The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-04-19

know how 70 dance and cook with equal
charm and experiences.
How to catch a husband and then
to keep him after you've captured
him, it appears, is world problem
that is engaging the attention of
thinkers everywhere, for it is not only
increasingly difficult to inveigle men
| to the altar. but after you get them
there they all too frequently refuse to
| stay hitched.
American women have long wrest-
led with this difficult question with
I but indifferent success, and so they
will be interested in learning of the
solution that the versatile and ingen-
ious French propose to apply to it.
In a high school in Paris called the
Lyceum Jules Ferry, after the states
man who did so much for the educa-
| ton in France, part of the curric-
of the things they need to know as
women, and among other things how
to catch and keep husband. To do
this they are instructed that the best
way to catch husband is to learn to
dance well, and the best way to keep
him is 20 learn how to cook well.
Simple enough. isn't it-so simple
the wonder is somebody hadn't
thought of it before? Attract man
by your charms ard graces before
| marriage, and fill him up good
food afterwards, and there you are
| You've got him going and coming, so
TO SPEAK moreover, II a Qeduly COM
bination for the sex that is getting
bridal shy, for what man could resist
the woman who shone in the ball
room, and what man would want to
flee from the woman who daZzled by
| her skill in the kitchen?
Undoubtedly, the ideal woman is
she who is mistress of the tango and
the turkey trot and queen of the gas
| range. The trouble is that heretofore
and hence the popularity of Reno
| in hn
same person the abilities of a Pavlowa
with those o. Mary Ann, and it has
only too often been true that she who
could two step uncounted miles at a
dance became aWeary the very min
ute that it was even suggested to her
to take a few turns about kitchen.
Simple as appears this French pan
acea for domestic ills, it marks deep
and profound and almost uncanny in
sight into the psychology of man. For
| it turns a searchlight upon that mex
plicable popularity of the masculine
character that makes a man go and
choose wife for one quality and then
| spend the balance of his married life
berating her because she is what she
is and not something else.
| For instance: A man picks out a
girl as wife because her pale, frail
beauty appeals to him. and he con-
siders himself victim because he
finds himself married to neurotic in
valid instead of a big, husky woman
who can do days washing and then
go out and play seventeen holes of
golf with him for exercise.
Or, he selects some red-headed and
snappy-eyed girl with a tongue like a
rapier, and wit like a bottle of to-
basco, because her fearless and daring
conversation entertains and amuses
him. Then he beats upon his breast
and bemoans himself because he finds
that his wife has a temper and isn't a
meek, mild little creature who doesn't
sit at his feet and ask him what he
thinks she ought to think about every
subject
Or, man marries woman because
she is a living fashion plate that sets
| every neck rubbering when she goes
| down the street, and he feels himself
in-used and martyr because she
doesn't qualify as wife as a model of
economy who is satisfied to wear year
before lasts dress and trim her own
| hats
No man would buy a pushcart and
expect to find that it was a six cylin-
der automobile when he got it home,
nor would he go into the grocery trade
and expect to sell diamonds instead of
canned goods nor does he expect to
be served with a bottle of champagne
| when he puts a nickel down for glass
| of beer.
But in matrimony he has an abiding
faith that the marriage ceremony is
some sort of a conjure that needs only
| to be said over woman to change
her entire system and disposition.
Therefore, he considers it perfectly
safe to marry a woman for one quail
lty and expect her to turn out a star
| performance in an entirely different
role.
/ This has bewi1dered woman, whos
at best, are but poor guessers who sell
dom hit on the right answer to that
riddle of the Sphynx-what a man
wants in a wife-and so they've gone
on trying to please their husbands by
| exhibiting the charms and graces that
their lords praised them for before
marriage, when all the time what the
| men wanted was quite the opposite
| thing
1t is to these seekers after the light
of their husbands favor that the ad-
vice given to the pupils in the Jules
Elimination. They will perceive that
it will not do just to continue to cut
bait after marriage. They must get
fresh bait. In a word, they must
dance to catch their husbands, but
they must cook afterwards if they
mean to keep what they have caught.
Truly Solomon has spoken. 1t is
not enough for a woman to have grace
and charm. These may win a mans
tickle fancy, but if she is to keep
what she has won, she must have
other qualities as well. She must
have the practical qualities that make
a woman a good wife and that insure
her making a comfortable and we'll
kept home for her husband.
Beauty and wit and charm all pale
their Intellectual fires in house that
is untidy and mussy. or before a din
ner table wherein the food is an af-
front to the palate and a menace to
the digestion. On the other hand, the
| household angel is even as lump of
lead unless she has some of the graces
and charms of life. So we have the
two great types of women-the one
who can catch a husband but can't
hold him, and the one who could
hold him if she could get him, but
who isn't niTnble enough to catch him.
To these disconsolate ones the Jules
Ferry school points the answer To
catch a husband and hold him, learn
to dance and to cook. It's a dual role