The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-26
Mafnrn 2lI.nna-
From Che London Saturday Revte,O.

INNOAVN
Nothing is more incompreheDsible than the
!URe and admiration sometimes given to mid
uIe- aged women. They cannot understand IL;
ano nothing but experience will ever make
tnem understand il. In their eyes, a woman
Is out OF the pale of personal affection altoge-
tner when she has once lost that shining gloss
Ofyouth, that exquisite freshness Of skin and
suppleness of limb which to them, in the inso-
lent plenitude Of their unfaded beauty, con-
Nitute the chief claims to admiration Of their
sex. And yet they cannot conceal from them
selves that the belle of eighteen is often de-
serted for the woman of forty, and that the
patent witohery of their own youth and pretti-
ness goes for nothing against the mysterious
cnarms OF mature siren. what can
they say to such an anomaly There is
no good going about the world disdain-
fully, wondering how on earth man could ever
have taken up with such an Anticipated orea-
ture-suggestively 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 her senior, and the
mlddle-aged siren has actually carried off the
prize which nymphs in their teens have fran
ticaly desired to win. What is the secret
How is it done2 The world, even of silly
girls, bas got past any belief in spells and
talismans, such as Charlemagne's mistress
wore, and yet the mans fascination seems to
them quite as miraculous and almost as un-
holy as if it had been brought about by the
black art. But if they had any analytical
power they would understand the diaJlerie Of
the mature sirens clearly enough, for it is not
SO difficult to understand when one puts ones
mind TO it.
In the first place, a woman Of ripe age has
knowledge of the world and certain suavity
of manner and moral hexibility wholly want
ing to the young. Young girls are for the
most part all angles-harsh in their iudg-
ments, stiff in their prejudices, and narrow in
their sympathies. They are full of combat
iveness 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 dummies who stammer out
"Yes" and "No' at random, and whose
brains become hopelessly confused at the first
sentence a stranger utters. They are gene
rally without pity, their want of experience
making them hard towards sorrows which
they scarcely understand, and, let us ohari-
tably hope to a certain extent ignorant OF the
pain they intiict. That famous article in the
Times on the cruelty of young girls,
dpropoS of Constance Kent's con-
fession, though absurdly exaggerated, had
in it the core of truth which gives the sting to
such papers, which makes them stick, and
which is the real cause of the outcry they
create. Girls are cruel; there is no question
about it. If more passive than active, they
are simply indifferent to the sufferings of
others; if of more active temperament, they
find positive pleasure in giving pain. 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 un-
fortunate aspirant not approved of, were he
as tough skinned as rhinoceros she would
find means to make him vince. But all this
aeerbty is toned down in the mature woman.
Experience has enlarged her sympathies, and
knowledge of suffering has softened her heart
Ito the sutferings of others. Her lessons of
life, too have taught her tact; and tact is of
the most valuable lessons that man or woman
can learn. She sees at a 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, touch so inexpressibly soothing, that
she calms instead of irritating. A girl would
have come down upon the weak places heavily,
and would have torn the bandages off the sore
ones, jesting at scars because she herself
had never felt wound, and deriding the
sybaritism of dachylon because ignorant Of
the anguish it copceals. Then the mature
siren is thoughtful for others. Girls are self
asserting and aggressive. Life Is so strong
in them, and the instinct which prompts
them to try their strength with all others,
and to get the best of everything everywhere,
is so irrepressible that they are often Disagree
4 able because of their instructive selfshness
|, and the craving, natural to the young, O.
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 society; that the surest
way to be considered ourselves is to be con-
siderate for others; that sympathy begets
liking, and seltsuppression leads to exalta
! ton; and that if We want to gain love we
must show how well we can give it. Hell
tact then, and her sympathy, her moral fexi
bility 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 mistTesses or toys
Besides, she is good conversationalist. She
has no pretensions to any special or deeI
leaTning-for, if pedantic, she is spoilt as
siren at any age-but she knows little abou
most things; at all events she knows enough
to make her pleasant companion, and abl
to keep up the ball when thrown. And mel
like to talk TO intelligent women. They d.
not like to be taught or corrected by them
but they like that quick sympathetic intelleo
which follows them readily, and that amOun
Il of knowledge which makes a comtortabl
cushion for their own. And a mature sire
who knows what she is about would never
more than this, even if she could.
Though the mature siren rests her claim
to admiration on more than mere persons
charms, and appeals to something beyond tn
sensas vet she is persOnable and we'll pre