Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-05-15
LOVE AND WOMEN.
From an Unsentimental and Practical
Point of View.

From an Uhsentimental and PRACTICAL
Point of View.
What is love? is a question which has
been asked thousand times, and which
in spite of monotony Grenviile Murray
repeats with certain freshness and
emphasis in his new book, "Under the
Lens He treats the subject with
decided dash of cynicism, like most
fashionable writers of the present day.
Love, he says, on the part of women is
an inclination felt for man who has
made himself more agreeable than
other men. He may not be pleasant
fellow at all, but some physical or social
superiority he posse scs lifts him tenn
porarily on pedestal, where he lordsit
till his very arrogance helps 10 COM
plete the fascination of the simple crca-
ture grove.ing a his feet have seen
girls fall in love with the veriest cubs
for lack of other male society. Don't
tell me there was any deep sentiment in
these attachments The girls wanted
husbands; that is all. They were
obeying the natural law which attracts
sex to sex. and the social law which
bids girl get married rs fast as she can,
lest she glide into old spinsterhood.
Ii girl, after deciding to accept
gcnteel pauper chances to allure
man who has it in his power to make
her a bed of rose-leaves, see how quickly
her eyes get opened to the beauties OF
Incidence and luxury. Self-esteem
tells her that she was not made merely
for the study Of that parsimonous arith-
metic which consists in pairing down
bakers bills. She wants to walk in
silk att re, and feels grateful to the
man who, by his courtship, acknowl-
edges her right to do so. Who can
deny the magic of fine linen, jewels,
! soft-cushiOned broughams, champagne,
, and obedient menials upon woman's
mind? And who can not impute the
still greater magic afforded by the
prospect of eclipsing sisters and school
friends who have married poorly?
Sometimes if girl has got hOpelessly
engaged to fellow with shrunken
purse--if she be so near her wedding
day that it is impossible to break off the
match without making a scandal
pride and vanity will induce her to keep
her pledge, and this will be simply
because the plutocrat came too late into
the field. If the two had started ut the
post together, or if the pauper had had
but half-distant start, the plutocrat
would have run him down and come in
first with flying colors. Moreover, a
woman feels sore all her life at having
missed the chance of rich marriage,
The thought of it turns her sour and
her wretched husband has uXorial
peev,shne5s and contempt poured upon
him By the bucketful.
That may he, but we have also in.
stances of rich mems wives who de-
plored not having married their first
loves, poor though they were.
(which all comes Of the contrariness
of human nature in never being salts.
fled with the present lot," re 'ponded
the misogynist emphaticaly. The man
who wrote the "Pra' ses of Poverty
Seneca WASH titP-indited his remarks
upon golden table, and had couple
of slaves TO fan III, flies away. A
woman who sits by her boudoir fire,
with her feet well warmed, novel on
her lap, and u five O'Clock tea, and
cream and crump1ts at her elbow, is
very apt to dream that she was cut out
for the part OF heroine She gid;
poverty with her imaginative touches
till it looks all rosy. Her husband bores
her, and she thinks of the other man
who used to make her laugh and whose
muscles were like whipcord. She at
tributes to him talents which he never
had, charms which she never discovered
in him while she had the opportunity
of observing him every day, and SHE
dreams of herself as fighting life''
battles by his side and winning.
1t never occurs to her to reflect tina
the lot she renowned was tlat living
upon mutton hash, and growing W
into u dowdy slattern, worried, ant
: perhaps bullied, by man rendered
: cantankerous by failure in his profe
r sion. 1t is easy to be happy in fancy
: with man whose ideal projections on
! may depict at ones leisure. A woman
8 is often found whimpering over move
8 which portrays the life of heroine
S such as she thinks herself to be; but jus
9 let her rich husband die, leaving he
!, penniless, and you'll see whether sh
: doesn't at once set her Widows cap a
r another rich man sooner than partak
q herself to that like of struggling whic
= she deemed so exciting when We've,
from distance. Chicago Tribune