NARROW AND HEARTLESS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue II, 13 January 1900, Page 90

NARROW AND HEARTLESS.

There are two sisters whom everybody who will read their story here has met, in cities or farmhouses, at home or abroad. They have eyes and ears, the full comp.emeut of all the senses belonging to ordinary human beings, but they go through life blind and deaf.

Every morning, when l-ey rise, God opens the world before them like a full book to tell of His power and love. The sunshine, the winil, every flower in the field, every insect in the grass, all the countless living things about them, have some word to speak of Him. They see and hear nothing of it all.

Around them, all through the days, press multitudes of men and women, each working out a little tragedy or comedy of life, each differing from the others, mean or noble, pure or vile, but all alike struggling along a path where help may be needed and life’s burdens made less hard to bear. 'xiiese women have brains and hearts, but they never use them for the benefit of a single soul. They hold out no helping hand, they give no friendly thought to any rellow traveller. Whv?

On< of them is made blind by her sense of her own importance. The petty cause of her importance is known only to herself. There was a man of title among her forefathers; or she has a larger sum in the bank than her neig.mours; or she numbers some fashionable women among her acquaintances; or she has costly gowns. But she wraps herself in this remembrance as in a robe of state, and so struts proudly through life. Her sister has a grievance: usually a different one each day; an aching limb; a small income; an idle servant. These cover her as his cloak covers the monk. She thinks, dreams, talks under their pressure. These women thus shut themselves in and are kept apart through life from the influence and help of nature, of their fellow-men, and of God. It would be wise to ask ourselves, now and then, if we are in their case. Do we give out healthy, happy, influences to people about us as we go through the world? If not. what cloak do we wear that shuts ns in to our own littleness? ® © ® HOVV CHINA STRIKES AN ENGLISHWOMAN. In an illustrated interview with Mis Archibald Little in "The Young Woman’ ’ we are told that China strikes an Englishwoman as being like the house of a drunken woman. “Nothing," says Mrs Little, “has ever been repaired or put in order. All -he bridges which were made in very grand style under the old dynasty, have fallen into decay, and there are no roads. It is exactly opposite to Japan, where a storm is hardly over before the poor people are hard at work repairing everything. The streets are extraordinarily crowded, and very, very narrow. They are full of shops, and all the shop signs, gaudily coloured, Jiang perpendicularly, producing a very interesting perspective. AU the business that can be done out of doors Is done in the streets.

“The Chinese,” Mrs Little continues, "when meeting with foreigners, frequently ask —‘Does the sun shine in your country?' and when they see so many Europeans come to China, they look upon the hillsides and say —‘You have no mountains like these—no rice grows in your country, no fruit?’ They fancy people go there because these things are only to be found in China. It is always polite for a visitor to say—‘No; in my miserable country there is nothing i.ke this—no grand mountains, no fruit.’ I am afraid they think me very rude, for I always say to them—‘My country is magnificent; our grains are ever so much bigger than yours.’ I think it is a great pity to intensify their notion that theirs is the only great country in the world. The PEOPLE ARE AMAZINGLY IGNORANT,

and imagine that the whole world is centred in China. I have never met with a Chinese who knew the name of Gladstone. Many of them have heard of England. Germany, France. Russia, and America, but they think these countries consist of rough bor-

