The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-08-30
GO SPIN LIKE HERCULES.
MRS. FRANK LESLIE GIVES SOME
ADVICE To BACHELORS.
Some Maidens Are Two Faced-A Plea
for the Early Bird-A Bachelors Tn
common Opportunitics-The Masked
Ball and Dance of Death.

thought young and maria geable. Now
a young man should be well up in his
classics and know the story Of Hercules
spinning among the maidens of Om-
phale, but l wonder If any bachelor
ever meditated upon the wonderful OPP
portunity Hercules enjoyed for studying
the female character. and had he been
a marrying man for discreetly choosing
himself a wife
The noblest study OF mankind is man,
or so all say, but certainly the most
fascinating study of mankind is woman,
and woman can never be perfectly
studied except by watching her among
other women. The man who Is fas-
tidious or really earnest in the search
for wife he who feels that a life's hap
piness or misery is bound up in the
choice he now makes-such man, say.
should initiate Hercules and go spin
among the maidens in company with
the object of his attraction
Without intending to say anything
derogatory of my own sex, which
sincerely love and honestly respect, 1
must set it down as truth that most
women are different in their demeanor
toward men from what they are toward
other women.
Just recall for yourself, II you are
woman, some occasion when you were
in an assembly of your own sex and
some stray specimen of the other pre-
scented himself. What a pretty little stir
and futter passed through the flock
of dovesl How they plumed themselves
and gently adjusted attitude and draper
les into more becoming fashion! How
faces that had been listless and weary
took on an incipient smile. or at least
a sweet alertness Of expression signifi-
cant of a readiness to respond to any
appeal for sympathy or conversational
advance! How some little jest on the
part of the newcomer ELECTED trills of
laughter or smart rejoinder, or approx
ing glance from those who had listened
with listless indifference to utterances
quite as witty from their sisters,
Now. l do not mean to say that there
is anything wrong in this. for it is simply
the sweet STRINGS of nature visible
throughout creation. Look abroad in
the pleasant springtime of the year. See
now the little feathered maidens twitter
and tweet and dart in and out among
the half clad branches of the trees
displaying all their little airs and graces
for the benefit of the male bird who In
his turn swells his throat and all but
bursts his loving heart in tuneful eff
forts which he never would dream of
undertaking If there were only other
males about.
Does not "the sunflOwer turn TO her
god when she sets" and also when she
rises, her face Of broad admiration,
while she never so much as glances at
the moon?
Did not the gods and goddesses of
Olympus hate and prosecute each other
all the time in a very human fashion,
simply because they were not all of one
sex? And do we of the nineteenth CEN
fury, who, as Prof. Totten tells us,
have reached the end of all things-do
we claim to be more perfect or less hui
man than the gods and goddesses Of
Olympus?
No, indeed And this being granted
the other statements need not be apollo
gized for. 1t may be stated boldly and
bravely that women-that is to say, un-
married and unattached women-are diff
ferent in the society of men from what
they are when alone with other women
the proposition as it affects our friends,
the bachelors. This change of demeanor
is symptomatic and not organic 1t only
lasts during the springtime of the year
The lady birds, after the nest is made
and filled with eggs, busy themselves in
domestic duties and no longer twitter
and dart among the branches or dress
their feathers beside the mirror Of the
pool. In fact, after those eggs are
Matched and five or six little gaping
mouths call for the early worm the
mother bird is sometimes heard to scold
her mate pretty sharply If he let's some
earlier bird get ahead Of him and catch
that early worm. And he-where are
now those dulcet songs, that swelling
breast, that melting sweetness of note
that loneliness of crest and bravery of
glittering plumage?
And the human birds-is not there
such a change among them? Does
the wife of half dozen years put on
that air of sweet alertness. that gentle
readiness to admire and applaud the
coming remark when her husband hap
pens to enter the room where she and
some of her friends are gossiping over
their afternoon tea? Does she put on
her most becoming attire and her most
charming manner at the hour of his ex-
pected return and exert herself to at
tract and entertain him as she did be-
fore he selected her as the woman he
fa1n would make MS W1feE
Well don't all cry out and clamor
that my quasi-accusation is false and
calumnious and that you at least do
take as much pains to make yourself at
tractive TO your husband as you did TO
your lover or your admirer. Perhaps
you do, and you, too, my dear, and you'll
But where there are three who do l am
afraid there are thirteen who do not,
and il is on account of these thirteen
that am advising the bachelors to go
spin with Omphale's maidens.
There are plenty OF wiVes-and good
true, conscientious wives, into the bar
| gain--who are just like the Jenny Wrens.
When once Robin Redbreast is their hus-
band, they lay aside all the little airs
| and graces that made him believe them
different from every other wren and
| and not only wear their brown gown, {"
| but don't take the trouble to put a clean
| frill in its neck and sleeves and a bit of
| ribbon TO brighten II up a little. They
! simply relapse into the indifference and
apathy they used to show among their
| girl friends when there was no man
around
But as there are wives and wives, so
| there are girls and girls and so II would
| be a splendid thing for an expectant
| husband II he could study the girl ne fan
/ cies to be the best girl Of all when she
is alone with her girl friends. / have
| seen in companies of women those who
made themselves just as agreeable as
/ they would TO the other sex. who were
| ready to sing or play if they were asked,
| who talked blithely and intelligently
] about books or public amusements. or