THE GENIUS FOR FRIENDSHIP

Evening Star, Issue 19274, 12 June 1926, Page 21

THE GENIUS FOR FRIENDSHIP

WOMAN’S ADVANTAGE. It was a man, of course, who uttered the dictum, “Love is of man’s life a thing apart, ’tis woman’s whole existence.” But, for all that, woman, when she marries, does not dream of giving up her many and various friendships, whereas man, as a rule, steadily tends to evince less and less interest in his own. Not perhaps consciously, and possibly without deliberation, he becomes so slack in regard to these prenuptial asociations that before much time has elapsed it is his wife’s friends and" acquaintances that visit his house and enjoy his hospitality with barely a sprinkling of those of his own unaided making. _ For it is woman, not man, who has tho genius for friendship, says Mrs Gordon-Stablcs, in the ' Daily Graphic. And for this reason: When marriage turns out a failure it is often a greater debacle for the husband than for the wife. She, good soul, has a whole bevy of friends to whom to turn for comfort and advice, while he has a few inti mates from whom to glean consolation. Take even tho busiest of women—tho professional woman, for instance, with a home and a family to care for ns well as an occupation to follow. In all the unending turmoil of her daily round she will still find tune to make dates with her Hiends, to write letters to those at a distance, to telephone to those who are sick or in trouble, to remember their birthdays, to do a hundred small attentive courtesies to cement the good feeling that years of intimacy had built up. A woman will keep intact the friendships that her school and college clays have brought ] lGr ._prc ( ;ious possessions far too greatly cherished to be allowed carelessly to lapse. , . , ' But the man—bow much of Ins time and thought go to the fostering of such ties P When he meets a pal unexpectedly in the street, all well and good. Ho greets him affectionately, may bo, and is jolly glad to see him again. Perchance an invitation to come and dine may follow. And then, “ the rest is silence.” Whether he comes or not is really not terribly important, ihero is something fundamentally casual about the entire business. I am not talking of affairs de cmur. They come under a totally different category. I am merely referring to ordinary questions of every-day friendships between women and women and between men and men. I say that for women these make up a very large part of their existence, while for men they count for remarkably little. Of course, there aro classic instances of masculine friendship, such as David and Jonathan and Damon and Pythias, but that was a long time ago, and women in those days were not the companions in intellect that thejr ate to-day. It surely is one of the finest tributes to womankind to-day that whereas they need friendships with their own sox to make up a full and happy life, their mates apparently find in them all that their emotional needs demand. What greater compliment could we desire ?