The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-02-28
tCopyrisht, by Joseph b. BowIes,)

One often hears the expression: oh,
she's mans woman!" or shes a
woman's Woman!" and certainly the
differentiation is just. Occasionally
it happens that the two are COM
bined in one person, and then
we may, with the eXactness OF
science, pronounce that the secret of
this woman's attraction lies iu the
possession of that most subtle, most
difficult of all attributes to define,
which we know as charm.
But charm is very rare. II we
meet with it half a dozen times in a
life we may think ourselves fortunate.
Wy are sure that Cleopatra possessed
it, all the more so since modern re-
search goes to prove that she was not
beautiful, and we are equally sure that,
had she been the most beautiful OF her
sex and that alone, we should never
have heard of her. Great beauty is
rare. but as all things are relative
in this life, it would seem that, COM
pared TO that preeminent power which
We call charm, beauty Is but com
mon and everyday affair.
Beauty without charm will attract,
hut not retain, while charm without
beauty will both draw and hold the adj
nli"ation. Sometimes the two exist to-
gether, as in the case of Nine. Reca-
Elier. But can we doubt which of
these qualities it is that has made her
live? If her attraction had been mere
beauty. would she have been sought in
marriage at the age of 80 by one OF
the greatest men Of his time? True
she is known to have retained her
beauty to an extraordinary degree, but
that alone and of itself would no; be
a sufficient explanation of this tact
in her history.
But what of the women who belong
t the so much larger class, who, with
GU; that rare quality of charm can
both attract and retain the admiration
aud affectiOn-whether of women or Of
H,en?
Evidently, if we reflect we find that
to be what is known either as "a mans
woman" or "a woman's woman there
must be some powerfully attracting
quality
Now, what is this quality? The sub
ject seems 10 fall into two divisions.
Observation and reflection point to the
conclusion that an admired and be-
loved woman exercises wholly different
qualities to win the different sexes
What is it in women which most
pleases men and what is it which most
pleases women?
The mans woman, it would seem, is
very sure to possess, in some form, the
quality known as feminine. She reed
not of necessity be weak and helpless
indeed, that form of the feminine
may attract, but it will not h0ld--but
shc must have some of the qualities
which specially differentiate her from
man. She must give him. in their
whole relation, what he could not get
from any man friend, as social or
TelatIve-the quality which Goethe calls
the eternal feminine"
An experienced woman who knew
men pretty well once said to the writer
that there was one appeal to which
she had never known any man fail to
respond-and that was a certain sort
of ffehwardice in woman.
Let any woman, she said, no matter
how commonplace or ugly, become ter
Tified by a tramp or a burglar, or even
describe herself as having been so,
and adds: You men have no corcep-
tion of what that feeling is in a poor,
dcfenseless woman" and the man viii
respond to it as a cat to stroking!
And why is this? What quality in
man does this course in woman Gp-
neal to so strongly? Is it his selfish
ness, because he likes the implica-
ton of his superior m 'ntal and physi
cll strength? Or is it his unSeliShness,
because he is touched by the helpless
ness of another? Whichever it may
he, the fact remains that, although
man may express approval of plucky
conduct in woman, it appeals to MIN
on the masculine lines, and he pays it
the same sort of tribute that he wnulG
pay a man, which is an abstract COM
Gendation that has nothing to- do with
love or tenderness or any strong 1er-
GOnai emotion.
And as man likes the woman who
depends on him and reaches out ior
his support. in like degree, on tue
other hand, he despises a man for