“Thoughts of Women.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue III, 21 July 1900, Page 127

“Thoughts of Women.”

The following amusing “Thoughts” appear in an influential American religious journal: — Woman is man's greatest earthly blessing, and the cause of most of his misery. She is his chief inspiration to the achievement of all that is good, ■rrand. and glorious in this world, and at the same time a labour-saving device to help him make a fool of himself. She soothes his tired nerves with the coo of her gentle voice, but she always has the last word in every controversy with him. and. incidentally, about 97 per cent, of the preceding conversation. She brings him into the world, and in a few years later talks him to death. Most of man's trouble is caused bywoman. but so deftly does she pile the load on him that whenever his burden of trouble is lifted he wanders uneasily about hunting for more—otherwise there would be very few second wives. She will cheerfully go to the stake for the truth's sake, and lie about her age without even being asked. She will grow weary of an indulgent husband, will cleave unto death the man who beats her regularly. She will break her heart because a man does what she don't want him to. and love him all the better for so doing.

She scorns all adviee in the selection of a husband, but takes two other women along to help her pick out a hat. The less actual comfort to be obtained from a thing, the more enjoyment a woman gets out of its possession. At sixteen she is a young woman: at twenty-five, if still unmarried, she is a girl. She will face the grim spectre of death without a tremor, and swoon at the sight of a mouse. The only time she ever does what you expect her to do is when you expect her to do just what you don't expect her to do. The sole reason why she does anything

is simply because she don’t know why she does it. She jumps at conclusion’! and always hinds on them squarely, for the simple reason that when the <v>nclusion skips to one side, thinking to avoid her. it gets exactly in her wav . She is the dearest thing in all the world, and the most aggravating. She is as she is and that’s all there is to do about it. The only man who ever fully understands a woman is the man who understands that he don’t understand her. and has got sense enough to let it go at that.

The Grafton-City Contest at Potter's Paddock. July 14. 1900.