Brunettes Versus Blondes.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue XVII, 24 October 1903, Page 65

Brunettes Versus Blondes.

The ideal wife — the wife the mere man paints in wondrous brain pictures before marriage—is never in sterner reality a dark woman. The little blonde, with her fair hair and baby blue eyes, wields the reins of a household with a natural aptitude for her onerous position. and at the same time allows her husband to rule over her and himself with a graceful complacency which her darker sister could never even assume. Now. the secret of a fair woman’s matrimonial success lies in her temperament. She is easy-going, and though generally possessed of a certain amount of natural conceit, that conceit never by any chance runs on intellectual lines: it is her mere personal prettiness and the. like that give it birth. Thus she tacitly admits the superiority of man, bending herself unquestioningly to his will: and man. with the old inherent feudal instincts strong within him. accepts her subservience, and deems her an ideal wife accordingly, even though perchance she should fall short of many of the perfections of his pre-matrimonial ideal woman. With a darker woman things matritnanial present a totally different aspect. Her characteristics are averse to submission, as a fair woman accepts the meaning of the word: and while realising the burden of her vow to “’love, honour and obey,” she also considers it binding upon the man to levy only such laws of obedience upon her as he himself will also observe. She resents the aspersions that women were merely created for decorative purposes within their husband’s home, and in many instances under the cramping confines of domesticity the dark woman has discovered a latent capacity to storm the labour market, and given free vent to that ambition which has been crushed dormant by the heredity of generations. When thi*" happens, woe and bitterness enter into the family camp: for the man, fearing he or his home and creature comforts may be neglected, starts a series of petty oppositions that crush out the sentiment and love of marriage. The onus of settling down and accepting the humdrum routine of the average domestic life finds scant favour with ? brunette; her instincts are not domestic. She can love, and with her the grand passion is a passion that verily becomes part of her being; but the highest. holiest love the wide world over will not eradicate inherent characteristics, though for a time it may cast them

into the background by the briUiance of its novelty. And under the influence of that novelty the dark bride will make a semblance of successful house keeping Directly, however, the inevitable jars and frets mar the details of the home machinery. The dark woman worries, and in worrying finds herself a failure. The husband, too. man like, makes no allowance for temperament, and grumbles at this omission and that coinmi-sion impartially. Then the ehafe which "conies not in wearing chains, but feeling them.” is first noticed, and life becomes one huge regret for the marriage which her own weakness has made a failure. In times of trouble or illness, it must in fairness be chronicled, the dark woman never sits down and wrings her hands helplessly after the fashion of the fairer type of the sex. She has to be up and doing: thus it may be said that trouble brings into play the best points of her character. That marked spirit of independence and self-reliance that is bound to be held in check when for tune smiles, will under the influence of her frown assert itself for the good of husband and home. Under these circumstances a..y mao might rejoice in having se.icted from Mit the world of girls a dark woman for his wife. But no man marries under the expectation of meeting failure and trouble, nor chooses his wife with regard to her capacity to meet such calamities if -hey fail. For this reason all too often the dark woman’s sterling qualities remain unap preciated. her heroism under stress of eircumst.-snces being regarded as a direct mark of aggressive superiority and

resented in consequence. u hen in reality trouble proved to be the lever to a heart that the common round, the daily task, would ever have failed to touch. Thus for her own sake a dark woman should not marry. She is too prone to romance. too prone to dream: and whereas for her fairer sister married life exactly realises all her expectations, for herself it must prove nothing but a series of disillusions and disappoint ments. Single, she would create for herself a place in the world: married, she must till the place her husband has created for her. and this is not sufficient to make her happy.