The weekly clarion., 1869-06-10
ale dHeskIp Glariou.
From the London Saturday Review


out of the pale of personal affection alto
gether when she has lost the shining gloss
Of youth, that exquisite freshness of skin
and suppleness of limb, which to them,
in the insolent plentitude of their unfaded
beauty, constitute the chief claims to ad-
miration of their sex. And vet they cam
not conceal from themselves the fact that
the belle Of eighteen is often deserted for
the woman of forty, and that the patent
witchery of their own youth and pretti-
ness goes for nothing against the myste-
rious charms Of a mature siren. What
can they say to such an anomaly? There
j. no good in going about the world DIS
dainfuIly wondering how ON earth man
could ever have taken up with such an
antiquated creature-suggestive asking
their male friends what could he see in
woman Of her age, old enough to be their
mother? There the fact stands, and facts
are stubborn things. The eligible suitor,
who has been coveted by more than one
golden-haired girl has married woman
twenty-years his senior, and the middle
aged siren has actually carried off the
prize which nymphs in their teens have
frantically desired to win. What is the
secret? How is it done? The world,
even of silly girls, has got past any belief
in spells and talismans, such as Charlie
magne's mistress wore, and yet the mans
fascination seems to them quite as mlrac-
ulOus and almost as unholy as if 1t had
been brought about by the black art. But
if they had any analytical power they
would understand the diabtere of the ma
ture sirens clearly enough, for it 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 GER
tain suavity of manner and moral fexi-
bility, wholly wanting to the young.
Young girls are for the most part all an
gels-harsh in their judgments, stiff in
their prejudices, and narrow in their SYM
pathies. They are full of combatatlve-
ness and self assertion if they are of one
kind of young people, or they are stupid
and shy if they belong to another kind.
They are talkative with nothing to say,
and positive with nothing well and truly
known; or they are monosyllabic dunn |
mics who stammer out Yes and No at |
random. and whose brains become hope /
Iessly confused at the first sentence a |
stranger utters. They are generally with
out pity, their want of experience max |
ing them hard toward sorrows which |
they scarcely understand, and, let us
charitably hope, to certain extent igno- I
rant of the pain they infiict.
A girl will say the most cruel things to |
her dearest friend, and then laugh at her |
because she cries. Even her own mother
she will hurt and humiliate if she can;
while, as for any unfortunate aspirant not |
approved of, were he as tOugh-skinned as
a rhinoceros she would find means to make |
him vince. But all this acerbity is toned |
down in the mature woman. Experience |
has enlarged her sympathies, and knowl-
edge of suffering has softened her heart |
to the sufferings of others. Her lessons |
of life, too, have taught her tact, and
tact is one of the most valuable lessons |
that man or woman can learn. She |
sees at glance where are the weak points |
and sore places in her companion, and
she avoids them; or if she passes over
them, it is with hand so soft and tender
q touch so inexpressibly soothing that she
calms instead of irritates. A girl would
have come down upon the weak places
heavily, and would have torn the banda
ges off the sore ones, jesting at scars be-
cause she herself had never felt wound
and deriding the sybaritism Of diachylon
because ignorant of the anguish it con-
ceals. Then the mature siren is thought
full for others. Girls are selfasserting
and aggressive. Life is so strong in them,
and the instinct which prompts them to
try their strength with all comers, and to
get the best of everything everywhere, is |
so irrepressible that they are often disa-
greeable because of their instructive sell |
fishness, and the craving, natural to the |
young, of taking all and giving back |
nothing. But the mature siren knows
better than this She knows that social |
success depends entirely on what each of
us can throw into the common fund of so
ciety; that the surest way to be consider
ed ourselves is to be considerate for others;
that sympathy begets liking, and selfsup-
preston leads to exaltation; 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 feasibility
and quick comprehension Of character,
her readiness to give herself to others,
are some of the reasons, among others,
why the society of cultivated, agreeable
woman of certain age is sought by those
men to whom women are more than mere
mistresses or toys. Besides, she is good
She has no pretensions
to any special or deep learning-for, if
pedantic, she is spoilt as a syren at any
age-but she knows little about most
things; at all events, she knows enough
to make her a pleasant companion, and
able to keep up the ball when thrown
And men like to talk to intelligent wo-
men. They do not like to be taught or
corrected by them, but they like that
quick sympathetic intellect which follows
them readily, and that amount of knowl-
edge which makes a comfortable cushion
for their own. And mature siren who
knows what she is about would never do
moro than this, even if she could.
Though the mature siren rests her
claim to admiration on more than mere
charms, and appeals to some
thing beyond the senses, vet she is per-
sonable and well preserved, and in IA
vorable light, looks nearly as young as
ever. So the men say who knew her
when she was twenty who loved her
then, and have gone on loving her with a /
difference, despite the twenty years that
lie between this and then. Girls, indeed,
despise her charms because she is no long
er young and yet she may be even more
beautiful than youth. She knows all the
httie nlcetIes of dress, and without going
into the vulgar trickery of paints and
lyes, 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 part of the art and mystery of siren
hood is an accurate perception of times
md conditions, and careful avoidance
If that suicidal mistake of which Ia
enme passee is so often guilty-namely,
setting herself In confessed rivalry with
Ihe young by trying to look like them.