The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-10
MANS FATAL DEFECT.
The One So Regarded in the Eyes of
Woman.

Inc one SO Regarded in the Eyes OF a
Woman.
The papers are poking unmerciful fun at
one woman for having the courage of her
convictions. An unprecedented oppor-
tunity to pay back the grudge of ages was
offered by a London journal which invited
its ''lady readers" as they seem always to
call them on that side of the water, to air
their views as to which of mans sins
comes nearest to being objectionable.
Naturally enough, this called out an "ele-
CANT arrangement of epitaphs" from the
fastldlous fair ones, who, Judging from
their answers, object less to moral dis
hevelment than to uncouth manners or
uncut hair. One of them, however, held
up as the final and fatal shorteoming a
quality which she called "ineffectualness,
and the race of rising journalists has risen
in body to ask, what does that mean?"
and to make merry over the eccentricity
which Islands at the gates and swallows
sawmills," as the little girl expressed it,
and passing over all known vices, sticks at
| one whose very name is a mystery to the
critics.
The critics are all men, of course. If
they weren't they would understand in a
trlce what she meant, and would know
hers to be the only genuine stumbling
block among them all. For every one has
noticed that poverty, stupidity, bad man
| ners, personal uncOmelinesS or even untidi-
ness seem incapable of suggesting an i'm
| pediment to the marriage of true minds.
Their possessors &C, gayiy to the altar every
| day, nor does the full-hedged villain
apparently find difficulty in persuadng
some member of the persuadable sex to
| share his shady fortunes. Who ever heard
of a bachelor criminal? He always has
wife and family. to plead for him. But
'ineffectualness? where is the woman
who can forgive it? Its definition is diff
cult without resorting to slang. In that
vernacular the Intellectual man is the
''chump," another word whose meaning
must be felt rather than explained.
"What is a 'chump'?" disdainfully asked
a severe relative of an irrepressible school
girl who had used the Objectionable word
chump is a-well, person who doesn't get
! theren'
This is the Intellectual man in a nutshell.
| He cannot arise to the occasion he doesn't
get there, he is a chump-and woman de-
spises him from the bottom of her discern
! below; often indeed, she only wants the
merest masculine peg on which to hang
her affections and ideals and feminine as
! pirations., She does not require that peg
to "stay put" in the wall, and let it wabble
ever so slightly or come tumbling down
from its place, not all the kings horses nor
all the kings men can put it back She
won't have it! The man who misses the
propitious moment for kiss the man who
| selZes the moment too soon, the man who
is afraid to propose and the man whose
self-security leads him to precipitate mat
| tiers, the man who cannot put bold face
on his lack of business success and the man
whose prosperity makes him presuming-
one and ALL she scorns them as Intellectual
and passes by on the other side. AS the
astute banker in ''The Henrietta" ruefullv
remarks, GA woman never forgives man
for not being there when she is about to
fall" Success, or at least stimulation of
success, is what woman worships; and
while she may overlook failure in the man
she already loves, she never falls in love
with it in the first place
This is why woman, by no means ''un-
certain, coy and hard to please" looks
| critically on two men and one is taken
and the other left. 1t is not mere boldness;
! oh, no! nor business prosperity nor COM
nonsense that commends the former to
| her favor, but that subtle, undefinable
characteristic partaking OF all these quail
ties yet distinctly different, which we call
''sand." Fair Ellen, before the stirring
events of her wedding night, probably
| thought one man was as good as another,
but when young Lochinvar pranced in and
at exactly the right moment, and in ex-
actly the right way, claimed her for his
own, while the Intellectual man, ''the poor,
craven bridegroom, said never a word, u
what woman would hesitate? She never
| does. She has no other but a woman s
reason, which she puts in sOftened form to
! the disconsolate possessor of all the virtues
but the one thing needful:
She said: 81 admire and respect you
| But my hearts choice is Barney McGeer'
Philadelphia Press.