THE MEN THAT WOMEN LIKE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 36, 5 September 1891, Page 351

THE MEN THAT WOMEN LIKE.

It was Pope who said that * An honest man is the noblest work of God.’ We women are quite convinced that the poet wrote truth. We have learnt, sometimes by suffering and pain, sometimes pleasantly, that the men we like above all others are the men with characters. We are sure that the old orator spoke the truth when he said that * man was born for two things—thinking and acting.’ I do not know whether it is an instinct in women or one of her peculiar gifts, but it certainly is a tact that she can invariably read character better than man. And it is also an extraordinary thing about her that, while she has this ability, she will use it only to analyse those men for whom she has no regard. When once a woman is in love, she will hear nothing said against her betrothed. He may be a bad man, a man of no principle, a worthless fellow, and yet she remains blind to his detects. She learns them perhaps when she is married. Then the dread reality will no longer be hidden ; she awakes to the truth that her dream is but a dream, that the spell is broken ; that the angel with the golden wings is but a poor, weak, failing, and vain mortal. But she weeps in silence ; she does not complain. Let us preface the statement, then, in this way, by saying that character in a man counts more in a woman’s eyes than does character in a woman in the man’s. Our men are easily pleased by the pretty baby face, the smart dress, or the shining bauble. With woman, it is different. She does not object to a good-looking man, not at all; she likes him, but in many cases she demands something more. She would know his will power, the amount of brains he possesses, whether or no he is selfish. She watches and listens to learn these things; and your pretty doll of a boy is often summed up in the boudoir as a conceited young idiot who should be sent to school. I often think what fun it would be could the so-called ‘ mashers ’ listen to the criticisms passed on them by the girls they think to deceive. For don’t make any mistake, we girls are rarely cheated. We can estimate the well-cut coat, the button-hole, the white waistcoat at their true value. But we ask for more, and if sometimes we do not get it, it is because there comes an age when it is necessary to marry or to choose the shelf, and we argue, better a noodle and a home, than tie parental house and the half-a-dozen cats.

But a more important point. How does money affect a woman in her consideration of the great tie ? Not much we are inclined to think. Women are more unselfish than men, less calculating. If once a real and genuine attachment seizes upon them they are willing to forego many luxuries and pleasures that it may be cemented. There will be, of course, always a large proportion of women ready to run after the being who has a big account at his banker’s, but others, and the majority, are apt to look askance at the moneyed man, and to fight a little shy of him. They know that he is the victim of flattery ; that he is often puffed up with his own conceit; that he expects a homage from women, a homage paid to his account and his ability to sign cheques. We resent this kind of thing. No, money does not affect us in the way that ability does. The clever man has no greater admirer than woman. And she is quick to recognise talent and to encourage it. Witness the wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne, encouraging him when he had left his regular employment and saying—--1 Now you will have time to finish your book.’ Give us ability and we are happy ; offer us a man in whom we feel we can trust, and he may get our love. We do not care that he has not much money at the moment ; we are inclined to wait ; we say he will get on, and that is enough.

Answers,