The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-05
MEN CLEVER WOMEN MARRY.
isluestOckings Prefer Not to Wed
Husbands with Brains,

From the London Answers
Why do clever men almost invaria.
bly, choose wives of inferior intellect TO
themselves? They select gentle, caress-
Ing, doll-liiSe little persons, as . rule.
who never read anything above q
three-volumed novel, and cannot talk
about any topic more exciting than
their babies and their bonnets.
The reason is pretty evident. They
want brain rest at home, not brain
strain, and the woman of mild intel
lect has very often specially womanly
characteristics and ways about her
which the clever man cannot resist.
There are the Spencer Joneses, for
Instance. He is a fellow of the royal
society, and has q string of letters
after his name. She is a pretty little
person, with a passion or smart frocks
and for fancy work. She yawns ir
anyone discusses science in her pres
ence, and if her husband should by
any chance happen to mention a five
syllable word before her she makes n
little grimace, and says pathetica!ly,
How tiiesomc you are, dear" Yet
spencer-Jones seems to like it in her,
ana adores her to an unlimited extent.
SO 1t is with the clever woman-the
woman who has discovered she has q
mind, and Is working it to the utmost
OF her power Does she select q hus-
band from the many-lettered men of
science? Not she. The Cirton girl
who has come out at the top of the
list seldom marries the master of the
college. When she does the circuu,
ct MI
rule she gets engaged to the rowing
man, or the cricket man, or the cham
piop tennis player.
The lady doctor doesn't marry the
masculine practitioner-except In mod
ern novels; the lady who speaks upon
platforms doesn't marry the politician
of the day. AS an almost invalable
rule, the cleverer the woman is the
more commonplace is her husband.
To tell the truth, it is the intellec-
tual woman who finds the greatest
charm in the athletic man. Just as
the clever man prefers n womanly wife
to one with an overpowering amount
Of brains, so does the woman who Is
clever admire the man who is manly.
Athletics do not always go hand and
hand with brain. She is content to
let the one go if she can't get the
other.
There is another side of it, too.
Woman does not WOO, but she may
often he won by wooing. Her choice
in marriage is greatly fixed by the
selection Of herself. She is more fire.
quertly wooed by the man of inferior
intellect to herself. for whom she has
an attraction which amounts to posi-
tive fascination.
And do marriages of this sort turn
out well?
A woman gTho has seen q vast
amount of the world and has a wide
experience was speaking OH this sub
ject the other day to the writer. IT
advise every clever woman" she said,
'to marry a man less clever than her
self, for certainly by far the happiest
marriages in this world are where the
balance of intellect is on. the woman's
sifr" And facts beer out the stage
uent. Where there IS an intellectual
inequality, the superiority had far bet
ter be with the woman.
Where the husband is the cleverer
he does not make a companion of his
wife. She may be his pet, his play
thing, his amusement-she is never his
friend. He gees outside his home for
Intellectual companionshp, and as
time goes on she becomes less and less
necessary to him.
This is never tie case with a woman,
however talented she may be- She
adapts herself to her husband: she
neve' lets him feel his inferiority; rav,
rather, IL she loves him. she draws
him up TO a pedestal and sits at his
feet. ,.
This position is delicious to a man
who secretly, feels his own deficiencies.
and in his elation and gratitude he
goes on loving her more and more
every day they spend together
A man always thinks himself clev-
erer than a woman through life. If
he cannot help recognizing his wife's
powers it makes him intensely satis-
lied to feel he surpasses even that high
standard