The Florida agriculturist., 1889-06-12
ANOTHER VIEW OF HIM.
A Puritan MatrOD Protests Against the
Assertions of Madame LAMA.

was panied to see In recent issue OF
Once Week an article by the Marquise
LAMA, entitled 1.-THE Man Who Fasci-
nates," for it so entirely ignored the
moral elemen5 in the character of men
and women, and presented for our cor
sideration such low and unworthy
standards of conduct as to shock all who
have not become roues or cynics. Briefly.
Madame LAMA declares that women do
not admire men for their goodness or
nobility of character, but for their man.
ners and the ability which they may
possess to fatter, cajole and deceive the
silly if not immoral creatures whom she
makes women out to be. pass over her
assertion that women are fascinated by
mere brute strength Possibly some OF
them are; but it is no credit to them.
Yet what | wish especially to protest
against is the calm assumption on the
part of the writer that all women ignore
the question of character in a man. "The
veriest scoundrel," she says, THAT ever
drew breath is apt to be thousand fold
more magnetic than he who, having
marked out an ethical path for himself,
proceeds religiously to follow it. Ali
women like insinuating manners. And
again "A man who desires to please
woman should never tell the whole truth.
Sincerity arouses and even
retains respect, but that is a far different
thing from fascination. 1t suggests the
tradesman in a leather apron and smell
ing of garlic compared with lovely
IL hx1f bn IF
rose leaves"
There you have it all. All women are
either fools or worse; and in order to
gain their attention men need only De
outwardly charming. Lying and deceit
will not only not hurt them in the esti-
nation of the poor fools whom they wish
to ensnare, but will actually help them.
AS for the rest, they may be as dissolute
and immoral as they please; women will
still be fascinated by them, SO long as
they are dissolute in charming way.
Now, ask in all seriousness, is that
the highest outlook of our age on this
great question of the relative relations
of men and women? After all these ages
of moral conflict, after all the teachings
of Christianity, nay, after all the prog
ress made by humanity in intelligence
and morality, is that wretched and re-
pulsive bit of boulevard cynicism Al we
have to show? | will not believe it. l
deny that all women are so mindless, SO
vain, so utterly unable to appreciate or
understand moral goodness and purity
as this writer makes them out to be. /
submit that Nine. LAMA speaks only for
the fashionable idlers of both sexes who
in our great cities audaciously assume to
be the whole of good society. In reality,
they are only the unhealthy and artifi-
cial scum that floats on the surface OF
the great stream of human life. In
thousands of happy homes in this city
today among both the lofty and the
lowly, men and women are to be found
who would repel with indignant scorn
such low and cynical view Of our So
cial life. Thank God there is such a
thing yet among us as love of good
ness, and truth, and virtue in spite of
our society cynics, and club roues, and
miasmatic erotic novelists. The women
of this fair land are not yet SO silly and
vain as Nine. LAMA considers them to
be- With an exception here and there
they are attracted by purity of life and
nobility of soul in a man, and repelled
by the roue and the liar. however
charming their manners may be.-A
Puritan Matron in Once Week.
old hNY