WHAT THE "MALE PESTS" HAVE TO SAY FOR THEMSELVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8082, 24 September 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHAT THE "MALE PESTS" HAVE TO SAY FOR THEMSELVES.

• [BY 11 LB MONSIEUR QUI A sum waff- . dames."] ..traced t have read the letters f females and sympathising pa£* 0 , et m paper with much r do «y a few words on tb» tbat the annoy . not be surprised wb^ ompia . n of anc.e 0 which Liko most people who know their own sex- t tho matte r, they seem to nothing, into two classes-the strictly and the strictly the other way. they not know that there are hundreds pt young women in London who, without feeing "unfortunates," or even in the least Vicious, are perfectly jeady to get into talk with any man whose appearance pleases them —to accompany him for a drive or in his boat, and even to dine with him afterwards ? I know what I am talking about. For some years I was about town a good deal, and, being young, foolish, and vain, I epoke to a good many young women to whom I had not the advantage of an introduction. I waa not quite so young and foolish, however, as not 'to know a lady when I saw one, and consequently my " victims" were generally young persons out of shops and telegraph offices and the like. I .only remember to have been repulsed twice —once by a young girl who burst out crying, and to whom I would willingly have given £10 to forgive .me, and once by a fair nne who let me have it in a way that made me .think she had just finished a quarrel with someone else, and was not sorry to find an object to relieve her feelings on. 1 don't think that much harm resulted from A'ay of these outrages. My experience was /.hat the virtuous girls knew perfectly well how to take care of themselves, and that the others were no worse off in my company than in that of the young men whom they met at their chapel. One young lady, whom I insulted by speaking to her in the street in Dalston—never mind how I came there—actually asked me after an acquaintance of two hours into her house, and introduced me to her mother, who did not seem much surprised. I saw her several times afterwards, and I am quite satisfied that a more " innocent" girl did not exist. The fact is, and I charge any of your lady correspondents to deny it, tnat nine out of ton* women are flattered by being spoken to by unknown men, especially if domestio cares and ever so Blight an advance of years prevent them from receiving quite so much Attention as they recently enjoyed. They da feel insulted, no doubt, but still they can't help feeling that, after all, it is imprudent of them to go about alone, especially in that tailor-made dress, in which, as Madame X said, they don't look five--ind-twenty. And this applies not merely to half-educatcd, silly women, bored to death with the monotony of a middle-class iife, bat to ladies, who ought to, and do, know better. In this state of mind it is a

mere question of tact and perseverance on the part of the man to obtain pardon for his offenco. As long as women are weak, men will bo enterprising, and, of course, some ruffians, whom no decent woman could endure for a moment, will go blundering on addressing ladies just come from district visiting, and treading on the toes of girls who are frightened to death at the very sight of them. But it is all woman's fault. If, for

ft month only, the addresses of every unknown man were received in silence and with real resentment, very few men would >ver after address a woman they did not know. I have been married some six years now, and have long given up the reprehensible practice. 1 was furious the other day when my wife told me—not without the slightest tinge, I fancied, of satisfaction — fcbat she had been dreadfully annoyed by a man, who said such impudent things about her eyes, and followed her ever so far. I "would have given anything to kick him, supposing his fighting weight to have been anything In reason, or, at least, to see him kicked; so, you see, I am quite a disinterested witness. But I must repeat my opinion—it is woman's own fault. I am sorry I cannot oblige that musical moralist, Mr. Haweis, by giving my name, address, and photo. My wife would not like it. She has by this time forgotten that my acquaintance with her began in a railway carriage.

BY AN OBSERVER IS MAYFAIR. The Rev. Mr. Haweis, who divides women into " ladies" and "females," writes in the

interest of the former, whom he apparently from his experience finds to be dangerously unprotected in London streets. My experience is exactly the reverse of his. " Ladies" eeem to irie to require no protootion at all, _ and are perfectly able to take care of themselves, whereas "females" are harried every day by their brethren in police attire and otherwise. It would be very interesting to have the pictures of all the modest and rednwJ-looking ladies who complain of •molestation published in your columns. Mr. Haweis would apparently make it a penal offence for a young man to look at a pretty girl. But Mr. Haweis' ideas of morality were always peculiar. I remember hearing of an impromptu utterance of Mr. Henry Sidgwick's, when—not long after the publication of "Music and Morals"—he was introduced to one of Mr, Haweis' little children. As far as I recollect, it ran as follows:—

Little baby boy, Sacking at your corals. Papa will teach you mu-ic, But who will teach you morals ?

