The New York herald., 1921-12-29
WIFE IS OPEN BOOK
TO EVERY HUSBAND
He Lets Her Think She Is a
Mystery, Says w. L. George,
Feminist.

Woman is not a mystery. The fact is
husbands know perfectly well what their
wives are up to. but don't bother to tell
them. The man who SAYS so and knows
all about IL Is w. l.. George, English
novelist. He visited the United States
last year. and liked US so we'll he's back.
He arrived yesterday on the Olympic.
will lecture through the country several
months and may go to Mexico.
Mr.. George received reporters la the
Ritz-Carlton. As his own rooms were
full of trunks and fiashlight smoke, he
led the visitors to a stock brokers' Of
hce, deserted for the rest of the day.
One of them aiming to put the distin-
guished feminist at ease glanced at the
blackboard and asked, How are the
quotations on woman preferred to-day.
Mr.. George?" and Mr.. George laughed
and said 'Oh. yes. indeed"
Most OF ths interviewers were women.
He wished II to be especially we'll under
stood in his lectures here he hoped to
explode the idea OF the special mystery
OF women, He gave sort of syllabus
OF what he intends to say. which
amounted to a preliminary explosion OF
iconoclastic epigram.
Woman. according to Mr.. George. is a
natural iawbreakcr. She. not man, is
unconventional. Her mind Is easily
explored if one takes the trouble. 1t IS
not a land you can't get into. but a land
to which few persons take excursions.
To curb wild women put them In power
that will do the trick. The wife as a
housekeepsr will disappear and be re-
placed by the hired household expert
A bad marriage is better than none. A
woman's best career is man.
NJ
MIR. George had found delight in Fl.
G.. Wells's remark There is no Mrs.
Grundy at ALL but there is a Mr..
Grundy."
"In the same way" he said. "I shall
try to show IL Is woman who Is uncon-
ventional. not in a showing of, Green
wich Villagy sort of way, but not SO
much tied down by what she thinks Is
correct as man is. It's man who makes
the fuss. For example, woman comes
downstairs all powdered and painted to
go out to dinner party. The husband
fusses. I shan't CO. he says; you don't
look respectable At least that's COM
mon in England. 1 don't know about
America
"On the other hand. man may ap-
pear In a pair OF trousers of so checked
pattern there Is only one check for
each leg. I won't go with you,' says
the woman. You look hideous.' Notice
the difference in their thought. The
mans objection is the people don't like
it. The woman's Is that she. this par
ticular woman. doesn't like it."
At this point a radiant woman inter-
viewer reached Mr.. George with this
ono: What Is the difference between
the old and the new woman"
He blinked, but gamely answered,
There Is no such thing as the new
woman. Woman is always new and al
ways old. Possibly Eve did not put on
fig leaves because of modesty but be-
cause she thought they looked pretty
In the South Sea islands, you know,
there are perfectly modest savages who
adorn themselves with mosses and shells
merely for the effect.
Mr.. George then proceeded to demolish
the mystery of woman.
There are five ladies' seated at this
table" he said.
"All are supposed to be a closed book
to us men, and they are supposed to
read us men like a book. We men are
| supposed to be a Jumping. obvious sort
OF cubic object. The truth is there is
no special mystery about women.
Imagine One I'm Tears.
Imagine q woman in tears. The man
asks What's the matter She won't
tell. The man can either work along
and find out what's the matter or he can
exclaim, oh, women = and go out. slam
ming the door. And after ne has said
oh women = few times and slammed
the door enough times he says and
thinks he can't understand women.
Really he hasn't tried.
Men are supposed to have no mys-
terry. That's because we are supposed
to talk about such duh things az busi-
ness, railroad speed, the number of boot
Ieggers caught per week per square