WHY WOMEN LOVE SCAMPS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 136, 30 May 1908, Page 3

WHY WOMEN LOVE SCAMPS

By Agnes fta*. r (.Mrs. Waller 1W lllUl'U.) Let me claim ihc time-honoured privilege uf (lie Scolds), nice, ,uul answer I one (question liy asking another—Do women like scamps'( It seenis to luo that before we cim answer this with any 'certainty we must understand just what is meant by scamps. -there are scamps ami .-camps. Sume are mean, dishonourable men, and 1 don't think anvone will pretend thai women like that type. Of I course, good women sometimes lov" thoroughly bud men; but these are I think, exceptional cases, to which prominence is attached because of their rarity. Anyway, nothing will make mo beieve I luit badness ill a man is a quality ittractive to women, as a whole. I!ut lien tlieie is the other kind of iscamp, lie devil-may-care, good-hearted, wroii"'-ioadcd,nobody's-onemy-but-liis-own type f man, and undoubtedly many women ' dmire him.

iliey like him because he is often biave, geneious, romantic. We women are so bound by ciniventiou that it . not surprising that we should have, a: all event'-, a sneaking loudness for those wlio laugh at convention. "Kobiu Hood ' was a ' scamp,'' and lie remains to this day one of the mo»t i; | a r ligures ill Knglish history, j Hut did ".Maid -Marian" hue him because hv was a «amp? [ doubt it. bather. I think she lined him in spile I "I Ins scampi.-lincsv A scamp, as 1 ,;av. may W>, ..flen is. brave, generous, aiiil lovable. lint are these the essential qualities of his scainp.-hip? i tJiink not. The chief characteristics of a " nice ' •.camp are, to my way of thinkingiiiul 1 Juive met a good maiiv ne'er-do-wells iu the course of my' life-are utter selfishness, thuughlcssnoss, and general unreliability. And these, sureiv, are not qualities that appeal to any women.

Therefore, when a woman likes a camp, I say she docs so. not so much ecause nlie Jinds any attraction in his

i ianlts, lull because he happens to posL s C ss some the virtues that women : most admire in men. Wry young girl* may find a certain : glamour about the "black sheep," but it is not an illusion likely to last long, and least of all is'it likely to survive* marriage. A woman who marries a scamp will probably soon repent of lier bargain. Certainly, something depend* on the age of the scamp. The ing" at twenty-one may.be a pillar of society and respectability at forty. Kut for the scamp of thirty-five there is 110 hope. If a man of liiat age is incapable of lixed decision licyomf that he won't go home till morning, then lie will continue to play peep-lio with the morning milkman to the end of his days, which are not likely to lie long, j 'his i ri I'iither travelling away from j my original question, to which I must j return, "lie Women Ixve Scamps?"' tin reflect ion. I am inclined to say ihev

l't—at nil events, not as proliitlilt* "1- possible husbands. Despite " emancipation ' it ml all (lie. in my opinion, father doubtful blessings that modern movements have given us women, I think that, wlien it conies to marriage, women still want .someone to lean upon, someone to whom they can give themselves. their lives, their future, the children and their future, with the certainty. so fur as anything is certain in this world, that their trust will never lie betrayed. I admit that a sinner luay be often more agreeable than a „aiut. Indeed, I daresay that there is nothing that women detest more than anything savouring of jiriggishness in a man. lint need a good man be a prig? I don i think so. Oil lite other hand, is it nccc-srav Unit a man who i,, handsome. brave, generou-, warni-hearlcd, adventurous, kind to women and children must lie a scamp'; 1 am very far from thinking so badly of lnaiiiiind as that. These are the qualities of good men, good without being "unco gnid,'' and. when tliey are found in one whom the world calls -camp. I should say thai the world is mistaken ill its estimate. I fear this rather contradicts what 1 have .-aid about a scamp often being brave and generous. I should have said whit the world calls a scamp.

A scamp, rigidly defined, cannot be an honourable man, and, therefore, hj" cannot lie attractive to the majority ot women. And so the sage conclusion at which I at last arrive is this: 'Women don't really like scamps, but they do admire br.ivc. manly, generous. impulsive. hardy, daring men, who think that life should tie lived, anil not -slept through, and delight in facing danger, are scornful of what ihe world thinks aboiil them, so long as their bands are clean. Such men. however, ill lily opinion are nut scamps. They are the salt of the earth.