PUNCTUALITY

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 119, 13 February 1926, Page 17

PUNCTUALITY

WHO HAVE IT MOST—MEN OR WOMEN?

(Written for The dominion by L. 8.)

What a blessed thing punctuality is! How ill-used we feel when we are the .victims of another person’s want of it. Once upon a time it was looked upon as a quality in which women were conspicuously lacking, though possibly—and probably—it was just another of those undeserved aspersions which are often cast upon her by a sex much given to generalisations upon women. Apparently there were times, however, when it was considered quite the correct thing for women to be late in their appointments with men, so perhaps there was a little ground for the latter’s generalisations in this particular respect. In romantic novels of a bvgone period, and in odes to lovely ladies (bv the wav, are ladies no longer lovely tliat odes are never written to them now?) we are told of sighing lovers waiting by moonlit stiles, long after the appointed hour for their beloved to appear. And sometimes it would be as much as an hour or two before she condescended to show the light of her lovely countenance. And he, it seems—marvellous man—was always on the spot and didn’t even reproach her for her tardiness when she did appear, according to the authors of his being. To-day, when lovely ladies -are late for their appointments they sometimes find their Romeo has gone away in disgust, and if he is still waiting for themj there is candid criticism to face. Times are not what they were. On the other hand, it is sometimes Romeo who is late, and then he, too, hears about it. , ■ j Apart from his business habits and Obligations, one is almost inclined to

■ think that man is really, the unpunctual sex. Not even the thought of meals will drag him from bis sport or nis temporary occupation once he has jccome engrossed in it. Women know to the cost of patience and good temper liow dinner gets spoilt because Dad wants to finish bis game of bowls or tennis or cricket while it is still daylight, or else he is busy cleaning the car or watering or weeding the garden, and doesn’t want to stop until the jo is finished. Dinner can wait, and wait it has to until darkness; not inclination nor a belated sense of punctuality makes him give up his activities. And vet at other times he would not be backward in speaking if meals and other household arrangements were not up to time. As a matter of fact, it is upon punctuality that the orderly running, the peace, and well-being of a household rest, and for this women are not always given credit. Divorces have been known to be caused indirectly by unpunctuality—and saints have been turned into sinnets—all through the long chain of events (or which it lias been responsible. Woman’s instinct is for method, orderliness, and punctuality, and sometimes she is inclined .to martyrise herself and everybody else about her in her zeal for perfection. That is the worst of her. Ihe excess of a quality can be so much harder to bear than its lack. When we have her in Parliament, when she is sitting on local governing boards, and all the other boards, of which there seems to be no end—will punctuality, become a Vice ? Seems hard to imagine, but it May.