Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1914-08-06
The Kind of Woman
Men Admire

OF course, viewed from standpoint
OF puge art, "a daughter of the gods,
divinely tall and most divinely fair"
has the call over her abbreviated sis
ter. The Gibson girl, the Fisher girl,
the Christy girl, all OF the various
girls with whom we are familiar on
the backs of magazines and in the
Sunday supplements, would undoubt-
edly be about feet high II they were
translated into real life. Also, they
all have lean and hungry look which
goes all right in picture, but 1t is
doubtful II any man would care for 1t
In a lady love.
In this connection 1t Is interesting
to remark that, In previous age,
when there was more marrying going
on than there is now, and a lot more
love making doing, the popular ideal
of feminine pulchritude was not the
telephone post woman OF today, but
the small cuddlesome woman that was
just a good armful.
The immortal Shakespeare set the
proper height of woman as Just as
high as a mans heart. Dickens made
his Bella Wilfer, his Ruth Pinch, his
Dora, his Dot, all Of hts most ador-
able women, not only short, but
plump. All Of Scotts heart smashers
were little women. The big woman
did great, heroic stunts, but It was
the little woman that men loved.
Thackeray's favorite heroines, even to
Becky Sharp, were all small.
These great writer's knew the hearts
of men and they builded on the fact
that while men reverence and wor-
ship at the shrine OF the tall, majestic
woman, ninety-nine times out of
hundred, 1t is the cute, little, cunning
woman, with kittenish ways, that can
wrap them around her finger.
OF course there are many explana-
tions Of this phenomenon. The most
obvious Is that 1t fatters a mans
vanity fer women to look up to him
physically as well as mentally. A man
likes to feel that he Is superior to his
wife and 1t takes one with as much
| courage to marry woman larger
than he Is as 1t does for one to mar
ry a woman that is more intelligent
and better educated than he is.
A superior height, like superior
mind, is really handicap rather than
an advantage to a girl so far as get
ting married is concerned II you
will look about you you will see that
the girls who have the most beaux,
and the women who hold the matri-
monial records are nearly always
small women with very limited sup
ply Of brains.
OF course tall women are admired
and do get married, mostly to very
small men, but that Is natures effort
to hold the balance steady and keep
up the average height Of the species,
and by the same token and for the
same reason the bigger man is the
more the little woman appeals to
him.
It Is, however, absurd TO claim that
men, as whole, especially admire
either the short or the long type of
woman, or that her height, unless she
Is a dwarf, has anything to do with
girls chances of getting married.
Cupid doesn't go about with yard
stick and whether man falls in love
with young woman or not depends
upon something much less tangible
than her size.
Probably every man has a theory,
before he meets her, that the divinity
who will stir his pulses will look as
II she had just dropped down from
the top Of Mount Olympus, just as
every man imagines that he Is wor-
shipper of beauty, and that no woman
who wasn't a real, genuine, bonafide
Venus could ever make his heart go
| pit-a-pat.
Yet in spite Of this alleged devotion
to beauty men continue TO pick out as
wives women who have no standing IN
the good locker class. In fact 1t is
notorious that beauties seldom make
good marriages and that while men
delight in burning incense before
living picture, when they want to get
married they generally go Off and pick
out some lady In the chrome style
Of art to take home with them for
keeps.
1t must be a wonderful pleasure and
solace to woman to be tall, and slen-
der and queenly in appearance and able
to contemplate the reflection Of her
figure in every shop window she pass
es without getting heart failure; but
her looks do not cut as much matri-
monial Ice as she supposes. Men may
be drawn to her by her beauty at first,
but they soon drift away unless she
has some charm more potent than
mere good looks with which to hold
them.
Sympathy, comprehension, good ma
ture, willingness to amuse and be
amused, all that we comprise in the
cryptic phrase winning ways"-these
are a thousandfold more potent In So
curing the admiration of men than
any height, or peachiness of complex
ion. And in this is the gospel of hope
for my short and sawed Off corre-
spondent BY taking thought, she can
not add one cubit to her stature. but
she can cultivate charm of manner
and personality that would back the
moor goddess off the hoard