“WHAT I KNOW ABOUT MEN”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 318, 31 March 1928, Page 24

“WHAT I KNOW ABOUT MEN”

MEXICAN BEAUTY THINKS THAT MEN ARE ® VAINER THAN S\ WOMEN Uk mWi

DEL RIO sat in the high-backed fireside seat in the long livingit J r° om of her Hollywood holne and spoke her mind about men. “Those things that men say of women, have you not seen how true they are of themselves? Men say of us: ’Woman, she is vain —she is curious—she is always gossiping and chattering—she flirts and she cannot keep a secret.’ Do they not say this? “Latin men. especially, take so long .o dress. One must prink at the mirror; there is his cosmetic, his flower for his buttonhole, his perfume, his spats, the last little touches. Perhaps it is because the male person secretly thinks himself beautiful: male animals are finer than female, male birds are more showy; roosters crow, and so do men. “Are women curious? But observe their husbands! Does a package come into the house, he must know at once what is inside. He wonders what happened next door. What did all the commotion mean? “Gossip is pictured as a woman, but it should be a man. When women gossip, what they say is seldom harmful—their remarks are subtle and light —but a man ! “Men will believe the worst immediately. Women will say: ‘Poof! Probably the car broke down and there was no gas station near and no telephone, that is why she is so late getting home.’ But men! ‘She stays out all night—ah, she’s a wild one!’

“It is strange about romance. Men seem to believe that even if they get to be old and ugly and bald and very fat, they are still the catch of the town and every woman languishes for them and is honoured at their notice. “I have seen here in this Hollywood, on the set next where I was working, a young man steal a handkerchief

from a girl and kiss it and pretend to care for it. And on a day not long after, I have seen him give that same handkerchief to another girl. It is just business with him. “People say, ‘But they never grow up, these men. They remain always little boys.’ That is so. Little boys have not much care for anything but their own pleasure and their own way.” “I do not mean men have no virtues. There is courage—that so

beautiful virtue. It belongs to those of strong character. Down in Mexico City, where is my home, there is a toreador who is the idol of the people. He shows his bravery every Sunday when he, oh, so gayly, risks his life a dozen times or more in our sport. That is not like your idol, Jack Dempsey, who stands to get his eyes black or himself bruised. Our idol really risks his life, time and again, every Sunday, and he is never afraid. “But courage belongs to women as well. In my country of Mexico in revolutions I have seen how this is so. I have seen women left with little children, whose homes are in the path of battle. They stay in the hacienda gping about their daily tasks while bullets fly all about them. They will not show fear. They sing little songs and laugh, and pretend to be happy. And at last, when they see they can no longer hold out and the enemy is upon them, they pack their little babies on to - horse and ride away into the mountains with small bundles of food and a blanket, and they are still singing and showing no fear. “In the big things of life, you see, both men and women are brave —the best of them. But in the little things who is brave?

“I have observed always that in pain or sickness it is only women who suffer silently. I have seen women faint because their pain was so terrible it could not be borne, but until that moment no one knew the woman was ill. “But a man ! He has a cold—he has a little stomach ache—he has split his finger-nail. He will surely die before we can get a doctor! Who is brave?”

Dolores is a high-born Mexican. Much of her education has been received in French convents and by tutors as she travelled with her father and mother abroad. She had opportunity of meeting people of various nationalities then, and since coming to Hollywood the melting pot of many nations (writes an English visitor to the famous film colony), she has met and studied them again. Dolores is the happy wife of Jaime del Rio, of her own Mexico, but Jaime is a glorious exception to every rule! When Dolores was just 15, Mexico City society organised a great charity fiesta. As the most graceful and gifted amateur dancer in town, the young girl was asked to assist, and, after demur, her parents anxiously consented. Dolores went to the first rehearsal, suitably chaperoned. There on the stage was a newcomer, one Senor Jaime del Rio, in charge of the affair.

“But yes, I believe in love at first sight!” avers Dolores. She was married at 16. * “Women in America are not good wives, because they have so much personality. They say to their men: ‘Here I am—what will you give me?’ They never make sacrifices. They have well-kept homes, perhaps, but they do not stay in them if it is more amusing outside. Tf their men do not please them, they divorce them. They think of themselves and not of how to make a home and keep it happy.”