The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-06-05
Men as WOmen's Idols.

| While the piOus women of Brooklyn
flock 10 Plymouth church and help tC
fill the court room where the great de
fendant sits watching the trial of hi;
reputation, their worldly sisters on this
side of the ferry are equally devoted to
the two shapely Englishmen who form
the leading attractions at Booths and
Wallack's theatres. Supe rficially con-
sdered, nothing conid be further apart
than the pulpit ami the stage, the pewl
and the pit, the clergyman and the &C
tor, or the sentiment which reigns in
the breast of church going damsel
and that which hutters the frequenter
of the playhouse as she watches her
favorite hero disport himself behind
the foot lights. But when the phenomo-
ena are analysed, it is found that the
law which governs them is III both cases
| the same. Women are naturally idoIa-
tiers, and whether their idol be Mr.
| Beechet, or Mr.. Montague, or Mr.. Big
mold, or some other conspicuous person,
| depends upon circumstances which do
not affect the springs of their conduct.
The whole fabric of society rests, in
fact, upon this fundamental trait of
their character, and men who ridicule
it, ridicule the very thing to which they
owe much if not all that makes life en-
jovable.
In genesal women idolize men simply
because women are women and men are
men. The latest results of scientific
inquiry have only confirmed the ancient
belief that souls are male and female
as we'll as bodies, and that physical sex
is the result and not the cause of spirit
ual sex. Women love men by an in
stinctive imptilse, and what is more,
they cunningly inspire love in men for
the uiselves SO that men are unaware of
it, and fancy that it is they Who kindle
the flame in the first instance. Every
woman, to be sure, denies that this is
true of herself, but she readily admits
and asserts it to be true of other wo-
men. She will point out to her selected
victim, at the very moment that she is
weaving the net about him, the arts and
devices by which Miss SO.and-so is seek
ing to entrap Mr.. Such-a-one, or Mrs.
Blank is fascinating old Brown, and she
will make him think, nevertheless, that
he is the irresistible charmer to whom
she is reluctantly yielding her heart. 1t
is as if a puppet should be made to
fancy that he pulled the wires by which
in truth he is compelled to dance
Cynics and satirists impute this talent
to women as fault, but without reason.
They might as we'll blame them for
being comely, rounded and graceful.
Women seek to win love, because, as
Dr.. Watts says OF the barking and bit
ing of dogs, it is their nature TO and
men ought to be thankful that they
have such a nature, and not the nature
of dogs.
The legitimate object of woman's
lovingness is husband, and this is the
-,
a part of her thoughts. The hackneyed
bolic verify. A homelier illustration |
is the potato, the sprouts OF which feel
their way in the darkest cellar toward |
the light. Women need, and therefore |
seek, an object and resting place for |
their affections, and unless exceedingly |
depraved. they cling to it faithfully |
when they find it. If they. do not find |
it, as many do not, or if having fancied |
that they have found it they discover
that they have been mistaken, they |
still continue the search. No amount |
Of disappointment or ridicule, or oppo-
sition, can obliterate this their master
passion; and it it cannot expend its
force on reality, it will create an
object for the purpose.
Here we find the key to women's
alteration of men like Beecher and
Montague and Rignold. They do not
their idols for what they are
in themselves, but for what they repre-
sent. The clergyman stands in the
pulpit precisely as the actor does on
he stage, personating an ideal charac-
;er and surrounded by accessories which
1eighten the effect of his performance.
It is not surprising that the unsatisfied
of the women of his flock
should fix upon him as the support and
stay which they have sought in vain
elsewhere, any more than that the hand
'ome actor, decorated not only with
he trappings of the outer man, but
Inning with the wit aud accomplish
nents which the playwright lends
lin for the moment, should seem
he long-waited-for hero of the
woman of the world. Both profit
n large degree by a fact which
very man profits by more or less, and
ghoever is jealous of their success
hould take a lesson from their example.
Lovers and husbands need only to be
What clergymen and actors seem, in
rider to win the same admiration, and
njcy the same devoted attachment
V. Y. Sun.