The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1889-03-07

OiIiesI Nos, rs and "a fourteenth Street,
TIE WIDOWS CHARMS,

She Ia To-day tho Queen of Society and
Knows Just How to FasclnRts.
Nsv Orleam PIouguRs.
Time was when the sweet debuntante
had things her own way. Men had eyes
for nothing but the pink and white love.
illness Of girlhood, and all hearts went
down before the ingenue, but times have
changed, and to-day the widow is pre-
eminently the queen Of society,
One has only to look at New York for
confirmation Of this, Who receives
there the attention bestowed on
Mrs. Hicks Lord or Mrs, Frank Leslie ?
And wasn't 1t the widow HRmersley
who won the duke with all his titles
away from the unmarried women who
were willing to barter away their mil
Lions for q coroletP
1t is undeniable that widows are the
autoCrats Of society, and men flock about
them wherever they 90, No one has
ever denied their Vaccinations, and
Weller's advice TO his son, II he wished
to avoid malrimony, to "beyare OF vid.
ders," has been quoted thousands oil
times. In many ways the widow has
the advantage OF her younger sisters,
She has the benefit Of larger knowledge
and experience OF the world, her arts
and coquetries are perfected, not In the
experimental and undeveloped state OF
the debutantes; and, above all, she has
the inestimable advantage OF knowing
men with the accurate and intimate
knowledge gained by association with
one who was probably fair representa-
tive OF his sex.
She knows how to give delicious little
dinners that make the most handsome
bachelor think indulgently Of the mar
rage state. She knows that man likes
his ease and does not insist on his dane.
ing perpetual attendance on her, She
does not insist on a mar talking about
balls and theatres and new german fig
ures. She follows rather his lead TO his
own ground, and listens with subtle
flattery In eyes and face while no desCants
on his iayorite hobby. A young girl is
always self conferred, absorbed In her
own affairs, her dresses, her parties; it
is only grace and art that teaches a
woman to sink her own personality In
the presence Of the person with whom
she Is talking.
Perhaps one OF the chief claims of
widows Is their understanding Of the
fine art OF sympathy. The sympathy Of
q young girl who has known nothing
but Joy Is CrudOand unsatisfyingalIair,
the very husks on which no love could
feed, but tho sympathy OF widow, ten
DERBY, dainty expressed with gentle
melancholy that shows that she, too, has |
suffered, 1t Is like the soft shadows in a
picture, or the minor chord In a piece OF
music that sets the pulses throbbing.
Having mourned for q man, she knows
how most effectively to mourn with ono.
She is iaCinating whether she Is gay
md dashing, and, like one OF Thacka.
rays heroines, "is 10 years old and has
heard everything there Is to be told" or
whether she is OF the demure, alice.
tionate type, whose clinging helplessness
Is 80 much like the vine torn from It's
support that some man is irrisistably |
to offer himself as q substitute
for the missing prop.
1t may DO she Is the religious widow
who visits the pastor for spiritual conso.
Iation, and ut whose meekly bowed head
the rector, on u Sunday, aims all his
best rhetoric, or the rich patron OF
lrt" widow who sees mute, fnglorious
Milton in every penny bard, and u Ra.
phael In every sign painter, 1t makes
little difference In which class 1t has
pleased Heaven 10 place her, she is al.
ways and universally bowitChing.
1t Is little strange, considering the
important part widows play in society,
that the novelists, who claim To be the
photographers Of society, do not oftener
choose her for the heroine OF their
stories. Amelie Rives, who is wise
woman in her day, makes tho heroine
Of her story n widow; tho widow in
'Innian Summer" is not only one=.ot
The best characters Howells ever drew,
but makes tho young girls look pale and
beside her, and Dickens pays
his tribute to the widows charms by
making his men lily from the iascina.
lions they know they are powerless to
resist. This Is, after all, the browning
tribute to the powers OF the widow.