Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-01-26
When is Woman Capable
Of Deepest Affection?
BY ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.

NNAA@@@@N@@@AN
The old, old question is again pro-
pounded: When is woman capable
of the deepest affectionl
When are the emotions at their rip
est7
Woman is always a difficult and
complicated subject to analyze, and at
the best we can only generalize.
One fact is too obvious to need more
than merely stating-the girl under
twenty is wholly incapable of forming
a lifelong attachment.
II she does form one which lasts
through all the vicissitudes of maturer
years, it is merely a happy chance
which has aided her, not the result of
her ripened judgment, fine intuition
Of mature emotions.
One, however, might let this state
ment cover all attachments--at what
ever age-since marriage is SO evident
ly lottery. An engagement of seven
years, where the lovers saw each other
daily has been known to end in sepa.
ration after year of married misery.
Nevertheless, as a rule, woman Of
twenty-five is better able to form a
correct idea Of man 3 character than
a girl of eighteen, and she is capable of
a deeper love and more practical ex-
preston Of it.
So far as the real intensity of a wo.
man, affections are concerned, they
are rarely at their strongest before
thirty.five. A woman of that age is
to all earlier ages what August is to
April, May or June. She Graves affec-
tion more than she craved it in her
adolescence, and she is better able to
appreciate and reciprocate.
This is why so many seemingly hap
py marriages result in climax of dis
aster in middle life. This is why so
many women of thirty-five or forty
figure in scandals and divorces of the
day.
Men who delight in assuring us that
they are our mental superiors in all
the sciences and arts, men who have
developed their brains and grown great
and wise and wonderful in every direc.
tion save one, have yet to learn that a
wife of middle age-which is the very
zenith Of life-is no more ready to
"settle down" into the dull common
place of understood" " affection than
is the sun at midday ready to set be-
hind the western hills.
Every day we meet bright, intelli.
gent men whose lives are filled with
worldly aims and ambitions, and who
are supremely unconscious Of or in
different to the fact that their wives
are starving for expressed affection.
We have heard men laughingly refer
to sentiment as a thing outliyed or
submerged in the sea of reality, and
use the plural indicating that they be-
lieved the condition was mutual, when
we know at the same time Of the heart
hunger and restless discomfort of the
wives who were included in this plural
reference,
Thousands of American men today
believe they are the most unselfsh and
devoted Of husbands because they are
giving brain, mind and body to bust
ness with the idea Of bestowing luxu.
ries upon their families.
The middle.aged man may be salts.
fled with his ambitious aims, but it is
the middlc-aged woman who Graves and
feels the deepest love,
Unfortunately this is the era of the
mddle.aged woman; it is her hour Of
action and achievement
The last decade has shown a marked
progress for the woman Of maturity
toward broader, higher plane of use.
funess than she has ever before oc-
cuplod
Everyday new doors are flung open
for women whose homes are disap.
pointing and whose hearts are unsatis-
ficd doors which lead to agreeable
busy days well employed.
And this larger outlook for women
is making her better companion and
lessening the chances of her occupy
ing the unenviable position of a ne
elected wife as the years 80 by,
II is helping her understand men bet
ter and perhaps by this better under
standing she will come to realize jus'
wherein she failed Of old to keep hit
affection,
For when all is said and done, thi
fact remains
No absolutely lovablo woman eve
ynes uploved throuph life.