Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1891-05-07
WHICH ARE BEST LIKED?
ARE MEN MOST ATTRACTED BY
DEMONSTRATIvE WoMENa

4 ARE MEN MOST ATTRACTED BY
DEMONSTRATivE WoMEN7
Old Time Young Ladies' and the Girl of the
Period - MY Friend and MY Friends
Daughter-The Girl Has to Offer Her
self If Missile Is Right.
Copyright, 1891, by american Press Associa-
Twas extremely amused one day, when
sitting with a mother and daughter
whom rank among my dear friends, at
little bit of cynicism that came from
the fresh young lips of the girl. Her
mother, whose ideas and practice are
largely based upon the innocence of
Eden, was reproying her daughter for
having been, as she fancied, little too
forward in accepting young mans at
tentions and an invitation to ride with
him, and finally, with a tremendous as
sumption of worldly wisdom, she said:
sit is a great mistake girls are making
nowadays in being so accessible. Men
don't value them half so much, or try
half so hard to please them, for they see
that they can please without trying, SO
why should they trouble themselves? Ii
a girl is cold and reserved and draws
back, the men viii be piqued into pur-
suit and exertion."
Bravo, little mammal" cried the
saucy daughter, clapping her hands
and glancing at me, while, / am ashamed
to say, | Joined in her merriment.
''You have at last asserted your position
/ as the cruel PARENT and administered a
crushing rebuke to your rebellious child!
Bread and water, a locked cell, and per-
haps salutary chastisement must soon
follow unless I reform But, darling
little mother, while you have been con-
cocting all that worldly wisdom the
! world has moved on, and nous auons
change tout cela"-
'sWho's 'nousg'" interrupted my
friend ''The man or the woman?"
''The man first-on the lead, as it
were'-
ssSlang,-
''Yes, dear, Just little one,' you
know! But if the lords of creation take
the lead what can we docile and sub
missive inferior creatures do but follow?
4 I'm sure that's good orthodox doctrine. 2
"Well, but over what course are they
on the lead?' interposed 1, anxious to get
at the girls theory.
"Why, they don't like the delicate re-
serve and chilly dignity which mamma
says was the favorite bait in her young
days"
MY daughterw
"Oh, you didn't say bait, did you, tite
naamnadns Well, the men don't pursue
and seek and all the rest of it worth a
cent in these days, and girl who under
takes those tactics is just left to enjoy
her own chilly dignity in her own cold
corner. In fact she's left out in the cold
altogether"
Then the men like demonstrativc
women better than modest maidens, do
they?' asked my friend little tartly,
for few mothers like to be laughed at as
old fashioned by their own daughters
The girl, too, was just little touched,
and replied more seriously:
''Oh, If you say modest that's quite
another thing. | fancy we're quite as
modest as the 'prunes, prisms and pro
priety' Tsaidens, as you call them, of the
last generation, but we're heap jol-
lier"-
''Oh, childr'
"Yes, mamma, but what I want to
convince you of is that men have grown
at once lazier and more requiring than
they were in your young days. They
expect the girls to come quite half way
to meet them, and if we don't they just
turn to some one who will
''In fact, they lie under the tree and
open their mouths waiting for the plums
to drop in" suggested I, and my little
friend replied with a sagacious nod:
Exactly so, although good many of
them won't take the trouble to open
their mouths; they expect the plum to
come and bump them openw
s'And the plums are willing to accept
the situation, are they?" demanded her
mother scornfully.
"Well, they don't want to wither on
the tree" airily replied Missile with a
gleeful glance at me.
Driving home revolved the question
in my own mind, Was Missile right, or
was her mother? And think l con-
cluded that the girl was correct as to
facts and the mother as to theory.
Certainly the ideal relation of man and
maid is for her to smile sweetly from a
balcony, and he to risk his neck in
climbing up to her-"the dear idea
where she flies pursues'-the knight,
after making humble protestations of
his fealty, is put upon probation, and
travels the world around to prove him
self worthy, never turning so much as
the tail Of his eyen upon any other
beauty, and coming back after seven
years or so to receive his reward. Jacob
served fourteen years for Rachel, and, as
the Good Book tells us, thought it a
mere trife compared with his love for
her
But Jacobs are scarce in these days,
and knights are generally more errant
than faithful. A Penelope who sent her
Ulysses away to seek fame and wealth
in these days might knit and ravel a
great many tides before she would well
come him back, and he would never re-
sist Circe.
1 don't know why it is, but it is a
painful truth that women are not wooed
in these days so earnestly as they used
to be, and are won much more easily.
Is it because there are SO many more
of them in proportion to the men, or be-
cause they expect SO much more when it
comes to question Of marriage?
Or is it that as our country grows older
we are falling into the customs of those
more mature civilizations where mar
riage is a business affair, and the parents
of a young lady offer bonus to the
bridegroom who will assume her main
tenance? If that is the case, perhaps
it will be better to copy the whole
process and allow the parents on both
sides to arrange the little affair before
the principals come into the field I'm
der the present system il. if Mis-
sizes jests had any foundation Of truth
the girl is expected to make her own
bargain, and if she has not large fort
une to offer as an attraction she is to
exhibit her own attractiveness not only
in all purely feminine ways, butin i'm
itating and appropriating those manly
fashions that used to be held peculiar to
the coarser sex. Isay, if Missiles jests
were serious this would be pretty near
their meaning. but we will hone they