The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-20
Judge Taff Talks of the Charm and
 Beauty Of Southern Young Women

Augusta. Ga, Jan. I9.-what might | De considered an entirely new point of attack on the Solid South was
 made today by the President-elect when | he put in good word for the warmth and ardor of Northern men, who know
 good thing when they see it," in the l charm and beauty of Southern young ! women.
 This light vein of MT. Taft's humor was given vent before what he termed
 "a bouquet of bright and charming | faces," the students of Tubman High | School for Girls. Although nearly an hour late in his appointments, the songs of the class, which he listened tc preceding his brief talk, he declared
 had carried him off in enjoyable fam cy, and his introduction to speak was "a rude awakening"
 The charming appearance of the stu- dent body, he said, impressed itself on him as an entirely new and convincing argument in favor of the separation of the sexes for education. The speak CT admitted his point of view had changed somewhat on the question of woman suffrage since, when Is, he ard ently advocated. that doctrine in his graduation paper, because of the ad
 miration he had for the intelligence of the girl member of his class in Woodward High School, Cincinnati. When the trained and intelligent wo- men of the country wanted suffrage, he predicted they would get 1t, just on the very natural ground that they al- ways get what they want. But, he remarked. in passing the subject for the discussion of matrimony, that he
 did not see the slightest interest in the faces of his hearers in what he was discussing.
 Matrimony, as he said at Athens last week. should not be the only fea- ture to which a young woman should look. and no unsatisfactory acceptances should be made of marriage proposals, simply to avoid being an old maid. The great success of many married women of his acquaintance justified this conclusion.
 "But of course, here in the South, you are not troubled as they are in Massachusetts, he continued, "where there are so many women that there is no possibility that they can all mar ry, and it is a real serious problem the unmarried women. Here. I know that the situation Is different.
 "But. my dear young ladies" the speaker remarked. while he allowed full scope to the Taft smile, "I did not come here to make a prepared address
 came here trusting to the inspiration of the moment for what your bright eyes and pretty faces, and your charm ing presence might bring out of me. I trust am not too old yet to yield to the charm of beauty and that Is to which even a Northern man may be awakened to. I know there is a the- ory that we are all cold in the North, but I assure you 1t is not true. I re- member once, while in Nashville. of making inquiry regarding a great many families there, and found that immediately after the war there were great many Northern officers who exercised a desirable taste and who found young ladies of beauty and charm, formerly on the other side, who were willing or who at least were ln- duced, whether willing or not, to be- come the wives of Northern men, so that it might not be the worst. too, that should your fate ever carry you
 North of Mason and Dixon's line, for
 we know a good thing when we see it."
 From this gathering. which was held
 in celebration of the centenary of the
 birth of Edgar Allen Poe. MT. Taft at once went to the 81aines Normal and Industrial School for Negroes, where he delivered an address on the benefits of industrial education.
 Expressing the most profound sym
 pathy for the struggle upward of the negro race, Mir. Taft remarked, having