The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-02


In delving into the past history of a
renegade clergyman who has just been
unfrocked and deposed from his high
place in the church, it was discovered
that among his other crimes he had
married twelve different rich women
! in the various congregations he had
served and had robbed them of their
money and then deserted them
Thus we have another illustration of
the fatal fascination that preachers
have for women. The cloth" seems
/ literally to clothe a man in visible
halo that dazzles Women's eyes so that
they aren't able to see what manner
of man is wearing it
In every church in the land there
| IS always body of faithful sisters
who worship the preacher instead OF
the Lord, who speak of him with
| bated breath as if he were super
sanct and who hang on his every
word as if he were an inspired oracle,
no matter how dull and stupid he may
BE.
The old ladies of the congregation
mother him and knit waistcoats ana
mufflerS for him. The young women,
| if the preacher is unmarried, have a
sudden access of piety that sends them
scurrying to join the choir, and the
missionary societies, and the Bible
class, and not the least of clergy
|
and his head in the midst of all the
waves of a feminine adulation that
| beat up around him, and that nave
dragged many a weak man down into
the sea of a church scandal
| Considering that preachers, as a
class are neither better looking nor
more intelligent than their fellowmen
the secret of their almost hypnotic
| power over women has always been a
mystery to other men,
nv n,
who have had sixty or seventy years
of the educating experiences or lie.
should sit at the feet of a callow young
Theological fledgling who knows moth
| ing of the real problems or humanity
| Young men can't understand why 4
preacher who, So far as they can OBJ
serve has no points about him that
raises him above the ordinary man,
should be able to reach out his mana
and pluck the fairest and richest and
most desirable maiden in the congre-
CATION fer a wife while they have
Wooed the same maiden in vain
Men are not crazy about preachers;
It's the women folks that are. And
the men don't know why. 1et TO
woman the reason is plain, and it holds
a valuable tip to men if they will only
take it.
Undoubtedly, to u certain extent, the
fascination that a preacher has for we-
men is due to the reverence they reel
| imaginative, and a minister must be
singularly material and earthly in
looks and speech for a devout woman
not to always see him surrounded by
the fluttering of angel wings. She
| pictures him bordering perpetually
| the great problems that reach out and
grasp eternity, instead of concerning
| his mind with the price OF salt codflSh
or steel common, and that of itself
gives the clergyman romantic inter-
&C fn hnr
| broker can never inspire.
But the real secret of the faScina
ton of the preacher for woman is that
he is the only man in the world who
ever talks to her about her soul, or
even pretendS an interest in her SOUL
| or cares whether she's got a soul at
all or not. Other men are merely in
terested in the material woman. To
them the vital question is whether she
is good looking or ugly, whether she
is fat or has a tall and willowy fig
ure, whether she is a perfect thirty
six or a horrid forty-two.
When a man wants to pay a woman
a compliment, he invaria bly, tells her
how good looking she is. That is the
one and only brand of fiattery that he
| carries in stock, and he applies it
where he desires to please, with lib
eral hand over the fair or homely. And
then he sits back with n contented
mind conscious of having done his
r.
like a chesSy cat with pleasure.
1t never even occurs to him to praise
the woman's mind or soul, or to really
try to find out what she thinks On
any subject more profound than
what's the gayest cabaret in town or
the newest two step.
1t would astonish that man to death
to know that even the beauty would
be a million times more flattercd at
having a man recognize that she had
matter hoT
she is at having him praise the golden
| locks on the outside of it, and that the
plain woman actually resents a COM
pliment to her looks because she
knows better and thinks that the man
is taking her for a fool as well as a
trump.
The one compliment that goes to
every womans head like wine because
she is SO unaccustomed to it, is the
subtle flattery of having a man appear
eager to explore with her the curious
labyrinths of the feminine mind Ev-
cry woman is by nature a vivisect-
ionist, and there is nothing that she
takes such keen delight in as in
analyz1ng her emotions and delyinG
down into the very depths of her soul
We all like to talk about ourselves.
mat common human vanity. When
men talk about themselves, they boast
OF what they have done. When wom-
en- talk about themselves, they talk
about what they feel. Women listen
with patience, and even with interest
TO mems accounts of their achieve
ments, but no man will listen while a
woman discourses her emotions.
Lovers won't stand for it even DUR
ing the days of courtship. Husbands
cut II out. The only man on earth who
Will listen to it, whose business it IS
to listen to it, who is paid for listening
10 it. is the preacher.
: Hence, the clergyman is persona
grata with woman. He pays the worn-
an no silly and idle compliments about
the roses on her cheeks, or her violet
eyes. His interest, officially at least,
t is in the state of her soul. Her emo
, tions are the legitimate topic of con-
Versauon, and he listens while she in
dulges herself in an orgy of introspec-
{ ton.
To Tho H.