[Sidenote:  A State Secret]

The intentional absence scheme is too transparent to succeed, and temporary devotion to another girl is definite damage to his cause, for it indicates fickleness and instability.  There is only one way by which a man may discover his true position without asking any questions, and that is—­a state secret.  Now and then a man strikes it by accident, but nobody ever tells—­even brothers or platonic friends.

Some men select a wife as they would a horse, paying due attention to appearance, gait, disposition, age, teeth, and grooming.  High spirits and a little wildness are rather desirable than otherwise, if both are young.  Men who have had many horses or many wives and have grown old with both, have a slight inclination toward sedate ways and domestic traits.

[Sidenote:  The “Woman’s Column”]

Modern society makes it fully as easy to choose the one as the other.  In communities where the chaperone idea is at its prosperous zenith, a man may see a girl under nearly all circumstances.  The men who conduct the “Woman’s Column” in many pleasing journals are still writing of the effect it has on a man to catch a girl in curl papers of a morning, though curl papers have been obsolete for many and many a moon.

Cycling, golf, and kindred out-door amusements have been the death of careless morning attire.  Uncorseted woman is unhappy woman, and the girl of whom the versatile journalist writes died long ago.  Perhaps it is because a newspaper man can write anything at four minutes’ notice and do it well, that the press fairly reeks with “advice to women.”

The question, propounded in a newspaper column, “What Kind of a Girl Does a Man Like Best,” will bring out a voluminous symposium which adds materially to the gaiety of the nation.  It would be only fair to have this sort of thing temporarily reversed—­to tell men how to make home happy for their wives and how to keep a woman’s love, after it has once been given.

Some clever newspaper woman might win everlasting laurels for herself if she would contribute to this much neglected branch of human knowledge.  How is a man to know that a shirt-front which looks like a railroad map diverts one’s mind from his instructive remarks?  How is he to know that a cane is a nuisance when he fares forth with a girl?  It is true that sisters might possibly attempt this, but the modern sister is heavily overworked at present and it is not kind to suggest an addition to her cares.

[Sidenote:  Neglected By His Kind]

There is no advice of any sort given to men except on the single subject of choosing a wife.  This is to be found only in the books in the Sabbath-School library, or in occasional columns of the limited number of saffron dailies which illuminate the age.  Surely, man has been neglected by his kind!

[Sidenote:  Indecision]

The general masculine attitude indicates widespread belief in the promise, “Ask, and ye shall receive.”  A man will tell his best friend that he doesn’t know whether to marry a certain girl.  If she hears of his indecision there is trouble ahead, if he finally decides in the affirmative, and it is quite possible that he may not marry her.