Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-02-22
WHICH Is THE yAINER SEX.

One great advantage which the true and
well-bred woman has over the average man
is founding her perfect equipoise and self
cOmplacency. She takes il for granted, rs
matter of course, fixed and proper, that
she is mistress of the Situation; entitled to
Difference, courtesy and respect; not liable
to unfriendly criticism-except from her
own seX-and then not from any with
whom she is not quite able TO cope. The
men have beenaltenately flattering woman
and joking at her expense, through all his
torical and p:e-historical time, tCO-if the
records could only be found. Still woman
fares none the worse for il, and has been
able to maintain her sceptre, nOtwithstand-
ing the wrongs she has suffered by men
Lawmakers. Whether she Will 90 better in
the 'tgOOd time coming" as a ''cOnstitJl-
tiOnal sovereign" than she has in the past,
as a deSpot, by right of sex, remains to be
proved. Men need not Worry themselves
they can not be under better control than
they always have been.
The best evidence of wOman'S power is
the equanimily with which she has received
both the flatteTy and the raillery of the other
sex. 4 man fatteTed by woman loseshis
head; man laughed at BY woman wits
into nothing. But the ladies have received
fiattery in particular and satire in general
with a perfect possession of themselves.
never to be lost. The last joke at woman's
expense which has fallen under our notice
is a sentence extracted from Jean Paul.
"The one thing" he saws, (which maiden
most easily forgets is how she looks. Hence
mirrors were invented" For solemn fun
this sentence is inimitable. There must be
something more than irony in it, too.
Recently, a man watched a crowd defIing
10y a mirror in a steamboat cabin. The
men all looked in the glass as they passed.
The women lOOked-at each other, The
explanation is that men who care anything
al all fortheir ''getting up care more about
it than women. Men are really more sensi-
tive to remark than women. The woman.
as a rule, is sure that she is all right, and if
she does, as Jean Paul suggests, ''fOrCet how
she looks has a general idea that eyery-
thing is US it should be. The man is nerv-
Gus and uneasy. The gloss may be off his
hat; or, if he wears a soft hat, it NAV not
have the right dent; or his neck-tie may
have slipped, or his moustache have drooped.
or a thousand and one other details NAV
have gone wrong. Just watch any man who
has am ample beard, and see if he can keep
his hands off from fondling it. If he can.
he is one of a thousand, and, contrary to
the average of his sex, has really less per-
sOnal vanity than woman. Some men have
twice as much.
Fit a man up in street or drawine-room
costume with as many items, pretty ard
otherwise, as a woman wears. The con-
sciousness of his dress would overwhelm
him. He would be entirely useless for any
other business than taking care of his cos
tune and its belongings; whereas, your
welI-bred women glides along in her fine
feathers, unconscious Of her plumage as q
bird Of paradise. To come back to the
mirror. 1t is a back-woOdS bOy-nOt
girl-Of whom the story is told, that after
his first peep into a lOOking-glass, he ran
home in terror and amazement, shouting
"Mammy! nanny! I've seen the GOld
Scratch"