The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-11
. Bachelor Tells Some Of His
 Secrets
By BETTY9 VINCENT

little surprise. A letter arrived
 from bachelor, opening up his heart and telling just how some of the confined chaps" feel. To every girl this letter will be sort of Ian eye opener" Evidently this bachelor is quite a "catch' too, but don't write and ask me for his name and address because the clever creature didn't in- close iV. Just read the letter and per haps IL will help you to understand some other man in the near future.
 This particular bachelor is SO timid and modest that he doesn't even begin his letter Dear Miss Vincent" He just starts off in a bold hournishing hand like this: eI
 "Every man thinks he has a story to, tell. Some of my friends think that of me and have prevailed on me to tell it. And most men believe they are quite different from the rest and refrain from telling their story be- cause of self-assumed modesty. This same false modesty applies in my case also. In other words, am as con- ceited as the rest of the male tribe, who, all of them, consider themselves quite IT.
 T am thirty-nine, college gradu-
 
 normal. Have worked hard, am vice president and general manager of an ocean transportation Company in which I am majority stakeholder and on the road toward q comfortable fortune. I am as poorly yersed in the arts as all men who try to make an honest dollar and no better read.
 T speak three languages am ex- tremely fond of music, have a small schooner yacht to loaf on, ride every morning and can shift for myself in the woods. I know thet simplest of dance steps, can talk about the 1n- dians of South America, the natives of north Hudson Bay, the negroes of West Africa, the capitals and hamlets of Europe, the winds of the Sahara and of my own country; know some thing of our politics, having stumped in California for the late Mir, Harding, have a smattering of history and of mathematics, both of which read a great deal, and that is where it all ends.
 Briefly I am no mafe 'wallflower. don't know what love is because I have not experienced it. Not that I haven't had time, for when I play, I play. But my play has been usually alone or in the compapy,ao of two or three men, usually older than myself, who know how to shoot or fish or can weather a blow at sea. ''' ,
 T have met great nicny young women but have always felt a certain uneasiness when in their company. Some misguided individuals have called me a woman hater. Far from that. But when I am invited to a weekend party l pay the proper attention to the hostess, dance once or twice with her or her daughter, if she has one, and then refrain from dancing with the other young women. can't seem to sget up the courage to dance with 'tlie rest. .t.l 4se s,ts 8ftsFat S'@' 1'pa
 After a dinner party, instead of repairing to one of the other rooms with the younger crowd, I stay at the table and adjust the affairs of the world, thereby helping to keep the country from going to the bow-wows.
 ''The fellows like me, like me a lot and have done much for me, but per init a young woman to appear on the scene and I'm on my guard. l put, my best foot forward, try to be as affable and polite as is possible and feel myself a fool. The thought ,up- permost in my mind is, how bored she must be. It is a pleasure to see a group of younger people, young men and women, laughing and talking all at once. wish could be a part of it all.
 "You may say that some time I will surely meet a girl who will suc- ceed in uncorking me. She might, it is true, if I should permit it, but I am afraid I should wonder what she was after. feel no woman would want me as am and if she did it would be for what have to offer her, in other words, a nicely-lined pocket book. You may call it diffidence if you wish. Perhaps it is. It surely is some shape of mind. S"
 But it is not found Son something tangible? Isn't it because we see so much of falseness about us3 The typical bachelor is a coward. He sees and is afraid when he realizes that the man who smiles into a woman's face telling her she is the first he has ever loved is only telling her the same story he has told a hundred times. And perhaps the woman who nestles in his arms is thinking of the man with whom she is to lunch the next day. Those who are true have to suffer with those who are faithless.
 'T guess I'm doomed" But still I have a lot of fun and do not feel as if I'd missed much. And yet, when I look ahead and see my parents, who have my brother and myself about them, and wonder what my life will be like, say forty years from now, worry. A club or a hotel? l wonder"
 FOR THE SUMMER OF 1924
 I. at. eE Se Nal