From a Girls Point of View | Page 5

as art has made them. Feeling
themselves admired by the class of men they most wish to attract, they
have no incentive to improve.
And yet, I suppose, untrained men under thirty-five have their use in
the world, aside from the part they play in the discipline of
discriminating young women. Girls even marry these men. Lovely girls,
too. Clever girls--girls who know a hundred times more than their
husbands, and are ten times finer grained. I wonder if they love them, if
they are satisfied with them, if ennui of the soul is not a bitter thing to
bear?
I am always wondering why girls marry them. Every week brings me
knowledge that some lovely girl I know has found another man under
thirty-five, or that some of my men friends of that persuasion have
married out-of-town girls. It does not surprise me so much when girls
from another city marry them. Most men do not like to write letters,
and visits are only for over Sunday.
Men are always saying, "Well, why don't you tell us the kind of men
you would like us to be?" And their attitude when they say it is with
their thumbs in the arm-holes of their waistcoats. When a man is
thoroughly satisfied with himself he always expands his chest.
There is something very funny to me in that question, because I
suppose they really think they would change to please us. I do not mind
talking about it, because I am sociable, and I like conversation; but I
never for a moment dream that they will do it. They intend to, and their
inclination is always to please us, even to spoil us; but they either
cannot or will not change; and they think if they can refuse pleasantly,

and mentally chuck us under the chin and make us smile, that they have
succeeded in getting our minds off a troublesome subject.
Of course, it is partly our fault that we do not insist, but no one wants to
be disagreeable. Therefore we choose personal discomfort for ourselves
rather than to demand radical changes in the men, which might bring
on contention.
But women wish to please men, aside from their power of winning
them. Whereas if men can get the girls without any change on their part,
they consider themselves a howling success. But they might be a little
bit surprised if they could read the minds of these very wives whom
they have won, whose life-work often may be only to improve them so
that they will make some other woman the kind of a husband they
should have made at first, and then to lie down and die.
So let men beware how they criticise us unfavorably, no matter what
their ages, for the truth of the matter is that, be we frivolous or serious,
vain or sensible, clever or stupid, rich or poor, we are what the
American man has made us. We are supremely grateful to him for the
most part, for he has literally made us what we are by the sweat of his
brow. But let him beware how he cavils at his own handiwork. 'Tis not
for the untrained man under thirty-five to complain of us, when now he
knows why we are so.
"I'm not denyin' that women are foolish," says George Eliot. "God
Almighty made 'em to match the men."

THE PHILOSOPHY OF CLOTHES
"Last night in blue my little love was dressed; And as she walked the
room in maiden grace, I looked into her fair and smiling face. And said
that blue became my darling best. But when, this morn, a spotless
virgin vest And robe of white did the blue one displace, She seemed a
pearl-tinged-cloud, and I was--space! She filled my soul as
cloud-shapes fill the West.
"And so it is that, changing day by day-- Changing her robe, but not her
loveliness-- Whether the gown be blue or white or gray, I deem that
one her most becoming dress. The truth is this: In any robe or way, I
love her just the same, and cannot love her less!"
If you are interested in the spectacle of letting people paint their own
portraits, at the same time entirely unconscious that they are doing so,

ask a number of women and girls whether they dress to please men or
other women, and then listen carefully to what they say and watch their
faces well while they are saying it. Most of the girls will say they dress
to please women; and the reason I ask you to watch their faces is that
you may see the subtle changes going on by which they persuade
themselves that they are telling the truth. Women--nice, sweet women,
the kind we know--seldom