DEADLY VIRTUES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 424, 15 November 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

DEADLY VIRTUES

THINGS THAT WIVES DETEST

In spite of the innumerable proof! given by history that rakes and ne’er-do-wells arc more fascinating to wo me® than the personifications of solid worthj men continue to believe, apparently, that women really love them for theil good qualities, writes Arnot Robertsoß in the Daily Mail. You can tell this from the self-coir scious but deprecating way in which they parade what they believe to b® their best, moral points when they ar® suitors. (“Of course, I think a husband ought to do what he can to help at home; but then” —diffidently— “that’s just my peculiarity, I suppose* I hate seeing a woman do all th®

And only a woman novelist dares t®. draw the hero as a cad, the principal male characters in works by men be* iug, as a rule, almost insufferably good! fellows-

Have no men yet realised that therf are at least seven (and probably more), virtuous attributes which most wive® find almost unbearable in most huebands?

(1) Habitual foresight.—Even if the man wisely refrains from using Ih® words “I told you so,” it is nearly a® bad to know that for the hundredth time he is in a position to say them if he w’ants to, having foreseen th® mistake the woman has just made before she thought of making it. (2) Moderation of statement.-* Women exaggerate naturally. It M dreadfully damping for them to heal that a new dress is just ‘‘quite nice** when what, they want is enthusiastic appreciation. (3) Domesticity.—From men wh® know more about running a house thaM the average woman heaven preserve me and my female friends! Their unspoken criticism as they observe th® undusted mantelpiece can be read i® their faces, and, as in offence (1) if is as trying as if they expressed it. (4) Unlimited patience under prov» cation.—The woman who says, as moaf of us do at. times, that no one hate( a scene more than she does is almost invariably lying. (5) Concentration. —It is a purely male virtue to follow one train of thought to its logical conclusion. Women, hopping mentally from subject to subject, get bored by this very easily.

(6) Infallibility.—Of course, this i® intolerable in anyone, but it is rarejj found in women.

(1) Reasonableness in argument. —M is so obvious why women dislike thi® that there seems no object in explaining it.