The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-06-03

side of positive cerebral breakdown to
which he resigns himself so absolutely
She fills his eye with voluptuous
pageant, the motion and color of
which fix him in a physical and intel
lectual swoon.
He is no longer able to determine any
of the values which make up charac-
ter. He is insane, and the chatter OF a
maybe becomes the music Of night
! tngale.
Intervals there are when the normal
faculties for moment assert them
selves and his reason or his pride pro-
tests, but the sorceress, who sees him
] fluttering, has her lamentations ready
A thousand pensive devices are at her
command, and a thousand tricks of
voice and eye and pose. She will cling
and weep and MARBLE She will bring
to her service every exposition of limb,
of dress, of suggestive attitude, OF
meek and maudlin helplessness or Of
stimulative defiance, and she will see
reason settle back to imbecility and
with a kiss declare that she prefers II
this way.
The demoniac mission of such a wom-
an in the whirlpool of life is to play
at seduction and call it love. The fate
( of the male victim is to believe in 1t
in spite of facts and extract some kind
of unabashed satisfaction out of it.
L
ence, and throughout its whole iniquity
we can trace its genesis 10 the infatu-
ated worship by man Of the physical
woman, to the exclusion Of every quail
ity that makes her worthy, or estima-
ble or equal, or enduring.
Man prefers her in her evanescence
lie would rather worship her than re-
spect her He is a Mahometan in his
desires, whatever he may be in his con-
victions
That woman should become what he
desires her to be in not strange. But
il is interesting to contemplate hel
when we are not in love with ner, De
cause then we may be susceptible OF
slight contempt, not only for our handl-
work but for ourselves.
SENSUAL AND SERPENTINE.
The dauntless accuracy with which
the author of "Dodo" has preserved
the color of wing, and the resiliency OF
attennae in pinning up this specimen
of the ephemera of our day, entities
him TO pre-eminence as social EMO
mologist. We need not say that Dodo
lives and breathes in his cabinet, Tor
she hardly does that in real lie, Out
she continues to flutter, to glow, 10
melt, to fit.
She is an adventures from the mo-
nent we meet her in Rotten Row, but
she hides her character under an as
sumption of good breeding when It IS
necessary, for she was an actress Wheh
she climbed out Of her cradle ana pree-
ned herself because there were men III
the room The moment we encounter
her we are aware that personal vanity,
under the uninterrupted culture OF
man. has eaten out every other quality.
She exists only for the effect she may
produce on men. Affectation IS no
longer an effort. 1t is the magnlhcent
automatism of a beautiful paradox IN
which all the essentials of being have
been transferred to the surface IN
continuous seeming.
The poets long ago perceived Inc
dreadful truth in this retrocesslon OF
woman and made an order OF monster
to fit it, which they called Lama =
an abhorrent combination OF sensuanty
and serpent, with the warmth of pink
flesh for the eye and the cold lymph OF
the reptile for the embrace.
Our amazement is not for Dodo, with
whom we are apt to be bored when we
cannot possess her, but for the manh-
ness, the character, the sincerity, the
besotted integrity that filings itself at
her feet and declares to all the world
that this is what it prefers.
We observe that a man of sterling
worth and staunch, simple integrity OF
character; an honorable, upright, SIN
cere type of the English aristocrat,
having come under the spell of this IL
IlusiVe siren and taken an unconscious
inventory of her exterior, proceeds de-
liberately to invest her, out of. himself,
with qualities that she does not pos
sess, and to settle comfortably into the
conclusion that the willowy body is an
expression of virtue, the cock OF her
head a revelation, and the tinkle of her
tongue the. one incentive that his i'm
mortal soul needs for the accomplish
ment of life's greatest mission.
OF course she marries him without
loving him. 1t is not her role to love,
but to play at it; and she knows better
than he or any of his friends can know
that such will be the craven condition
of his sensibilities before she gets
through with him that he will prefer
her mockery of love to an honest
hatred, and accept her banter grace
fully in lieu of affection.
Sooner or later he begins 10 perceive
that she has no sincerity in anything.
All that is sweet and precious and
noble in life comes passively under her
little heel and is made TO squirm for his
delectation.
/. Her conversation affects him like alb
sinthe; it stimulates and corrodes; it
passes with a volatile freedom through
all the barriers Of sense and decOrum
and fits in and out of every sanctuary
with wanton childishness She is a
continual improvisation, in which the
discords are piquant, and that is
enough.
AND THEN SHE FADES.
ness, like those conventional doors that
ARE so seductive, has an ignoble origin,
and that the reell of the style turks in
the fragrance of her conversation. You
never can convince the masculine mind
that a whited sepulclGT5 mas a coral
mouth and beaming eyes with obedient
tears in them; that treachery may ex-
list along with arched eyebrows and
dOVe-hke expression, or that utter
vacuity or insensate selfishness go hand
in hand with sprite-like demeanor and
swelling limbs-at least until the eye
brows lose their bow, and the sprite-
like demeanor becomes soggy with the
accretions of age and appetite.
Dodo is the unnatural product of
mans senses He has for ages ad-
mired her physical proportions and her
effeminate unreason until they have
reached their present development. To
paraphrase her own words when some
other than her own conscience I'M
braided her-she is only another type
out or mans workshop; he made her
without consulting her. It isn't her
fault
las for my husband" she says, "he
prefers me as am. Why should I be
any different?" She understands that
she is part of his establishment, like
his blooded horse or fine painting. She
contributes to his sensuous gratifica-
ton She is retained as a recurrent
seduction when he would escape from
the serious realities of life.
Do you wonder that real women in
our day have risen UP to protest
against the mans woman, and that