The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-02-03
NATURE SIRENS.
From the Saturday Review.I

| From tne SATURDAY 1eficwsJ
Nothing is moro ineomprehensible TO grlt
| than the love and admiration sometimes Eiver
to middle-aged women. They cannot under
stand it and nothing but experience will evel
make them understand it. In their eyes,
woman is out of the pale of personal affection
altogether when she has once lost the SHINING
gloss OF youth, that exquisite freshness o.
skin, and suppleness of limb, which to them, Y
the insolept plenitude OF their untaded beauty
constitute the chief claims to admiration o.
their sex. And yet they cannot conceal from
themselves the fact that the belle Of eighteen
is often deserted for the woman OF forty
and that the patent witchery OF tneiI
own youth and prettiness goes for notn'
ing against the mysterious charms OF Q
mature siren. What can they say to such
an anomaly? There is no good in going
about the world disdainfully wondering how on
earth man could ever havo taken up with
such an antiquated creature -sugsestlvely
asking their male friends what could he see IN
woman of her age, old enough to be thelr
mothers There the TACT stands, and facts are
stubborn things. The eligible suitor, who has
been coveted by more than one golden-haired
girl, has married q woman twenty years her
senior, and the middle-aged siren has actually
carried off the prize which nymphs in thcly
teens have frantical,y desired to win. What
is the secret? How is it done? The world,
even of silly girls, has got past any belief in
|
mistress wore, and yet the mans fascination
seems to them quite as miraculous and almost
as unholy as if it had been brought about by
the black art. But If they had any analytical
power, they would understand the didb.e'1e OF
the mature sirens clearly enough, for 1t IS not
so difficult to understand when one put ones
mind TO it,
In the first place, woman of ripe age has a
knowledge of the world, and certain suavty
of manner and moral hexibllity, wholly want
| ing to the young. Young girls are, for the
| most part, all anges-harsh in their judg-
ments, stiff in their prejudlces, and narrow IN
| their synpathies. They are full OF combalve-
ness and solf-assertion ii they are OF one Kind
OF young people, or they are stupid and shy ii
| they belong to another kind. They are talk
atlve with nothing to say, and positive with
nothing we'll and truly known; or they are
mouosyllabic dummies who stammer out Yes
and No at random, and whose brains be-
come hopeessy confused ut the first SEN
tence a stranger utters. They are generally
without pity; thei; want of experience MAX
ing them hard towards SORROWS which they
scarcely understand and. let us charltably
hope, to certain extent, ignorant of tho pain
they in1ict. That famous article in the Times
on the cruelty of young girls, apropos OF Con-
stance Kent's confession, though absurdly exaS-
gerated, had il 1t lie core of truth which gives
the sting to such papers, which makes them
stick, and which is the real cause OF the out
cry they create. Girls are cruel; there is no
question about it. If more u: s'.e than ac-
tive, they are simply indltf,reii. the suffer-
ings of others; il Of more active tempera-
ment, they find Il positive pleasure i'll giving
pain A girl will say the most cruel things to
her dearest friend, and then laugh at her be-
cause she cries. Even her own mother she
will hurt and humiliate if she eau; while, as for
any unfortunate aspirant not approved OF,
1 c1- aH q q la
would find means to make him vince. But all
this acerbity is toned down i'll the mature wo-
man, Experience has enlarged her Sympa-
thies, and knowledge and sCE ring has soften
ed her heart to the sufferings OF Others. Her
lessons Of life, too, have taught her tact. and
tact is one OF the INST valuable lessons nat
man or woman can learn. She sees at glance
where are tao weak points and sore places III
her companion, and she avoids them; orf she
passes over them, it is with hand 80 soft aud
tender, touch SO inexpressib!y soothing, that
she calms instead OF irrltatcs. girl wouli
have come down upon the weak places heavily,
and would havo torn the band gcs off the soro
ones, testing at scars because she herself had
never felt q wounl, and deriding the sybaIi-
tism of dyachylon because ignorant OF the
anguish it conceals. Then the mature siren is
thoughtful for Others Girls are self-assertlng
and aggressive. Life is 30 strong in them, and
the instinct which prompts them to try their
strength with all comers, and 10 get the best
Of everything everywhere, is so Inexpressible,
that they are often disagreeable because of
their instructive selishness, and the craving,
natural 10 the young, of taking all and giving
back nothing. But tho mature siren knows
better than this. She knows that social sue
cess depends entirely on what each of us can
throw into the comon fund Of society; that the
surcst way to be considcrate ourselves is
TO be considerate for others; that sympathy
md lands
altation; and that if we want to gain love we must
first show how well we can give It. Her tact,
then, and her sympathy, her moral h3xlbIlity
and quick comprehension OF character, her
readiness to give herself to others, are some
OF the reasons. among others. why the society
OF O cultivated, agreeable woman OF certain
age is sought by those mon TO whom women
are more than mere mistresses or toys. Be-
sides, she is a good conversationalist. She
has no pretensions to any special or deep
learning il pedantic, she is spoilt as
siren at any age-but she knows q little about
most things; at all events, she knows enough
to make her pleasant companion, and able TO
keep mp the ball WHOM thrown. And men IKE
to talk 10 intelligent women. They do not
like TO be taught or corrected by thcm but
they like that quick, sympathetic intellect
which follows them readily, aud that amount
of knowledge which makes comfortable
cushion for their own. And 4 mature siren
who knows what she is about would never do
more than this, even If she could.
Thou,.h the matura siren resls her claim 20
admiration Oil more than mere personal
charms, and appeals to something beyond the
senses yet she IS pecsonaD.e aid well prcserv-
ed, and, in u favorable light, looks nearly as
Young as ever. SO l. q men say who knew her
when she was tweuiy; y'.1 loved her then,
and bave gone on loving her with L difference,
despite the twenty years that lie between this
AMI then Girls. iudeel, despise het charms be-
cause she is no longer young and yet she
NAV be even more beautiful than youth. She
knows all the little nicetles of dress. and, with
out going into the vulgar trickery OF paint and
dyes, which would make her hideous, is up to
the best arts OF the toilet, by which every point
is made to tell, and every minor beauty IS
given its fullest value. For parO Of the art ani
mystery of sireuhood is all accurate perception
of times and conditions, and careful avoid
ance of that suicidal mistake Of which ia
femme pasSee is so often suilty-namely, sot-
ting herself in confessed rivalry with the
Young by trying to look like them, and SO
losing The good Of whit she has retained, and
showing the ravages of time by the con-
trast The mature siren ls wiser than this.
She knows exactly what she has and
what she can Go, and before all things avoids
whatever seems too youthful for her years;
aud this is one reason why she is always beau
tiful, because always IL hariAony. Besides,
she has very many good points, many positive
charms still left. Her figure is still goo mot
slim and slender, certainly, but round and soft,
and with that slower, ripper, laZec glace winch
is something quue different from tho antelope
like elasticity Of youth, and III It's own way as