THE WINNING CARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19062, 6 July 1925, Page 14

THE WINNING CARD.

"ITow I envy him ... so poodlooking and so successful with women!" Ono often hears tlio envious comment, more often perhaps from young men, but sometimes from their elders and betters too, says a writer in an exchange. Yet tho majority of English women do not look upon physical perfection as a man's winning card. They are even, I should say, a littlo shy of it. It lias become a tradition in this country to look clown upon tho too-good-looking man. Wo feel a triflo ashamed of a "beautiful" man. We suspect him of effeminacy. As a matinee idol he is all right, for tho world of the matinee is an unreal world, as unreal as that ol! tho sheik novel. Tho girl who in the theatre looks adoringly at a curly-haired Adonis, goes away and contentedly marries a man with projecting teeth. What then is the winning card in love 1 Who aro the men "successful" with women'! I don't moan those who are an immediate success with one woman, hut those about whoso names a legend of universal success springs up. Tho answer is—tho men who understand women. I know five men of varying ages, tho youngest twenty-ono, the eldest perhaps fifty, and all of them, curiously enough, writers of novels. Their success with women has been phenomenal. Not one of those five is what you would call a good-looking man, but all of them are keen students of psychology—and all five write about women. They know women and understand tliom. In each ono of them there is enough of tho woman for him to be able to do this. Look round at the men you know-inti-mately. Which would you say were the most happily married, the most loved by their wives Y I would wager that they are those who understand tbeir-wrves-aiu} ; who an* kindr to.them.