Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1906-07-07
(By Helen Oldfeld.)

There are many sayings accepted a:
truth and gospel which, in fact, are
half truths only. And of these is thai
which affirms of men that they do not
like clever women, but, as rule, pre-
fer fools. 1t depends. If the clever
woman is aggressive as to manner
and plain as to looks, while the fool
is pretty and appealing, 999 men out of
1000 will give wisdom wide berth
and embrace folly if they have the
chancel Men, like women, are n~one
to judge by appearances, to think more
of the exterior of the casket than the
contents thereof.
In point of fact, the women who
best succeed with men are those who
are clever enough to conceal their clev-
erness, yet who are never silly enough
to become bores, or lack sympathy. He
or perhaps she, was both wise and wit
ty who said: "a man likes his wife to
be just clever enough to comprehend
his cleverness and just stupid enough
to admire it'
The day has gone by when the first
| duty of woman was to "stick to her
thimble.' The second to echo all her
husbands opinions and to have nome Of
her own. Men are growing more and
more exacting in the demands they
make upon women to be interesting
and entertaining. They like to be
amused and the woman who fails to
amuse them is apt to be regarded as
a bore.
"There is a good deal, madam, in
modern Improvement" is what the
artist, Whistler, once said to great
lady, who confded to him her intention
to train her daughter to possess just
the same accomplishments as she her.
self did. There is. Men are not half
so simple as they used to be, and de-
mand the latest improvements in all
things before they find them satisfac-
tory.
A pyrotechnical display of twenty
years ago would be regarded as poor
thing howard days. Not long since a
writer in the London Times stated that
"men who used to hold the house of
commons tremulous with eagerness to
catch each word that fell from their
lips, have lived to find their rising
the signal for a general emeute." His
tory tells us that the elocution of the
great Methodist preacher, Whitfield,
was so wond,r rful that he could melt an
audience to tears by his pronouncia-
tion of the word Mesopotamia. 1t may
be taken for granted that he would
have to say the word many times to
any congregation of the present day
before he achieved such result; and
the tears, if they came, would mean
something more than a mere tribute to
eloquence. "Mesopotamia" will not
conju-e with the present generation;
and the young women of the twentieth
century who possess intellectual at
traction which might have sufficed TO
make her charming fifty years ago will
meet with much disappointment. The
girl of the period must increase her
stock of attractions just as she re-
quires that her dressmaker shall keep
step with the times.
1t was Lord Beasonsfeld who once
remarked TO a high and mighty court
lady that it was "harD task to be
compelled to pass an hour in the com
pany of lady whose knowlede of cur
rent events ceased at the marriage of
Queen Victoria" (something more
than twenty years previous). There
are other women of the same mental
furnishing; women who are not clear
Two-Men do not like foolish women
who do not know the name of the
speaker of the house of representatives
nor that of the republican leader of
the senate.
Most men will agree with Mrs. Mala-
prop that it is not at all necessary that
in order to be entertaining, girl shall
be a "progeny of learning.H II is
not usual for young men to present a
dictionary to young women whom they |
admire. And if one did, it is doubt
iul whether the token of esteem would |
be acceptable. But it is a fact that |
many men groan over the fact that girls |
whom they admire otherwise, betray |
IN ignorance of passing events astonish-
ng in intelligent human beings who
i've in An era of telegraphs and daily !
newspapers.
The modern man not only asks that
lis wife shall be a good housekeeper,
IS his father and grandfather did, but