On Paying Compliments.

Otago Witness, Issue 2727, 20 June 1906, Page 66

On Paying Compliments.

All people above tlje age of six months like, compliments. Young men and old men are just as fond of them as young women and old women, although they may not care to admit it.

There are compliments and compliments. Some offend against good taste .and common sense, while others put the payer and the receiver of the compliment into a good humour with themselves and everybody else. To comment upon a woman's looks is no compliment; it shows a lack of good breeding, but it is always safe to admire her clothes.

It does not natter a married woman to be told she is witty or clever. A delicate hint about her cookery and housewifely gifts and open admiration of her baby are the greatest compliments you can pay her. Single girls will disdain compliments of a domestic nature. They prefer an appreciation of their artistic tastes, their accomplishments indoors and out of doors. Praise their dancing,- their singing, their painting, say you adore their moods and inconsistencies, but don't think you ingratiate yourself with a pretty girl you admire by extolling her cakes and her pastries. Once married, she will fall into it naturally, but to remind her beforehand wi'l settle your account for ever. A young man likes to be thought older than he is. You earn his everlasting friendship and esteem by flattering hia self-conceit in regarding him as a man of the world. That is why so many young men marry shrewd women older than themselves. A younger man prefers to be thought older.

An older man prefers to be thought younger. Most men are as susceptible to flattery as a woman concerning their age.