POPULARITY POINTERS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 67, 22 March 1929, Page 15

POPULARITY POINTERS

"Bo gay with men and kind to women" was the succinct advice once tendered by a Victorian lady to a young girl. Tho advice holds as good to-day as ever it did. It sums up, as accurately as of yore, the essential needs of men and women respectively, writes Carol Emerson in an exchange. The male olemont loves bright animation iv womankind, especially girlhood; the gentler sex never more justifies that epithet than in its pleasantest and most heart-wanning relations with its own kiu. Kindness, of the real, heartborn, honest-to-goodness variety, is never a drug in the feminine market. Men appreciate it, too, but at specific moments, ao to speak. For everyday company thoy love the animated touch that lifts thorn out of the atmosphere of responsibility and makes them feel boys again. And that all men are boys at heart ia one of the myriad little things that every woman knows.

Women may confine their troubles to one another and yet manage to got a laugh or two into the bargain. But a man's mood "stays put," as it were, once this lachrymose element is introduced. Cry on the shoulder of the onc-man-in-the-world (and even then, cut it as short as possible!) but don't be wet-eyed and wistful-lipped in more casual masculine encounters, unless you'ro looking for tho dangerous sort of sympathy that so often spells ultimate trouble. Win a healthy popularity with the opposite sex—with cheery smiles.

As for popularity with women, one of tho most essential aspects of that kindness which will make you beloved is a generous abstention from detailed accounts _ of your conquests. Let the other woman do tho telling, every time, and you'll got a reputation for generosity far excoeding that which may be won by tho distribution of material gifts. If you know it's all lies —well, that's your share of the fun. An ounce of concealed mirth is better for tho complexion than a ton of open satire.

In fact, the whole philosophy of the popularity-seeker must be the "grin and bear it" slogan. There are frequently recurring moments in this drab existence when it is better to be bored stiff in company than alone.