you, young woman of the twentieth century, glory in the change. But go softly! , You have gamed something, but what have you lost?

A man demanded no more of his wife a hundred years ago than that she should have a beautiful face and. a loving heart. If she were of the plain people, her ability to brew and bake was called into account, and the making of a certain dainty dish often won a good husband for the expert maiden. But to-day?

"My wife," sayj; the young man of the new. century, "must be intellectually

4ble to follow me. I do.not care } i or iaf ;;

beauty, but she must have some style, one of the well-set-up kind. , She musfc be able to manage servants and to cook a meal if the cook leaves. She must be something of a society' woman —a man can't succeed unless his wifeknows how to make friends; and then, personally, I like a woman with some ambition for herself, a lnusieiany an artist or a writer—it shows force."

Now, of course!, when the young man marries he doesn't get all those qualities in his. wife, nor half of them. But his ideal is formed on extravagant lines, far beyond that of his predecessors, and you will not find it easy to be a scholar, a housekeeper, an occasional cook, a society woman and an artist. , ' ..