“TREAT HIM RIGHT!”

Shannon News, 25 May 1926, Page 4

“TREAT HIM RIGHT!”

A GOOD MAN IS MAUD TO FIND. Noel Coward the brilliant young actor and dramatist, whose ‘‘Fallen Angels” created a sensation and whose comedy “Hay Fever”.' has had a tremendous vogue in London, recently wrote for the Womens Pictorial ari open letter to /the ladies. Mr. Coward is nothing if not provocative and those to whom the letter is, addressed will be amused or an. noyed, according to their individual temperaments. .... It isn’t your fault. Eve darling!— you don’t quite understand what modern man expects of modern woman. He usually succeeds in making himself as clear as mud when talking to you, especially when throwing put gentle hints to you. You learned in tlie Great War that ( we needed your help, in 1 many ways and you have gone on trying to beat us alt our own games even since. Some of you have cropped your hair and are Wearing monocles. Some of you are only concerned with your s,ports or your intellectual progress, while a certain section of feminity remains purely feminine. Unfortunately the roguish, coy or ingenue pose is adopted by the plain and dowdy woman who stands about as much chance of social success as a celluloid doll in HqII; and the hail-fellow-well . met - no - nonsense-about-me altitude is assumed by the pretty woman who could be perfectly adorable if she wanted to. It i's all a trifle disconcerting. The trouble is that you’ve got us wrong at heart; you don’t know ithat bocn the highbrow and the sporting pal type of woman leave a man’s deeper needs untouched. What he wants a woman to be is his complement, noft his echo.

Personally I rather like clever women, so long as they take pains to conceal, rather than to reveal ,their brains in the presence of men. It is always a fatal mistake for a woman to argue with a man. If she is wrong if iritates him; if she is right, it in. liuriates him! It is equally foolish to crow about 'sex equality and your love of independenge if yea still expect us to rush to open dors for you, to . siumi, to right your cigarettes, carry your parcels, and relinquish our seass to you in buses and trains. Only the other day. I witnessed the horible sight, of a flat-footed superwoman flopping into a seat which a frail young man had given up to her. She didn’t even thank him—she took his seat in much the same spirit as she wouuld have taken his watch if he had offered it to her. She considered it her due as a woman when iu reality she was but a feeble caricature of a man. You see ,what I mean, Eve dear, don’t you? If you really mean to usurp all our time-honoured prerogative's, by all means go the whole hog abou)t it and don’t complain when Ave try to treat you as equals. If you will persist in jostling us in the fields of sport and of commerce, you .must not object to getting a hearty slap on the back and being called “old chap!” A woman avlio can bea|t a man at golf till he looks like a whipped puppy must not expect him to go down on his hands and. knees every time she loses a ball in a muddy stream, and she. must not expect him to help her over bunkers... Women of that type roo a man of all his chivalrous impulses—they sjtifle romance at its \ r ery birth. When you come to throw the Avhole ot human endeavours into the melting pot you will flnd#that love of poAver is all it boils down to. Men have to iighlt for poAver, but Avomen can Avin it by subtler methods. You should learn to' presence your womanly charm at all costs, since it is the most A’ital Aveapon in the Avhole battle of life. I Avould like to add a few words of protect concerning the manners of Avomen Avhere the men they love are concerned. I have Avatclxed these little sideshOAvs of life’s Pageant very carefully, . and it seems to me that once a woman has got a man badly In love Avith her, she delights in humiliating him in the presence of other people, although (and I have this on good authority!)' she is perfectly sweet to him when they are alone. There can only be one reason / for this—obviously, ,sh e wants to say to the World: “Not only has this rare and precious creature chosen me,out of all the billion-million women he has met, but I can treat him like a worm or a newly-born baby and — viola—-he still adores me!” But, does he?

If only you knew how (this cheap bravado lowers you and the' whole of your sex in his eyes! A man knows no horror more ghastly than to be a fool, of and ho never forgives it. It I were a woman, my slogan would be: Save his vanity; It is the only way women can lure big men to the little foot and keep them )there. We want gentle wisdom, not .over., whelming brilliance— understanding, tact ,aud a sense of humour. When you come to consider how much a man can mean to you—your home and car, your bath salts and caviare, yon may as well learn to "treat his right!”