THE SECRET THAT MOST WOMEN WANT TO KNOW.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19260, 26 August 1924, Page 5

THE SECRET THAT MOST WOMEN WANT TO KNOW.

Over and over again girls ask mo those questions (writes Dorothy Dixi: What is charm? What is the secret of the attraction that some women have for men? Why do some girls always have hosts of admirers, while others, just as good-looking, just as clever, just as anxious to please, never have a single sweetheart ? To all of these questions I have to answer, sadly and disconsolately, that I do not know. I have to give up the conundrum, which is perhaps the riddle that the Sphinx, who is also a woman, has brooded over through the centuries in her desert solitude, without ever being able to solve it. What is this charm—this rabbit’s foot that some lucky women carry, and others do net? To say that it is personality is to attempt to 'explain one mystery by another mystery, for wo do not know in what personal magnetism consists, or by what, newer one individual draws us, while another repulses us. THE WOMANLY WOMAN. Wo know that it isn’t beauty, because the best-looking girls are seldom the most popular. Men who profess to worship beauty are generally content to adore it from a safe distance, and show no disposition to many it. It is notorious that beauties seldom make good matches. Nor does charm consist of intelligence. Even dancing, chief of accomplishments in these jazzy days, when it is of more profit for a woman to have her brains in her heels than in her head, is but a passing attraction, while amiability and a sweet nature arc like a sticking plaster, potent to hold a man after marriage, hut of small value in luring him into it. Undoubtedly, charm in its perfection is a gift of the gods. To the girl who wishes to acquire charm, and who especially wishes to attract men, I would say, be feminine. The more womanly a woman is, the gentler, the tenderer, the sweeter, the more she appeals to men. When a man speaks of the woman he loves, ho usually calls her “little,” no matter if she is six feet high and weighs 2001 b. What ho means jo that she gives him the reaction of depending unon him, of looking un to him, and that in some subtle way she flatters his vanity by giving him the sense of masculine superiority. You never see an aggressive, doublefisted woman, who fights her way like a man, get anywhere. And in his heart every man likes to see women in pretty frocks. That is why girls made a terrible mistake when they cultivate mannish ways apt wear mannish clothes. To the girl who wishes to acquire charm I would also whisper this secret: Make of yourself a mirror in which other people look upon themselves. Especially let men see a flattering reflection of themselves in vour eyes. Listen with bated breath while other people tell you of their exploits, but never mention your own. Marvel at their adventures. Sympathise •with their disappointments. Tie glad about their successes, and yen will ho regarded as a woniau of perfect taste, wonderful insight, profound judgment, a brilliant talker, and a companion of whom one could never weary. It is the tireless listeners, and not the endless talkers, whose society men seek.