The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-11
THE VANITY OF MAN.
noes He share Lovely Woman's
FraiItyt

OF the IEdnll6S VI WHICH
women are supposed to hold a close
monopoly is personal vanity, says
Dorothv Dix in the New Orleans Plea
,,,ne. Men are willing to admit that
tbey indulge in a few big sins. but
thew contend that the petty weakness
If unduly admiring oneself is a vice
sssentially feminine and they are
vaver weary of gliding at their sisters
cor if. Milton represents one of the
5ret acts of the first woman as go
30 forth in search of a mirror, over
which she hung in enraptured contem-
n1ation of her own image, but he says
Ever a word of the fact that probably
lam had already been there before
~ and had had the first peep into
tha looking glass. 1t is the peacock,
I'd not the peahen that spends its
time haunting itself in public, and bid
ding for public admiration.
The question whether man or Wom-
~ is the vainer must always resem-
lie DISPUTE between the pot and the
Title over which is the blacker. Van
Nv of yanities,' saith the preacher, az
- vanity and the question is one
rather of quantity than quality. Wom-
ar,s vanity is that of the amateur,
M
n,ires the glad hand and the applause
~ her feIloW-creatures to bolster her
nm in her good opinion of herself.
Niar,s is the certainty of the profess
sionaI. so sure of his own perfection
he can afford to disregard, with Sc
rene complacency, the carping critics.
When men bring the charge of SUI
nerior vanity against women, the nrst
charge in the indictment is clothes.
ffnx
sidar irrefutable logic that womanklnd
enands half of it's time in considering
vtbat if shall wear, and the other half
il, nuttine it on, whereas the average
mans wardrobe consists of few SIM
nle garments that he can don on the
road between the bath tub and the
breakfast table.
Now i'm reality, instead of woman's
attention to matters of the toilette be-
ing proof of her greater vanity, 1t Is
an evidence of her self-depreclatlon.
She realizes that she needs adVentl-
tious aids to increase her charms and
enhance her beauty, and she spends
time. thought and labor in connecting
costumes that remedy the defects of
nature. 1t is not vanity but humility,
that makes a woman curl her straight
locks. touch up her sallow cheeks with
carmine roses and lace herself into
straight front corset. She knows that
fate has been niggardly to her in the
matter of looks, and that if she would
make herself a pleasing object for her
ellow-creatures to contemplate she
must make good artificially, and poor,
misiudged creature that she is, when
she does it, her very virtues are at
tributed to her for vices. Her very
modesty is accounted vanity, and her
desire to improve her looks Is thought
to be elf-admiration of her beauty
Compare this deprecating attempt of
woman to enhance whatever good
looks she has by means of pretty
frocks and becoming colors, with the
superhuman self-esteem that leads the
man who scores her for vanity, to feel
that he doesn't need anything to i'm
prove his appearance, and that no
matter how slouchy, and addressed
he is, it must still be a pleasure for
anybody to behold him. If there was
any one thing on earth that improved
. womans locks like a clean shave
does a mans, she would do it daily,
though it fayed her alive in the doing,
but so colossal is mans vanity that
he does not always take even this sim
pie means of enhancing his appear
ance. but contents himself half of the
time with going about with two days
subble of beard on his face.
He feels that he doesn't need to
that he is so fascinating that he can
take liberties with his appearance, and
that any woman would be pleased to
be seen in his company no matter how
he looks. No woman has that amount
of vanity. She knows that no hus-
bands admiration is proof against
wrappers and curl paper, and that If
she appears slouchy, slovenly and ILL
Cfrepf would
be brave enough to promenade the
thorOughfare with her, and so it is not
vanity, but lack of vanity, that makes
woman bestow so much care and at
tentiOn upon her personal appearance.
The addressed and slovenly man will
say that he does not care what people
think of him. That is nonsense. We
all care what people think of US. We
are bound to care because our happi-
ness and prosperity demand it, and
nothing but the excess of Vanity-an
admiration of oneself so deep and
profound, and far-reaching and all
comprehensive, that it can afford to
do without any backing up from other
sources-makes a man feel that he VIII
do" just as he is, and that he doesn't
need any further improvement. 1t is
possible, of course, for one to applaud
himself so loudly and vociferously that
ne SHUTS out CnS SOunQ Oh the IlioSeS u
others.
On the other hand, the man who
does care about his appearance takes
about as much real heart interest in
MS clothes as a woman does. The set
CT a collar can become as burning a
question as the set of skirt, it takes
as much time for a man to tie his
neckties as it does a matinee girl to
get on her hat, and you could no more
persuade a man to dress differently
from other men, than you could in
ouce woman to dress like other wom-
en-.
Look down the aisle of a street car
and every other man is hitchings at his
trousers in order to show the tops
OF his open-work stockings, the one
little bit of frilly finery that fashion
allows him. Think of the expensive
Fanama hat craze that swept the
country last summer! Did ever femi-
nine vanity devise a more senseless
ana eXtravagant fad than that? And
lsnt the tendency of trousers to bag
at the knees an ever present sorrow
win which the ingenuity of man has
ds yet been unable successfully to
eope? No woman spends more time
sahoothing ont her chiffons and coax
lIs them into fiuffiness than we'll
dressed man does in trying to erase
'i,e Wrinkle in his trousers.
leaving clothes out of the question,
no"eVer. the next thing in which man
SHOWS his superior vanity is his child
IKE faith that he is interesting to ev-
eryoody, and especially to women. Ev-
Ely man believes that every woman is
Tying to hear al a hotIf him and that