The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-27


talk about any topic more exciting
than their babies and their bonnets.
The reason is pretty evident. They
want a 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 a string of letters
after his name. She is a pretty little
person, with a passion for smart frocks
and for fancy work. She yawns if
any one discusses science in her pres
ence, and if her husband should by
any chance happen to mention five
syllable word before her she makes
little grimace, and says pathetically,
How tiresome you are, dear!" Yet
Spencer-JoneS seems to like it in her,
and adores her to an unlimited extent.
So it is with the clever woman-the
woman who has discovered she has a
mind, and is working it to the utmost
Of her power Does she select a hus-
band from the many-lettered men of
science? Not she. The Gerton girl
who has come out at the top of the list
lege. When she does the circumstances
are quite exceptional. AS a rule, she
gets engaged to the rowing man, or the
cricket man, or the champion 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 invariable
IL
more commonplace is her husband.
To tell the truth, it is the intellectual
woman who finds the greatest charm
in the athletic man. Just as the clever
man prefers a 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 get the other.
There is another side of it too
Woman does not WOO, but she may
often be won by wooing. Her choice
in marriage is greatly fixed by the Sc
lection of herself. She is more fire.
quently 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
we'll?
A woman who has seen vast amount of
the world and has a wide experience was
speaking on this subject the other day to the
writer Il advise every clever woman" she
said, ito marry man less clever than her
self, for certainly by far the happiest mar
riages in this world are where the balance Of
intellect is on the woman's side" And facts
bear out the statement. Where there is an
intellectual inequality, the superiority had
far better 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 plaything, his amusement
she is never his friend. He goes outside his
home for Intellectual companionship, and as
time goes she becomes less and less neces-
sary to him.
This is never the case with woman, how
ever talented she may be- She adapts herself
to her husband; she never let's him feel his
inferiority nay, rather, If 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
citation and gratitude he goes on loving her
more and more every day they spend together.
A man always thinks himself cleverer than
a woman through life. If he cannot help
recognizing his wife's powers it makes him
intensely satisfied to feel he surpasses even
that high standard.