St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-21
THE DAY OF THE WIDOW.
How She Has Shut Out the Young
Girl

The young girl no longer obtains in
fiction; years ago she lost her interest
to the French writer. and now the
Anglo-Saxon has also found her un-
profitable, which means unintereSting.
1t is the day of the widow. Novels reek
with her. Shops cater to her, and the
old influence OF widows cap and veil
is stronger than ever before. No man
is hard hearted enough to let a widow,
especially pretty one, stand in the
joiting street car. Shall he who real
allies by her garb that her protector is
gone from her, hot offer at least the pass
ing protection of few minutes? Shall
he withstand those SOrrowful eyes, and
shall he not admire the quick rosy flush
that comes to her face as he bows his
acknowledgement of her low-voiced
"Thank YOU" Undoubtedly clothes
make the woman-for take any emo
tional woman, put the extremely be-
coming garb of widow upon her,
and she insensibly assumes the
half-frightened, half-prayerful. air
of one in distress, and one who
is yet quite certain that ''for dear
Johns sake" all mankind will be good
to her. Matrimony has taught her her
power: she knows that it is the charm
of the opposite which holds mankind.
and that little seeming to beg for
kindness will result in her having an
absolute corner of it in the market.
The widow seldom makes mistakes:
for that reason her second marriage is
often happier than the first. She has
learned that thete is time to be quiet
and time to talk; she has learned that
man is never SO happy as when
woman tells him she loves him, but
that he does object to have her
kiss him goodbye in the lobby of
a hotel. She has found out that
he prefers to instruct her, and yet when
he is in an instructive mood she maets
his views halfway and has an opinion
about them. This makes him feel so in
tensely comfortable, for he believes
that she imbibed that opinion from him,
that where we shall spend the summer,
and is blissfully unconscious that
the possession Of a new gown from
Worth or the putting bay window in
the morning room are decided by
madame herself.
A widow appreciates the value of
cuddling. No man ever gets SO old that
he does not like to have his hands
patted. to get light kiss on his fore
head, to have his eyelids smoothed
down because the eyes are so tired Of
preciate few drops of perfume put on
his handkerchief, and veritable
sitting at his feet on low
stool and looking up at him and plying
him. All this comes within the prov
ince of cuddling. A man who weighs
200 pounds, who has perfect health,
who never can explain pain, for he
never has known one, who is down
town about four hours, and during
that time consumes very good
luncheon and several fancy drinks. is
never so happy as when small woman.
thoroughly versed by experience in
aches and pains, who has stood two
hours to dresSmaker, who has given
the dinner orders and been careful
that special dishes were looked
after, comes closer to him and
sympathizes with him because he
has TO work to earn her living. This
is the art of controlling husband. To
first get him is no trouble, especially to
the widow, but to keep him is the real
test i'll marriage, and, according 10 the
novelists and philosophers. and the
dramatists, it is possessed in perfection
by ia VeuVe."