WHAT MAN DEMANDS OF WOMAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7923, 30 January 1904, Page 3

WHAT MAN DEMANDS OF WOMAN.

(DOROTHY DIX, in American Magazine.) The mosfc discouraging thing in the world! to women is to listen to a man recite the litany of the charms- and virtues be demands in the woman he marries. No human being ever possessed such an aggregation of perfections, and it makes an unmarried female feel as if she might as well make for tbe spinsters' retreat at once. Fortunately, however, there is no need for despair, for while ifc is true that man expects much of woman, there are ameliorating conditions that make him shade his demands. For. instance, every man demands beauty in a woman. The first question he asks about a strange woman is, "Is she good looking?" and he never gets too old, or rheumatic, or decrepit to turn around and gaze after a pretty girl in the street. More than that, he is a connoisseur, in feminine pulchritude, and every man cherishes an ideal of the tall, lithe, golden-haired creature that he expects to lead to the altar some day. BUT— when he falls in love be believes that a little, short, dumpy woman with a red head is a second Helen, whose 'beauty is capable of setting the world on fire. Every "man looks forward to his wife being, a help instead of a hindrance to bim. BUT — a sane professional man can persuade himself that a peachy-eomplexioned fool will be an inspiration to him, and a struggling business man can convince himself that all he needs to get rich is to marry an extravagaut butterfly of 'fashion. Every man expects his wife to be a companion to him, capable of sympathising with .his* aspirations and entering into his plans. BUT— -the wisest philosopher that ever lived oan see his affinity in a violet-eyed soubrette. who rolls her orbs at him and tells him that he is a naughty boy to spend so much time reading horrid books. Every man demands that a woman's heart shall be an ice-bound fortress, diffusing a cold-storage atmosphere that will give every other man who approaches her frosted feet. BUT — he wants her. to turn into a seething volcano of redhot affection when he dawns upon the scene. Every man expects to be a woman's first love. BUT— he expects ber to be satisfied to be his last. Every man demands that a woman shall love him absorbingly, devotedly, unintermittently, and that she shall spend her time when he is away from her in thinking about him. . BUT — it makes bim bopping mad if she evinces any curiosity to know where he has been. A man wants a woman to be a clinging, helpless, unsophisticated creature, who asks him what he thinks she thinks. ' BUT — he expects her to be able to bustle aut and take care of herself if she has to, and to have enough executive ability to managa her own affairs without bothering bim. A man expects a woman to believe everything he tolls her.. BUT — he can't understand why she is simple enough to let other men deceive her. A man demands thafc a woman shall be a domestic paragon, who shall know how to make pies like his imiother used to make and entrees like a French chef. BUT — he seldom cares to hold the hand that Has made corns? on it working for him. A man demands that a woman shall bo a meek, gentle, self-sacrificing saint. BUT — he loves her best when she has a spice of the devil in her. A man demands thafc a girl should be shy and retiring like the modest violet. BUT — he marries the bold sunflower who makes goo-goo eyes afc him. A man demands that a woman shall always be well dressed; He is a perpetua? victim to the click of high-heeled shoes and the frou-frou of silk skirts, and, in his private code, considers Mother Hubbards and curlpapers as sufficient grounds for divorce. BUT— he expects his wife to achieve the miracle of Pacific Heights clothes on a Tar Flat income. In a word, man demands perfection of woman. BUT — he marries an ordinary, commonplace, faulty wife, and is generally very well satisfied with his bargain.