TEE JUDGES OF THE STERNER SEX

Wairarapa Age, 18 December 1919, Page 2

TEE JUDGES OF THE STERNER SEX

4 1 WHERE WOMEN ARE MISLED BY APPEARANCES. (By H. M. Forbes.) The selection of the right husband is ' a matter of the greatest importance. J This article shows how and where , ' woman's judgment is at fault. That the average woman is much of » character reader as far as members of the sterner sex are concerned, there is unfortunately little reason to supposo. Those schooled in general biography will, of course, challenge any such statement straight away. "Were not Cowper and Adam Lindsay Gordon promptly sent about their business when they attempted to play the lover?" they would ask, "to say nothing of Byron and a whole host of other undesirables?" Quite so, but if those men just , mentioned were weaklings, one more ! or fess a madman, one a hopelessly reckless blade, who eventually put a bullet through his brains, one a roue, surely it showed no great prescience on the part of the young women to whom they paid their homj age that they were packed off with j scant ceremony. Let it not be for- ' gotten that Walter Scott was also dismissed in much tho same way, a man who was as different from Byron in his everyday conduct as was Wilberforce from Charles James Fos. TURNER'S EXPERIENCE. Too often women jttdge men by their appearances. Many girls love tall fine looking individuals, without considering their personality. Of course/ there are exceptions to this rule, just as to .most others, but in the case of the average woman, looks count far more perhaps than she would willingly admit. How many hundreds of girls at twenty .have declined men and at thirty would do anything in the world to have the chance of reveTsing their earlier decision? The truth is, it is only here and thero one meets a woman endowed with the gift of accurately divining character. Turner, the artist, had his whole life irretrievably spoiled by the machinations of the stepmother of the only girl he ever really cared for, while a famous member of one ot Galdstono's Cabinets came perilously near experiencing a precisely similar fate, owing to the groundless prejudice of a certain grandmamma with "superior knowledge" in character delineation.. v Many men of sterling character are ''turned down" simply because the, womenfolk, with whom they come in contact, are incapable of appreciating their worth. In some cases it is a really fortunate thing for men to be rejected (however little they may imagine it), for acceptance would never gain them appreciation. THE CASE OF NAPOLEON. The young woman who ran away with the penniless John Scott (afterwards Lord Chancellor Eldon) has been described,, especially in latter life, as somewhat eccentric, but one thing that must be said for her at least is that, poverty-stricken and obscure as was her lover, she at least had faith in his future, faith in his ability, his grit, his resourcefulness. • How different was this girl from tho young woman who married the inventor of the spinning jenny. So dispirited did this unhappy woman become that in a moment of more than usual dissatisfaction, she actually smashed to* shivers the invention upon which her luckles lifepartner had lavished endless toil and labour—a proceeding which at one fell blow sent him out of her life for ever. What must this girl have thought when, not long afterwards, the name of Arkwright became one of the most highly honoured in the land, Lie money-bags filled to overflowing? Go where one will, it is by nmeans always the best type of man the- womenfolk are most anxious to honour with their favours. Some girls have a craze for the humorous individual, some for the most adventuresome, some for the most dashing lover, some, as has been said, for the most handsome. When, alas, a really outstanding man comes along, they fail to appreciate his greatness. - How oddly were the womenfolk mistaken in the case of Nftpoleon. During his early wedded' life Josephine treated him in such a way that when he eventually divorced her , much of the compunction he must have felt otherwise, was killed. , So, too, in his earlier days, girls - rarely if ever fully realised the possibilities. "Puss-in-Boots," one of his • girl friends actually dubbed him.