The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-08-26
FOR FEMININE READERS
MEN AND WOMEN TO FLEE FROM BE-
CAUSE THEY LACK TACT.
Little Gifts to Make the Newly
Pledged College Girl Happy
Hints of Coming Fashions.
THAT woman. She is a Doomsday book"

THAT woman, She is a Doomsday book"
Then, of course. says Dorothy Maddox.
in the Philadelphia Inquirer, ! was all
curiosity to know what on earth a So
briquet like this could mean when bestowed
upon a very genial, sprightly sister, a type
which seemed TO an outside observer hail
fellow-welI-met with everybody.
/ could hardly attribute the criticism to
jealousy. The lady who ~emphatically
saddled her friend with so weird a title
was to my mind the handsomest specimen
of womanhood in our neighborhood.
What, Dorothy. do / mean? Simply that
nobody can escape that memory of hers.
1t can go sliding back to the dark ages. 1
knew her when we were children together.
She is everlastingly travelling back to
scenes and events that make a female
Methuselah Of me. I haven't so much
vanity, but it is enough to make anybody
feel an ancient and honorable TO have to
stalk along over a quarter of a century to
please her. / wouldn't mind II 1 didn't
know / looked years and years younger
thar l really am. / just begin to get COM
Portable in my mind when along comes that
memory, and promptly it is set in working
order for my benefit. For instance, We
were on the piazza of my cottage the other
night when, just as 1 had begun to think
life very agreeable, UP chirped that woman
with:
Della, you are a remarkable woman.
one Of the most remarkable | have ever
known. You might marry a man OF thirty
and nobody would ever call you a 'papy
snatcher.' How do you manage to keep SO
~youthful?'
Now, wasn't that a pretty sort OF a
TRADE TO dish up for a couple of men L
liked and three women laughing In their
sleeves over my bushes. / am confident
Mrs. Blank is not s~piteful. If 1 thought that
L would not have her around. She positive
ly thinks she is doing a polite thing 10
make remarks of this kind. What can one
do? To resent her doddering plumbers is
TO show at once that L am sensitive in the
matter Of age. She always takes an un-
fortunate time to search about In her nina
for data. If there is a crowd around, tnen
it is that she suddenly fastens her eye
upon me, and, looking me over as IL L
were a prize pig, lets fly her unfortunate
compliments. No doubt about 1t, she THINKS
she is complimentary. Well, perhaps 1T is
spite work. l know one thing, l dread her
as l would the seven years Itch.
The "doomsday book lady is only one OF
many. She and men as well are given 10
memorizing in such a style that they ex-
asperate where they really intend 10 natter.
l heard a man tell a woman the other
evening before a whole roomful OF people
that she looked younger than she did nj
teen years ago. The voice was strldent.
1t reached to every niche of the apartment.
There was a general lu1l in conversation
and curious glances searched the poor. en-
barrassed face and figure of the tormented
one for flaws.
She felt it. Any one could see that she
was overwhelmed with confusion. The man
intended to be very nice. He really wanted
TO say something hat would please. There
surely wasn't a mean thought in his mind.
Indeed, petty smallnesses such as women
indulge in do not belong TO men.
Dear, laundering souls, they are given TO
saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
There is in the whole calendar of their
shortcomings no one remark so wretchedly
out of taste as that one which hints at the
flight of time.
/ have often warned my brothers against
hat common pitfall which men stumble
into because of their intense desire to make
some woman they admire give them adj
miration in return.
/ would no more dare comment on the
put my hand in the jaw of a lion. The
moment l did so | should feel / had in
suited her. because if she is youthful
enough to be young looking there can be
no need for surprise. If my admiration
arose from establishment at the cleverness
of arts which could disguise the devastat-
care TO open a discussion upo her adroit-
ness.
Say all the pleasant things you may wish
rub self-complacency against the grain.