Year: 1869

London is overrun by set of men
who imprudently proclaim that they do
not want to marry-nay, that they want
not to maryland that they will not
take to themselves wives on any con-
sideration. They even pretend to erect
their own practice into prccept, and
to be the apostles of a new creed. whose
first and last commandment is ssThou
shalt not be su N an ass as to get mar
ried." They freely allow that they are
q new variety of the human species; but
they plead that they are a superior va
riety-ln fact, the finest variety that has
ever yet been produced. Were we to
contine our observation to their plu-
mage, we should, perhaps, be forced to
concede their claims. AS far as feath-
ers go, they certainly are magnificent
specimens of the domesticated human
bipcd.


Another, and perhaps the most OBJ
servable OF all, is their propensity to
gourmandise. To them no day is with
out its event so long as 1t is not without
its dinner. Breakfast has some little
interest tor them, and luncheon is by
ho means matter Of indifference; but
neither of these meals, nor perhaps the
two together. would suffice to make lite
aXTtGubit WtTc ~ uOL lOT bllt ldI Rtt CAV
ing hour, to which they are but supple
mentary. They make no secret of the
importance attached to it, aud it will
tell you with unblushing frankness that
there never lived the woman fozSwhose
charms, whose society, or even tor
whose entire devotion it is worth o
mans while to run tue risk OF ever din
ing bad. They have conventional joke
n hn htrt hox nf
celebrated either for wit or originality,
we must take their humor as we find it..


Bnt it is not only an avowed passion
for eating and drinking that distin-
guishes and helps to constitute the "men
who don't want to marry. 1t has al
ready been noted that the ornamental
ton of their own person is a great point
with them; but it has not yet been OBJ
served that their interest in the matter
is based upon motives different from
any that have hitherto been shown to
sway their sex. The pride of male ami
mails in their personal appearance has
hitherto invariably had reference to the
additional power which it is supposed
to give them of conquering the affec-
tions of their female companions.


Not so, however, with the animals We
are now considering. Their feathers
are for themselves, and for their own
satisfaction. Enter their bedrooms or
dressing-rOom, where no female eye,
save the chambermald, ever prizes, and
what will you see? If the owner be
within, and engaged with the business
of his toilet, and you will find him ar
rayed in costume in which he never
appeared elsewhere, and yet of so mag
niticent and dazzling kind that, did
You not know that it was not your inti-
mate friend, you would suppose that it
was Monte Cristo, or the Commander of
the Faithful.


lie is resplendent in purple and gold.
Velvet lined with silk, and trickled out
with wonderful embroidery, is the
meanest portion of his attire, and his
appreciation of himself in his gorgeous
apparel is manifest by his constant ap-
peals to large cheyal-glass, and his re-
plying to your significant observations,
whatever they may happen to be, by a
series Of negligentiy inquisitive .ehs ?"
We should require the pen of that rich
writer known as "Ouida," were we to
attempt TO describe the contents ofwhat
must properly be called his boudoir, es-
pccially the articles which lie in splsn-
did prOfusion on the dressing table,
Scent and ungents, cased i'll ivory or
gold, must be accepted as an intimation
of creatures which are scattered about.
All these precious possessions are for
the man who does not want to marry.
If he married, he feBrs that he would
have to sacrifice these necessities of ex-
istence. Clearly, all this personal mag
nificence is not means TO an end. 1t
is an end in itself


As in the privacy of his apartments,
90 in the public places of the town. He
spends fortune on his dress, not out
of Difference to anybody's else's wishes,
not out of compliment to society, not
even as an investment and speculation.
lie does so because he himself likes it.
With him, dress is like virtue--lt ia its
own reward. 1t woulk almost kill him
to think that the money which Is now
so agreeably spent in draping his own
limbs should be expended in adorning
some beautiful woman; That his boots
should De. sacrificed to bonnets, and his
scarf to frill petticoats; or that his man.
ly wrists should be denied new set Of
seeve-.inks, in order that a pair of
pretty pendants may sparkle in a deli
cate female ear.


1t is not surprising if, under these
circumstances, the man who does not
want to marry is not particularly So
licitous about being agreeable. lie is
far too busy striving TO make people
and things agreeable to himself Apart
from this peculiar sort of energy, he is
rather an indolent crerture. He is al
most too lazy to talk ''tor what's the
good you know?"