The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-01-01

From the Washington POST.
r T has been the habit of men, wise and
witty, cynical and stupid, to cast the
L shaft of singing ridicule at the
widow, particularly if she be young and
fascinating. 1t has been the traditional
masculine attitude since time was young,
and the so-called wiles of the guileful
widow have pointed many proverb and
sharpened many an epigram. And it is a
scd fact that all these wise saws are pure
bluff to save the face of men who deep
in their hearts know the utter futility of
resistance when an enterprising widow
makes her plans and sets her cap. Dido,
or more properly ELISA, of Carthage, was
a widow when Aeneas drifted around that
way, and we all know that it took the
joint efforts of the Olympian syndicate
of deties to jar loose her hold on the
old Trojan warrior. And when he did quit
her, Virgil tells us he felt like man
caught in trying to evade paying his fare
on street car. But while that romantic
courtship lasted, the faithful crew of
Aeneas just sat around and roasted
widows in general, and the Widow Dido
in particular. just as they would do to-
day.
Heedful Penelope was in widows weeds
when that gay young bunch of riotous
sutors lived high on the fat goats and
swine Of long tried, royal Odysseus. One
can imagine the biting gossip and cutting
innuendoes anent widows voiced by the
deserted maidens at the Ithacan bridge
parties of that interesting period And
the list OF widows who have made history
and sown the seeds of bitterness might be
indefinitely extended until it reaches it's
elimination in the classical utterance of
Mr.. Weller to his dutiful son, Samuel:
Beware of the vidders.'
After such an Indictment at the pen Of
the prince of English humorsts it is but
compensatory justice that brilliant de-
tense of the widow should come from
the hands OF another Englishman, Rich
ard LIE Galienne, who, in a recent article
in the Red Book upon wives Made to
Order" says:
Perhaps the most Sensible wife a man
can take-the wife most adapted for hui
man natures daily foods the wife that
has been a wife before. She is already
versed in the ways of man, and learned
in the gentle art Of managing husbands.
She brings to her new husband the fruits
of experience, and belongs to that class
known as skilled persons There are no
surprises for her in the masculine psy-
chology, no bewildering discoveries to be
made. Like the old English dowager, she
knows how ito feed the BRUTE" and
generally knows him by heart Yes, L
think the wise man is he who marries
the wife that has been a wife before. In
such union there are none of those
painful adjustments to be made between
temperament and temperament which
usually make the first year of the mar
ried life of the matrimonally inexperi-
enced an agonizing duel of rnisunder-
standings. Such wife has mastered the
masculine paradox, and realizes that
husband, by his very nature, Is a bundle
OF Contradictions he is dogma not reason,
and the wife realizes that she must live by
faith rather than by any rationalistic in
depreciation of his words
But the traditional attitude toward wild
ows and their charms, which has
filled literature with cynical slurs and
sings. is not alone due to mere men, who
know their helplessness IN the premises.
Much of 1t has been inspired by the we'll
based fear on the part of wives and
maids who seek to be wives of the little
widow, who knows the man-game from A
to T. She is an expert. while her rivals