The New York herald., 1921-12-04
He Saws, Saws He:
GUIDE BOOK TO WOMEN. BY Jam

James. u. Z. Dutton & Co.
N this Baedeker of the Beloved the
author considers Woman under
ten heads-one for each of the
commandments. But the titles of
these chapters hold no hint of shafts
or shalt nots-they are simply such
abstract words as Her Beauty, Dress,
Work. Types. Brain. Soul, Life, Re-
ligion. Job and Herself. There are
two prefaces, marked "For Men Only"
and For Women Only" like-tables
in some dairy restaurants. 1t is not
unkind to say that neither man. woman
nor curate could extract very much
information of any useful sort from
either of these clusters of remarks,
which are Introductory simply to the
thickest patch of woods in Nature
one in which most persons are lost
beyond any help from book knowledge
The authors name is given as
James James," but on the quite con-
trary it might better be Mary Mary"
for it does not seem reasonable TO
believe that any man could have COM
posed so catty a series of general and
| particular reflections. Another reason
for suspecting feminine authorship Is
the capacity for giving paradoxical
turn to the simplest statement or for
mula of action. The author always
leaves a hole big enough to crawl ou;
of. and the biandly innocent manner
of the whole thing is quite indicative
Of the indeterminate and retroactive
tendency toward mind changing which
| is proverbially the prerogative Of ladies
fair and unfair.
This is not to say that various down
right assertions are not made; the
curious thing about some of them is
that their very dogmatism holds sug
gestion that a bold face is being put
on the subject and cocksure manner
assumed to cover faulty masquerad-
ing as supernatural knowledge. The
| book is stuffed full of general state
ments all made in tone of conviction
actually bored with it's own certainty.
Now, since las the witty Frenchman
| remarked) all general statements are
Notwithstanding this one. it is fairly
obvious that, having started on a high
pitch, the author intends to brazen II
out. And yet much OF it does sound
alarmingly true. And we suspect that
some is much truer even than ii
sounds.
| 1t would be unfair to the many per-
sons who would like to know what this
L
1t not to have a few samples drawn
Here Is one from the Woman Only
preface:
Woman cherishes her profound ig-
norance of herself; she prides her in
ability to explain herself. Provided
her mystery makes her mysterious to
men she does not worry about it. She
thinks herself a Sphinx, eternally ask
| ing herself the conundrum of herself
and she doesn't care in the least if the
answer Is a lemon. She exists in a
beautiful haze; she halos herself in iri-
! descent vagueness. Yet beneath her
apparent vacillations woman knows,
deep down in her subconsciousness,
exactly what she wants, and despite
her hesitations she moves uncon-
sciously directly to her goal. Nature
has endowed her with the faculty of
getting there. :.
"Woman's brains are not tucked
away inside her skull where they can't
be seen. but spread in n thin layer all
over the outside Of her body. Her
brains are her figure and her beauty.
e, Her brains arc all displayed in
the shop window, invitingly arranged.
They are tlclSeted complexion figure
hair skin beauty 'attractiveness.'
charm youth sex She has
a shop window soul. No wonder that
men delight in gazing at that window"
After this handful of pebbles thrown
against the "shop window" it may be
fair to pull out another stop In this
organ of authority:
THE last person a man thinks of
when the word woman is mentioned
is his grandmother. Woman to us
tmen1 is beauty. attractiveness and
rounded youth. And that is just what
she is to herself. All these attributes
she cherishes far above rubies, and
none Of them lasts as long as rubies.
Her one talent. beauty. she bears
through the world--it is all she has
and IL blossoms, fades and dies; but
Is there anything else in this life OF
ours that Is as wonderful and as
precious? The great gift of
woman's beauty is a rare gift. Other
wise that gift. stalled by custom. would
be valueless.
"Woman's beauty, however. is not
made up Of simple facts like a beauti-
full face or nice eyes II is
something more elusive and more al
Turing than these mere accessories. 1t
lies in her vivacity OF mind and body.
the variety of her expressions and her
actions, her instructive charm and
grace, her ever present but uncon-
scious sex appeal. Man Is an uncouth
brute compared with her. But she
likes him uncouth. She is in
finite variety. She never
comes to the end of her tricks: she Is
always an exciting thing to keep about
the house :"
And so on. The book is full Of talk
something like this-some better, some