Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-15

man doesn't know how to bring art to
the assistance of uature-but never
mind tho reason The fact remains
that at 60 the modern man is in looks,
u uOt lu ttenugs, practically a copy ut
what his forbears of a century back
were at his age.
The modern woman of co. ON the
contrary, Judged by her looks, is prac-
ticallN a youngster i'm comparison with
an old-time Nmericar woman of 60,
and | believe 1t is this change in wom-
ans appearance which has led to the
change I'm the marriage rules. Not to
look old means that ore does not care to
act old or to be laid on the shelf, and a
New York woman Of 60 with a husband
of like age finds herself handicapped,
particularly IL she looks young enough
to he his daughter, which is apt to be
the case.
ITO he sure, she is allowed to go as
often as she pleases, but alone to the
opera, the theater, to concerts, to dim
rers even; for 1t may as well be adj
mitted that the ordinary society dinner
is bore to most elderly men of the
type who are quite willing to shelve
every social duty on their wife and
daughters, who in turn are generally
quite willing to assume them ALL
quite true" sighed the elderly lady.
y
dom ne will do more than look in on us
at the opera or concerts or the theater
or at house entertainments. At the
latter he comes IN near the close and
treats the hostess to some cooked up
story about being detained with busi-
ress friends, and |, of course never give
him away.
He likes a good dinner as we'll as
anyone, but hates having to make him
self agreeable to the lady he takes in,
unless she happens to he an old friend,
and il bores him to chat for three hours
about things he isn't interested in. He
prefers stag affairs every time, and
would rather play cards at the club
than in a private drawing room.
L humor him and save him all I
can, and | suppose | have really spoiled
him by not insisting that he shall es-
cort me whenever l go out. l go off to
the opera night after night in a car
riage with guest or to meet guests in
vited to sit with us. and leave my hus-
band smoking placidly in the library.
Maybe two hours later he will saun-
ter in and escort me home, maybe he
won't come at all. And yet we are
called a devoted pair
"A friend of mine was talking about
this very thing the other day." the
youngest of the three women remarked,
apropos of the fact that her sister.
widow of nearly 40, is engaged to a man
of 80.
My sister, she said. is about 80 or
less in looks and equally young in her
feelings, and she has always declared
that a woman of lively temperament
who doesn't mean 20 take to caps and
wrinkles or to live IN a village after she
gets to be middle-aged must, in order
to protect herself against ennui and
insure for herself some pleasures at so,
marry man onsiderably younger
than herself. Naturally a woman who
marries at % can't do this, and the
chances are that unless she gets an OPP
portunity to marry a second time at
60 she will have to get along without
an escort to social affairs if she de-
pends on her husband.
With women of 80 or 40 it is diff
ferent. Let them by all means marry
men younger than themselves if they
get a chance. Things will even up be-
fore the fifty year milestone is passed;
they will be better matched than with
a man of their own age, and the man
will be just as well off, too.
In fact. | never heard of a New
York man who was handicapped in his
social ambitions because his wife
wanted to stay around home and sit
with her feet upon a chair by library
table lamp. That sort of thing may
happen in a village, but not in New
York's prosperous circles
Yes, it does seem to me that as
compared with woman the New York
man just gallOps toward old age"
agreed the other women.
1T is certainly true that when a dis
parity in years exists between a bride
and bridegroom it is not always the
man who is the older" acknowledged
. clergyman. Il find that the ten
dency is toward an equality of age
rather than a disparity. 1 have fewer
cases of May and December mating