Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1895-05-23

1t Anpoys Most meu and Many of the
Same Sex.

It Annoys Most Men and Many of the
Same Sex.
London Spectator.
Stateliness ia women proceeds from
sources somewhat different from stateli-
pess In men. 1t is much more indepen.
dent, to begin with, of outward gifts.
Not TO mention our own Queen, who, as
people who are not courtiers affirm, can
be stately to awfulness, and Queen Isa-
bella of Spain, who, in spite Of her his
tory aud her bulk, is regal TO an un-
usual degree, il is certain that the state.
illness of Maria Theresa impressed all
who came in contact with her, and Ger.
tain also that no man US homely and
unreseived as she was, in speech and
bearing, would have been credited with
stateliness. IL seems to be more allied
in women than in men with indepen-
dence of mind, or a sense that the will
is its own justification, an absence, that
II, OF fear of external influence. The
personality suttices to itself, and, there
fore, there is stateliness.
That Is, we fancy, the secret reason
why stateliness IN women annoys most
men and many of the same sex. They
think they ought to be more influential,
and resent what they consider to be
aloofness. Unapproachableness, which
Of course is one Of the conditions of
stateliness, irritates men in women,
being, in fact, faint affront to their
amourpropre, and we think many
women feel that too. AT least, we
notice that this form of praise, when
ever it is given to women is a
little cold, anu that the reverence a
is NJ fN hn
little chilly. There Is reason for that
in nature, the first function OF woman
being to attract, and a reason too in the
| confusion which most men make in
their thoughts when they are thinking
Of women, that stateliness must indicate
| either hauteur or unkindliness. Very
often 1t is not so at all, some of the
sweetest women being stately, but the
| mistake is nearly always made, and
when man or, for that matter, a
woman attributes to u woman stateli-
ness, there is seldom complete cordiality
in the eulogistic word. Perhaps, too,
though we may say this without GER
tainty, no woman is ever quite SO un-
conscious of what we may call fighting
quality as man can be, and the nuance
OF consciousness does injure slightly the
| good side OF stateliness.
However that may be-and there is
another side to what we are saying,
good-tempered and humorous women
being more often stately than good
tempered and humorous men--it is, we
think, certain that stateliness in women
is less generally commended than in
men, less appreciated, and much less
genuinely forgiven. When hundred
1 years hence the female speaker of tue
house of the other sex retires from the
chair, she will, if she has been success
full in maintaining order, be praised as
strongly as Mr.. Peel; but the warmth Of
cordially which once or twice on Mon.
day was expressed on all benches will
not, We fancy, De quite so perceptiDle
Experience may correct that view, hut
there is certainly one illustration fa-
miliar 10 us all which at least suggests
that it is accurate. Probably the state
lest woman who has lived in modern
times was Marie Antoinette in her later
years, and TO this hour in France her
stateliness rouses defence and attack
INTO kind of unreasoning passion. A
man who bore himself as she did in her
period of misfortune would have found
by this time no traducer.