The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-07-13

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"Why, nothing, dear, " replied I truth
fully. ''They are very pretty blue eyes,
and just as pretty now as when Tom
first fell in love with them"
But besides beauty, which is an obvi-
GUS temptation to choose the wrong
woman, there ara at least dozen other
nlse lights wooing this poor, short
sighted creature man to his destruc-
ton.
There is the style Of woman which I
have studied a good deal, but thus far
with no satisfactory results. She is not
pretty; she need not be very young; she
may be maid, wife or widows-although
rather apt to be the last She is not very
striking in any way and seldom allows
herself to be conspicuous, but in some
inscrutable way she always gets there,
if l may be allowed bit Of slang, and
viii never appear at any place where
men do congregate without attracting
them, as surely as the candle does the
moths. She is not too brilliant a con-
versationalist-a quality which gener-
ally frightels men-but she makes pretty
speeches in a soft, low voice; she has a
way Of lighting up her face at the ap-
proach Of some fayorite cavalier; she
possesses infinite tact in harmonizing
conflicting tempers and smoothing over
rough places; she is chameleon like in
her power of adaptation to the moods or
prejudiceS Of her companion of the mo-
ment. She is, in fact, charming, if one
can get rid Of a certain uncomfortable
sense Of the machinery. It is little too
much like admiring Juliet, when you
happen to know all about the actress
domestic and financial troubles, and,
although you cordially exclaim, ''How
well she does It'll" you never for a mo-
ment fancy that she means what she
says or is what she appears.
Now this kind of woman is not what
1 call the best for a man to choose as
wife, and [ am always sorry when l see
it done. There is, however, one safe
guard for the so-easily-deceived sex; the
charming woman Is generally quite as
practical as she rs charming, and doesn' t
resign her power over all to take up with
one unless it Is very much to her ad-
vantage to do SO; and If she does marry
she is apt TO become innoxious to other
women, for great prosperity has stulti-
flying effect, and your very wealthy
woman seldom takes the trouble to
charm.
Another style Of women apt to attract
men, and not at all the best women for
them to choose as wives, are the women
who pay the coarseT sex the compliment
of initiating it. Happily this style is
rather exotic with us, coming in with
the Anglomania 80 prevalent of late, and
as it is by no means adapted to the eli
mate or to the delicate type Of American
femininity it has never thriven here as
abroad.
These are the women who boast of
never being tired; they rise at unearthly
hours and drag their reluctant admirers
with them to see 6unriseS and |'catch
morning Effects" @ eupheInism for in
fuenza; put Oh short skirts and thick
boots and taking alpenstOcks in hand
climb Mont Blanc as a morning recrea-
ton Of that inaccessible top peak is ever
reached it viii be by one of these wo-
mem; they riae at ''big fences" and are
"iu at the death" and slash their riding
habits with their whips as they loudly
prCclailn their own proves in the chase;
they "talke = weed" more or less surrep-
| tiEiousiy; they demand liquid refresh
ments of the most heroic nature; they
talk slang and venture upon explosives,
as near profanity as they dare, for after
all they are generally thoroughly good
women and would shrink from immor-
| ality with an angry kind of virtue all
their own.
One cannot after al say that these
attract men to their society, for they
give the men no chofce; they force their
co1npanionshjp upon them in all those
sports which men have chosen to con-
slider especially their own, and conse-
quently in the conversation resulting
from those sports. They have thus the
pull over their gentler sisters of COM
mon topic and common occupation, and
it not infreQuenty happens that man
marTieS such woman just because he
sees her all the time; simply case of
propinCuty. They make undesirable
wives, however, especially if poor, for
they are as impatient of woman's self
sacrifices and quiet drudgery as man is.
l knew one such girl, and when her
baby was three months old she took it
upon yachting excursion and had
hammock slung on deck for it.
But after all, the kind of woman that
men generally marry belongs to none of
these classes, bat is simply a nonentity.
There is no fault TO befound with her; she
is tolerably good looking, tolerSbly edu-
Gated, tolerably good hammered and re-
fined, negatively moral, but quite I'M
tried by temptation; her ideas of mar
riage limited to new clothes, wedding
presents and cards wish Mrs. instead of
Miss upon them. She has never considered
the question of whether Charlie Aeaa she
are adapted by habits, temperament and
mutual intentions TO make each other
happy; she has never even resolved to
do her best to make him happy; she has
never thought anything about it at all,
and plunges into matrimony as she
would into the ocean at new bathing
! place, without the least idea of what
may lie beneath that summer sea.
That is the average woman chosen as
his wife by the average man, and hence
the average marriage which forms the
! topic ef the satirist and the cynic.
What, then. is the description Of 1.-The
! best woman, who is so seldom chosen,
/ DO you as6s
have not just now time TO tell you,