Social Moods.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 404, 4 February 1904, Page 7

Social Moods.

THE GUIDE TO HIPPY MATBIMONY * gir^ B » * w *«- you to be Jl£K csrefni to chose wisely, and to J M&k choose with your heart and not with you? head. Do not be led away by physical attractions, or by brnte force, bat seek oar affinity—a kindred soul, The average man marries a woman, and then entirely ceases to care to know either her thoughts or her aspirations. Instead of probing the depths of her soul, and studying her mind and heart, he expects her t> order his dinner and mend his clothes, and be* come, in fact, his unpaid housekeeper. •Only the other day,' she continued bitterly,«l was sitting in my room buried is thought and full of mysterious aspirations, when the man to whom I am linked for life '—here she shuddered very gently —'came in and asked me to mend, actually mend, some garment for him. I forget exactly what the article was, but to the best of my belief it was some coarse kind of sock he wore when fishing. I told him I had servants to do do that sort of thing, and he must go to them for such like work, and come to rae only for sympathy and soul expansion. And then' —she paused impressively—' he spoke quite ludely to me, and left the room. Girls,' she added plaintively, 'let me implore you to marry a man who will not want you to occupy pourself with material garments, and who will not seek to drag you down to his commonplace level, but one who will come to you to help him .expand his soul. Girls, marry a materialised spirit, not a man of earth like my husband.'

Then up rose a perfectly satisfied little wife, and what she felt she sensibly expressed in the f olio wis g impressive terms : 'Girls, as I am the only other married woman belonging to this society, I feel I must answer Mrs -'a speech at once. As she has given yon her private experience, I shall, if only in justification to husbands, give yon mine. I consider ohe entirely misjudge a wife's position. Mib ———■ says you should choose a man who will help your soul to expand, but that is nonsense, rank nonsense. Choose a good, healthy-minded, every day sort of man, like, like'— paused eloquently—'like my Dick. Don't waste your lives, girls, looking for. affinities aEdsonl expansion men; dismiss them. Dick isn't at all good looking, bnt he is a dear; and although he is by no msans a hero, I often let him think he is. Ha never asks me to mend his socks, bacanse we have plenty of servants, bat if he wanted me to do bo I should be only too proud and pleased. forward and Bpeaking very earnestly,' don't make any mistake; remember that married life is a real state, not a dream, and that happin-ss means not an imaginary Paradise, bnt a real home. Remember that the man you choose will not be angel, but if you choose wisely there will be a great deal of the angel in him, Appeal to that side of him; study his likes and dislikes, and above all, don't put an eveiy-day man on a pedestal and then knock him cff again. It is easy enough for any of you to choose a husband; the difficult]! you will have will be in keeping him. It.can only be done by forgetting your own happiness and seek-, ing his. I onco asked a woman what her greatest ambition was, and she told me her chief ambition was to make one man on the face of the earth as absolutely happy as a human being can be 'Whatever you do, don't ohooße the man who notices dress too much, becauae he is sure to be effeminate, anddont't dress to please men. Renumber that the nicest man are never attracted by cosily clotnes, bnt that sixteen yards of book muslin and a yard or so of blue ribbon will do mora for you than all the silks and satins in the world Mrs Neieh generously introduces some sound advice to interest thcsa men who are hovering upon the brink of matrimony. She places in the mouth of an amorous professor some well digested maxims:— • Choose an intelligent, but not an ovarintelligeat, woman, for the over-educated woman is meant for admiration rather than*love. Not the bumptious and load voiced woman, for she is a horror; nor the coquette, for she is a terror. . • Do not marry the man who writes ideal letters. The man who writes ideal letters is a most unreliable person, for he is invariably led away by his imagination, and the probabilities are that sooner or later he will be led away from you, 'To sum up, choose a man without regard either to bis profession or his a man whom you can love, honor and obey, and amm who will be not only your lover and yonr friend, but you master.'