Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1869-02-27
TALES AND SKETCHES.
From tho London Saturday Reyiow.
TEsg; MATURE SIREN.
HER AMIABLE QUALITIES, FAsCINATIoNs AND
GENERAL SUPERIORITY OVER THE YOUNG


SlAL.
Nothing is more incomprehensiblc to girls
| than the love and admiration sometimes
! given to middle-sged women, They can
not understand il. and nothing but expert
ence will ever make them understand il. In
their eyes woman i, out OF tue pale of perso-
nal affection altogether when she sha once
| lost the shining gloss of youth, that exquisite
freshness of skin, and suppleness, which, to
them, in the insolent plentitude of their un.
| faded beauty, constitute the chief claims to
! admiration of their sex. And yet they can
| not conceal from themselves the fact that
| the belle of eighteen is often deserted for
the woman of forty, and the patent witchery
of their own youth and prettiness goes for
nothing against the mysterious charms OF a
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 have taken
up with such an antiquated creature-sugges.
lively asking their male friends what could
he see in women 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 10y more than
one golden. haired girl, has married a wO-
man twenty years her senior, anG the mid
die aged sireE has actually carried oil the
prize which the nymphs in their teens have
frantcaliy desired to win. What is the Sc
cret2 How is it done! The world, even
of silly girls has 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 al
most as unhOly as ii it had been brought
about by the black art. But if they had
any analytical power they would understand
IL, tha Gin oil ,1p
enough, for it is not so difiicat to under
stand when one puts oues mind to it.
In the first place, woman of ripe age
has knowledge of the world, and certain
suavity of manner and moral hexibility,
wholly wanting to the young. Young
girls are for the most part all angels-harsh
in their judgments, stiff in their prejudiccs,
and narrow in their sympathes. They are
full of combativeness and self assertion il
they are of one kind of young people, or
they are stupid and shy if they belong to
another kind. They are talkatiVe with no
thing To say, and positive with nothing vel
and truly known or they are monesylabit
dummies who stammer out Yes or No a.
random, and whose brains become hopeless
ly confused at the first sentence stranger
utters. They are generally without pity
. their want of experience making them hard
TOWARDS hOIIOWS WHICH lueJ sCulStly uuucl
4 stand, and let US charitably hope, to a Ger
d tain extent ignorant of the pain they inflict
A girl will say the most cruel things to he
dearest friend, and then laugh at her be
. cause she cries. Even her mother she will
1t hurt and humiiate if she can; while, as fo
any unfortunate aspirant not approved OF
were he as tough skinned as a rhinoceros
she would find means to mszke him vince
But all this ascerGity is toned down in tn
mature woman. Experience has enlarge,
her sympathies, and knowledge of suffering
Q has sottened her heart to the sufferings o
others. Her lessons of life, too, have taugh
her tact, and tact is one of the most yalua
BILE lessons that man or woman can learr
l. She sees at glance where are the wea
points and sore places in her companion
Y and she avoids them; or if she passes owe
them, it is with hand so soft and tende
touch so inexpressibly soothing, that sh
at calms instead of irritating. A girl woul
have come down upon the weak place
s, heavily, and would have torn the bandagS
\ \ off the sore ones, jesting at scars becau:
she herself had never felt wound, and d'
riding the sybaritism of oiachylon becauI
TO ignorant OF the anguish it conceals. The
the mature siren is thoughtful for others
Girls are self asserting aud aggressive. Lii
is SO strong in them, and the instinct whic
=. prompts them to try their strength with a
,rs comers, and to get the best of everythin
a everywhere, is so irrepI 'ssible, that they a
lie often disagreeable because of their instin
ng tive seIfshness, and the craving, natural
ia the young, of taking all and giving bac
nothing. But the mature siren knows be
ter than this. She knows that social su
- cess depends entirely on what each of
he can throw into the common fund OF societ
that the surest way to be considered ou
selves is to be considerate for Others tn
sympathy .begets liking, and self-suppre
sion leads to exaltation; and that if v
all want to gain love we must first show ho
we'll we can give 1t. Her tact then, and h
sympathy, her moral inhsxibility and quiz
comprehension OF character, her Tsadins