Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-04-07
A WOMAN's WOMAN.
The Pleasure She Gives to Others in
Her Broad Field.

From Harper's Bazaar.
What are the chief characteristics Of the
woman's woman?-a woman who is beloved
by her own sex, who finds her greatest en-
joyment in their company, who is what
the Italians call simpatico-reaching out
her gentle hand alike to the grandmother
in her easy chair. to the girl just balancing
on the threshold of life, to the young mother
with her little ones about her, and to the
cook in the kitchen among her pots and
pans?
Certainly the woman's woman is not pure
ly domestic, for the merely domestic wo-
man is inevitably narrow. Her bread may
be excellent, her house free from dust, her
table up to the mark; but her range is linn
tied, and many doors Of her heart are shut
to all except her own family.
The woman's woman cannot narrow her
self thus. She must care for a great many
people and a great many things and touch
life at a hundred points. Whether she is
married or single makes little difference
She is alive to whatever interests her sex
but she is not slightly insane on the SUBJ
1ect of her sex, nor does she spell woman"
invariably with capital wv" She feels
herself a human being, not a blending of
spirit and angel.
A woman's woman can penetrate under
the surface. With a certain witch-hazel
wand she discovers people who have heart
aches, who are carrying burdens too great
for them, who cannot sleep at night for
cares and troubles. and somehow her touch
of the hand, her smile and her gentle word
bring them ease and relief.
The womans woman makes allowances.
She sees that life is hard for some people
or that they have not had a chance-she is
" ling to help them. She enjoys herself
qut e as well, perhaps better, with a crowd
OF girls who are chattering gayly, or in a
company OF mature women who are talk
ing over their affairs, as she does in mixed
society.
She does not always appear at her best
IN the drawing room, nor can she talk, as
q usual thing, very well to a throng. At
dinner table she may be rather silent ex-
cept to her neighbor, but If you get her in
a corner where she has a congenial COM
panion you will hear the ripple of low
voices and sometimes a bright little break
ing laugh, and you will know that the wo-
mans woman is enjoying herself and Civ
ing pleasure.
She is always the most delightful of
guests, for she has faculty of amusing
herself, and she does not require the pres
ence OF men, either singly or in num-
bers, to show her al her best. In the coun-
try, at summer hotel, she is invaluable
She can entertain the children, talk pleas
antly to the old lady who is rather deaf
and therefore left out Of much that is CO.
ing on, listen patiently to the complaints
OF the rheumatic, or the recitals of those
whose tales are often told, never show
ing by a look or the CULVER of a muscle
that she has heard the bright story many
times before. All her life the woman's wo-
man is apt to live for others. Her greatest
charm is perhaps her unsefshness She is
altruistic not on principle, but simply be-
cause she cannot help herself-she is born
so.
The womans woman is old-fashioned in
many Of her notions. and opens wide eyes
of horror at firtations carried on by those
who should have left such frivolities behind
them when the streak of silver came into
their dark hair. AS fair and sweet, as true
and restful, as dear and lovable as our
mothers and their mothers before them
the woman's woman holds our hearts in her
a N lkaft Ia
contradiction, like her we'll, and accord
her Difference and respectful homage