The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-11-26

how earned the reputation.
Perhaps it is because ne goes
about reading other men :
poetry for Women's clubs ana talklIs
qbouf the authors. He has two or three
poetry lectures which are IN nl8A
favor among the high-brOWed. Also
he collects rare books ana Lhluss az
knows something about aEcLilecluL,S
and pictures don't know NV ~ 49, -
but enough to impress people OUT mere
where a man isn't expected 70 kHo"
much of anything except now 70 earn
a living for his family ana WAeIS tAAS
Uplift is left largely to the women.
The women fairly dOte upon tHe
Poet. They say he has the artistic tenn
permanent He is the sort OF person
who shudders If he finds trlpIycn
which an ignorant amateur decorator
in his unguided search Ior the 1S1A ~
full, has used upside down. CHueL-
stand. I don't know what "a trlptych e,
but anyway he is always gong around
picking peoples houses and clothes 70
pieces and explaining how they are ar
tisticaly impossible, VlolaIlng az t4s
canons Of art and so forth NO uouDt
he Is right. but it Is the sort or TAX
calculated to make a healthy man long
to give him swift ana vigorous Kick.
The Poet is as careful about his dress
as ne is about everything else. he
wears his hair rather long and affects
a Van Dyke beard. He would faint
away at a ready-made craVat or any
such sartOrial mOnStrOsity, and ne mas
spent the best part Of his life trying
TO impress western men with the i'm
Dortance Of correct dress for all Occa-
Ei0ns-the frOck coat and silk hat and
such toppy Jugs for afternoon ana the
proper functions of the dinner coat ana
fun evening dress.
tive soul Of the Poet, and a faulty
pronunciation gives him nervous
headache. Still he enjoys pointing out
such errors and holding forth upon
them. Anything that gives him an Op-
portunity to tell what he knows is
worth while to the Poet. Talking is
really his long suit. He does this III a
gentle voice Of ladylike mOdulauons
and says great many high-sound1ng
things which impress the average man
who reads nothing except the headlines
and the sporting page in the daily pa
pers- They do not know that the
Poets ideas are all borrowed and many
Of his expressions as well They think
him, as they express it, very brainy
and literary" Anybody must be who
can talk so long without uttering a sin
gle Ineligible sentence. However,
they are perfectly willing that some
one else should listen to his lectures
But for all his fine discriminating taste,
his delicate reserves, and sensitive
shrinkings, his artistic temperament
and all the rest-hiS admirers would
probably say because of these, but that
ADE1lA 20 Win A4G--LEl5 E0GL IS a UEE-
side tyrant-one of those petty, exact
ing tyrant5 who know how to make a
whole family miserable. His wife. who
is just an ordinary woman who might
have been very happy with a plain,
plug man, wears an habitual express
sion of depreciation and apology and
has worn out the best years of her
life in a vain effort to come up to the
artistic expectations of her husband, to
snare his emotions over poetry and
d
and ward on his wrath when the an
upathtes are unusually aroused. His
children are frightened to death OF
him and it is almost an impossibilitv
to keep a servant in the household.
or course the club women rave over
him and the papers habituaIIv refer
20 him as Poet or a dilettante in art
or llterateur or some other term
that sounds equally good and equally
vague to the reporters who do Dieces
about his lectures or after-dinner talks
at public and lodge banquets And no
doubt his wife WOrships hints q
way women have with selfish, dOmi-
neering, arrogance in masculine gufse
but all the same she'd been much
napier with a plain, plug man who
said have saw" used a toothpick at
the table, liked Charles Harris in nnu-
sic, the chrome in art and wouldn't
know dithryamb if he should meet it
coming UP the street
A man and a woman are rarely "on
the square" with one another. Prob
ably II they were the race suicide
alarmists would have more to worry
about For the chances are that ia
every love affair, duplicity and deceit of
a harmless sort, play a large and i'm
portant part. If the average man who
is in love with girl knew her as she
really is and not as her pose and his
passion have made her seem to him.
ana If she could see him stripped Of
the glamour of romance in which her
imagination has enveloped him and the
attitude Of chivalry, conscious and un-
conscious. which his feeling for her has
e7gendered, it is safe to say their in
terest in one another would not last
long And that is why marriages are
often failures and why romantic love
rarely outlasts the honeymoon.
The man and woman have loved not