Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-02-26
which is the vainer Hex.

One great advantage which the true
and well'bred woman has over the aver
age man is found in her perfect eoui-
poise and selfcomplacency. She takes
1t for granted as a matter Of course. fixed
and proper, that she is mistress of the
situation; entitled to Difference, courtesy
and respect; not liable to unfriendly
crItleism-except from her own sex
and then not from any with whom she is
MT quite able to cope. The men have
been alternately hattering woman and
joking at her expense, through all his.
toricai and pre- historical time, too-if
the records could oply be found. Still
woman fares none the worse for it, and
has been able to maintain her seepter,
Notwithstanding the wrongs she has suf-
fered by men lawmakers. Whether she
will do better in the good time com
ing, as a constitutional sovereign"
than she has In the past, as a despot, by
right OF sex, remains to be proved. Men
need NOT worry themselves --they cannot
DO under better control than they always
have been.
The best evidence of woman's power
is the equanimity with which she has re.
ceived both the hattery aud the raillery
of the other sex. A man fattered by
woman loses his head; a man laughed
at by woman willis into nothing. But
the ladies have received hattery in par.
ticular and satire in general with per-
feet possession Of themselves. never TO
be lost The last joke at woman ex-
pense which has fallen under our notice
is sentence extracted from Jean Paul.
The one thing" he says, which a
maiden most easily forgets is how she
looks; hence mirrors were invented
For solemn fun this sentence is inimit-
able. There must be something more
than irony in it, too Recently a man
watched crowd defling by mirror in
a steamboat cabin. The men all looked
IN the glass as they passed. The women
looked-at each ether The explanation
is that men who care anything at all for
their getting up care more about il
than women. Men are really more sensi-
tive to remark than women The woman,
as rule, is sure that she is all right, and il
she says, as Jean Paul suggests, " for
get how she looks" has a general IDEA
that everything is as it should be. The
man is nervous and uneasy. The gloss
may be off his hat; Or if he wears a soft
hat, it may not have the right dent; or
his necktie may have slipped, or his
mustache have dropped, or thousand
and one other details may have gone
wrong. Just watch any man who has
an ample beard, and see if he can keep
his hands of from handling it. II he
can, he is one of thousand, and, con-
trary to the average of his sex, has really
less personal vanity than woman
Some men have twice as much.
Fit man up in street or drawing
room costume with as many items,
pretty and otherwise, as a woman wears
The consciousness of his dress would
overwhelm him. He would be entirely
useless for any other business than tax
ing care of his costume and its belong
ings; whereas, your well-bred woman
glides along in her fine feathers, uneon-
scious of her plumage as a bird of para.
disc. To come back to the mirror 1t
is o baekwoods b0y--not girl-of
whom the story is told, that after his
FIRST peep into looking glass, he ran
home in terror and amazement, shouting
Nanny! nanny I've seen the sold
Scratch"