Why Women Love Criminals.

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 89

Why Women Love Criminals.

I How is it that t!he worst type of criminal haß always some woman or, women madly in love with them? A student of htur>an nature explains. Be says the fact is that women love strength and force, of purpose; and these characteristics are. always found in great criminals. The young man with a handsome face, gentle manners, and good figure does not, as such, captivate the heart of a woman. Having these outside attractions, he 6till makes no headway at all unless he poesteses a certain force or personal magnetism, such as is possessed by the strong man, either good or bad. Then woman loves more, deeply «nd enchiringly than man —less wisely, but more well. While man in his love is voluptuous 1, woman puts out all her deeper energies in a supreme effort to conquer a human heart; and in this effort she links herself to another by the subtle and enduring bond of her own making —love. Another reason Vhy women love cnmi.nals may be found, in this. Criminals are a strange mixture of hard-heartedness and gentleness. Those who have devoted their attention to the psychology of tie prisons -tell us that their soft spots in nard cases are numerous. Now, there is nothing which cements a woman's love like coldness alternated 1 with gentleness. The wldness dams up the reservoir of her love, and the gentleness lets it loose. If the two sexes together are, as has been ass-erted, a battery of positive and negative currents, it is only natural that " makinof and breaking" should furnish the brightest sparks of love. Yet another reason may be found in the fact that a gentle woman's loathing of wickedness in a man fills her with a desire to save from himself, and once she takes a step in that direction, it is her peculiar way to look upon the man as her very own. But -even this depends upon the initial attraction the man must have for her, otherwise she would never think of going out of her way to try and 6ave him. But there is yet another reason. Most women love anvthinsr sensational; a jvt'hinfi' that affects thedr highly struncr nervous system powerfully. Women «hed real tears at the sufferings of the heroine in melodrama when meti only smile. The heroine weeps and 1 wails and goes aKout d^'ieetecllv. and her display of highly coloured -emotions acts in much the same wav as a brilliantly trimnvd hat in a shop window or a bouquet of bright flowers

to stir women's latent emotions, and to provoke them to enthusiasm. The average criminal is a highly coloured individual; a sensational being in a drab world. He stands out like a red-tunicked soldier in a mob of ordinarily dressed persons. He flashes before women's eyes like a comet or a diamond bangle; their emotional system responds, and they fall on his neck and become his 6lave even though he beats them. It is certainly all very curious and interesting.