I'have been married seven or eight years, and my wife—who is not, I am told, unattractive, and who is not yet five-and-j twentyhas walked through crowded London streets without meeting with any gentleman kind enough to offer to carry her • parcels,

{ Not long ago I met in Piccadilly the young Duchess of Leinster and her sister, quietly dressed, walking together. I doubt whether in all Europe two more striking or beautiful ■women could be found. I have no doubt that they were a good deal "atared" at. Indeed, everyone, from the Cardinal Arch- : bishop of Westminster to a butcher boy, "would have turned round to have another look at them. But I should be very much surprised to hear that they were " molested." '! The fact is that to the pure all things are pure," even the gaze of mankind. Pray do not allow public attention to be diverted from the monstrous iniquity underlying the assault upon Miss Cass by the unhealthy complaints of ladies for whose woes no ,adequate remedies will be found until men 'go about with their heads enveloped in yashmaks. Br TWO MEN OF THE WORLD. A correspondent writes os from Cam■bridge in the same sense :— Many ladies seem to have got it firmly fixod in their minds that every strange man who speaks to them does so for some nefarious purpose. Well, sir, perhaps you will print a letter from a man of the world who in his time has accosted some hundreds of ladies, and will continue to do so, as he sees no harm in it. Mind you, I have no sympathy for the individual who continues to "patter" to a lady when he sees she does . not wish for his company. Suoh deserve ■every condemnation. It is evidently not .known to your lady friend writers that there are a large number of others of their sex who do not object to what they seem to 'regard as a nuißance, I have spent some iyerj happy hours with these ladies, and I .Jiave neither injured them nor been injured ffcy them; on the other hand, I have been .Xnade more social and have been improved "jby their company. I am a traveller. I am /done business early. I go for a stroll and /'meet a lady. I engage her in conversation, ? and probably we meet again in the evening, ' and I am off next morning. The same i Occurs probably next day. I am not married nor yet engaged, yet I believe it is not good for man to be alone; I feel the better for the charming influence of the female 'society., You say, probably, I am a batterfly. Well, perhaps so; but not worse than jthose others who, through having a formal introduction, spend their evenings in going /from drawingroom to drawingroom and party to party, and I have left my evening partner 'm happy and as pure as the other formally _ introduced butterflies. 't A Socialist writes as follows . There is nothing which tens, hundreds of thousands of girls more desire than to be addressed by unknown men in the streets of London. At work all day, and; with no parties in the evening, they have no chance of those introductions to the other < sex which, for young women as well as for young men, naturally and rightly chiefly wake life worth living. The streets are 'their drawingroom, and to secure a " young man" or, add to their "young men," tens, hundreds of thousands only too gladly dispense with formal introductions, and require only a certain respectfulness in aelf-intro* iftctioa. One of the relinked Jomajot re-

s otto**"" is a certain hesitation in adand .a'following, therefore, of the _jr/ for some considerable distance, showing oneself off at 'the same time, to the beat advantage before venturing to address her. This, to the uninitiated outsider, appears "persecution.". And in snoh a case the other-day a " Woman's Bight" acquaintance of mine, full of holy rage, came to the " reaoue" of the " TOtim." Speechless was her . astonishment when the " victim" rounded npon her, and in very strong language, for her officious interference in other people's affairs. No lesa for shopmen than for shopgirls, and, generally, no less f<sr wageearning men than for wage-earning girls, our people hold their evening parties in the streets. The girls who really feel insulted by strangers addressing them in the street are, in general, only ladies, and the "insult" oftenest consists, not so much in what Is Bald, as in being taken to belong to that lower class of girls who welcome such self* introductions.