Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-10-21
WOMEN AND COMMON SENSE
A Writer Says It Is the Rarest Com
 blnation in the World

A writer Says It Is the Rarest Com
 olnation in the World
 ne Earest combination in this world IS women and common sense. Women oI ability, of talent, of genius even, are plenuIul as blackberries. but the Wo- man Who has the supreme endowment or calm and logical mind, and who can see subject just as it is. without pIeJudlce, passion or fear, is as scarce almost as frost in June,'' says a writer in the Daily Picayune.
 Not only do women seldom have any common sense, but they do not desire to have any. It is not a virtue that appeals to then,l and it discon- certs them when anybody calls on them to meet situation with reason instead Of Mysteries It comes by nature to them to be self-saerifcing, tender to suHer-the more unjustly the better but when they face a situation shorn of heroics and only needing good, hard common sense to deal with it, they reel themselves at a disadvantage. They are out of the running.
 Yet the need of the world is for common sense. 1t is ullromantically true that half of the tragedies of life. and most of the troubles. we make for ourselves because we persist ill looking at things from every point of view ex- cept the practical one. This is true of men as well as of women, but wo men are the greatest offenders. The rough and Humble fight of life knocks some sort of common sense into even the most visionary of men, while wo- men from the sheltered nook of their own firesides.. blandly continue to look out upon life of theories instead of facts. 1k1zs 1u
 Tradition and custom alike have conspired to foster this weakness in women It is taken for granted that they will burst into tears and swoon when the time for decisive action ar rives, and, that they will generally be guided by their hearts instead of their. heads. And women encourage this view. They have mania for being thought artistic. intellectual. poetic. aesthetic, but it seems to them almost brutally unfemir1ii1e for q woman to be sensible They look upon her with the suspicion that they feel toward a. woman who doesn't wear corsets and who has the nerve to refuse to be held up by professional beggars They feel that there is something unnatural and tncanny about her She may be all right. but she's peculiar.
 ITO this inability to look at things from practical standpoint may be at tributed wonan's habit of borrowing trouble. She never waits for sorrow 10 come to her. She goes forth to look it up. and if she doesn't have any of her own she assumes that of her friends Above all, she anticipates If her children are we'll she agonizes over what she would suffer if they were i'll; while her boys are in rounda- bouts she begins worrying over the dangers of college life; while her girls are still babies she is miserable thinking how unkind their possible husbands may be to them. Tn MT Dix on's new novel he tells about a man who had carved over the mantel in the library this sentence: T am old and have had much trouble. but most of it never happened No woman would have ever have adopted that for her motto, and she couldn't have lived up to it if she had. She has plenty of trouble, and the troubles that never happen trouble her more than the ones that do.
 S'The folly of making love the whole feast Of life. instead of merely a side dish. is another feminine misfortune that is the direct result of woman's in ability to see things as they are. ITO love and be loved perfectly are the two supreme happinesses that fate can bestow upon tis, but because one misses either one Of these good things. or both is no more reason for making ones self miserable than it is to starve to death because one cant afford te~- rapin and champagne. Without doubt one prefers the banquet to the frugal table d'hote. but one may dine com fortably on roast beef and beer, and even tea and toast are not to be de- spised if one can get nothing else
 There is so much in life besides love-so many interests and amuse- meTlts. so much work to do. so many rewards to gain-tnat it seems i11- credible that q woman could let the mere fact that she was overlooked by men wreck her happiness yet how many bitter and sour old maids have we known. who might have found sol- ace. one would have thought. i1i mere 1y contemplating their married friends domestic ir1felieities and reflecting that 1t was, at least, better fo be lone ly than 10 be b1IIdozed. '