der tribes, always fighting among themselves. In the city where I live, Chungking, a wealthy city about the size of Lyons, the people imagine that I am a very near relation of the Queen; and when I went back from England two years ago, they came to ask me how often I had seen the Queen, to which I replied quite truthfully. Then they would say—‘Did she ask you to sit down?’ When I came to England again very soon afterwards a story was set about that the Queen was getting old and could not do without me! There you have an idea of the impressions the Chinese have of England and the grandeur of the Queen. They believe we are a people with poor morals and no manners, and they are confirmed in this view by our style of dress. They speak of our clothes as ‘made up of scraps.’ ” ® © ® THE WOOING MAN AND HIS METHODS. (By a Man.) Many an<T various are the ways men have of going about the business of winning a woman. I think the average girl has enough perception to be able to distinguish between the sincere and insincere suitor—to distinguish between the man who is genuinely and honestly in love with her, and the man who is merely after her money, or who is desirous of entering a certain circle of society by marrying a girl who moves in that circle. Now, let us take the example of a pretty girl who has a comfortable home and is admired, and whose people are in good circumstances, and who is no particular hurry to get, married. She has several lovers, or men whom her family and friends regard as lovers. Perhaps she will dismiss them all; perhaps she will eventually accept one of them. Anyhow, let us see how they go to work to win this pretty maid. THE IMPETUOUS MAN. Now, a man’s methods of courting depend largely upon his (temperament. An impatient, impetuous man will often harm his chances by rushing at a girl as a bull charges into a gate. He starts by falling violent!}' in love with her at first, sight, and declares his passion in about a fortnight’s time. The girl may like him a little bit, but he hasn’t given her long enough to get to know him, and so he is refused, and goes away with his head full of revolvers, poisons, and other violent cures for hopeless passion. Of course he doesn’t do himself any damage; he calms down in about a week, and realises that he has been in far too much of a hurry, and so, if he be a wise man, he will curb his impatience and set himself to win this pretty girl by slower and surer methods. THE MAN WHO CAN WAIT. Another suitor is of an entirely different nature; he is a strong man —one who can wait. That’s how Kitchener conquered the Soudan, by waiting, waiting, waiting! He waited for thirteen years, and then he got his chance.

Some men —not many—wait almost as long as this for a girl. If a man waits all that time, and the girl has not surrendered her heart elsewhere, he will probably get her. and to be sure he deserves her.

There are some girls who take an infinite amount of winning—even if they like a man they won’t show' it for a long time—a long, tedious time. Often an accident brings about a betrayal of their affection, or it may be the man is about to take a voyage, or to go away for a long period, and on the eve of his departure the girl cannot restrain her real feelings, and the man goes away happy, knowing that he is beloved. Then there is the man who tries to impress a girl with his cleverness, to fascinate her with his stronger brain power. He will touch on many subjects that she cannot understand, and in time she may come to stand in awe of his intellect, and perhaps fall in love a little bit on that account. It is only humanly natural to admire those things in others which we do not possess; to look up to people who can do things which we cannot do. Hence hero-worship. Perhaps a man has a good tenor voice, and will use it to some effect on the ears of his lady tore. But, bless you! a girl will not marry a man because he has a tuneful larynx.

A sensible girl won’t. He must be a good deal more than a good singer. THE POET. There is the man who drops into poetry, and sends a young lady tong sonnets written by himself about her —and sometimes other people’s sonnets written about other girls. This is hardly a sheep-walk to a girl’s heart. Or perhaps a man will put into practice that very useless method of trying to buy the girl by sending her costly presents, by taking her out and spending money on her, by remembering her birthday only too lavishly, and the season of Christmas even more so. The girl may be pleased with his gifts at first, but I don’t think she will like him much the better for them. No harm in a man giving a girl presents when they know each other intimately, and the “little affair” is approaching a climax; but previously to this but a right-minded girl always knows what to do. Accepting a present from a man is encouragement. You can’t get away from that. AND SOME OTHERS. There is 'the man with the fluent tongue, and the man who makes jokes. Both make the time pass if they don’t stop too long. But what is it that a girl accepts a man for? Is it for his conversation, his voice, his figure, his face, his desperate wooing, his apparent indifference? It is for none of these. If a man loves a woman, and a woman loves a man, there is a subtle communication between their two hearts which tells them so. Sooner or later a girl will sift her admirers —will separate the wheat from the tares, the gold from the dross.

She will, let us pray, give her heart to the man who loves her sincerely; who intends to devote his life, brains, and body to her service; who wants her to double his joys and divide his sorrows—to be his friend and companion until death parts them.