The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-06
WHAT MEN LIKE In WOMEN

ness to man, the very difference of
her point of view, that makes all of
her charms, and lends piquancy to her
society. If a man wanted the ideas
of another man or a subject, he would
seek one who had been born to the
masculine estate, not one who had
merely understudied the role.
Men like what we call the old
fashioned virtues in women. 1t is
the FASHION now for women to be
blase and cynical, but there is no man
so hardened that he does not shudder
away from hard woman. He may
never put his foot inside of a church,
but he wants a woman to be piouS.
He may diSbelieve in everything in
heaven or earth; but he wants a Wo-
man to have childlike faith in
everything and no matter how much
he laughs at her for her credulity, he
loves her the better for it. He may
judge the world mrcilessly, but he
wants a woman to be full of tender
and unreaSOning sympathy and pity.
No man ever loved a woman who did
noe Ciy, or who was not tender 10 NJ
tie children, or who would not give
to a beggar, and investigate his needs
afterward. The girl who thinkss it
smart to sheer at domeSticity and de-
cares that she will never uebase her
talents by learning to cook or sew,
who hates children and mocks religion,
no matter how beautiful or brilliant
she is. does not attract men.
Men like cheerfulness in a woman,
but they hate forced gayety. Proba-
bly,, there is no other woman in the
world that makes men so tired as
the perpetual giggler and gusher-the
woman whose conversation is a series
of exclamationS who chatters like
a magpie, and who laughs at every
thing that is said, whether it is funny
or not These women labor under
the hallucination that the way to be
VivaciouS is never to be still. Now
in this country, where society is car
ried on after office hours, men seek
the companionship of women for rest
and relaxation. They want quiet.
They want to be soothed, and sym
pathized with, and not to be initiated
by the antics of a perpetual motion
machine combined with the noise of
monograph that never runs down.
The woman who wants to attract
men must know how to listen as well
as talk. She must suggest an atmOs-
phere of quiet peace, not Vaude-
vile show where there is always some
thing doing. She must be deeply,
softly comprehensive. 1t is on the
bosom of the ocean that one dreams
of resting not on the babbling brook.
1t is the sense of reStfulneSS, of quiet
peace thy Civ that forms the attrac-
ton of the large, placid, bovine WO-
men who are generally as stupid as
they look, but who almost invariably
get the pick of the matrimonial mar
ket.
Above all, men like naturalness in
women. Affectation and artifciality
are the bette noir of the masculine
sex. 1t is undeniable that women roll
their eyes at men, and men succumb;
that men are taken in by the simple
little debutante who is younger and
more innocent, and ignorant than any
one ever was by nature, and that not
every Woman's hair, and complexion
is hers except by right of purchaE,
but these women who affect to be
what they are not and still please
men, are artists. Their imitation of
perfect lady is SO good that it looks
like the real thing. What disgusts
men is the elephantine lady who af-
fects to be kittenish; the stingy
SpinSter of uncertain age who lispS
baby talk; the big, strong, capable
looking women who think it cute to
shrek every time they see a mouse,
and the watts sisterhood of feminine
posers who go into Mysteries of de-
light over Browning and Wagner.
when their real tastes in literature and
music are the Duchess" and "Bede-
ial.''
Women haven't found it out yet,
but the qualities that men like best
in them are tenderness, sympathy af-
lection, and goodness. man never
admireS woman so much as when
she is juSt-a woman.