Life — February 15, 1894 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

4 VERY man is occa- sionally astounded by the inexplicable choice of a husband by some girl of his acquaintance, and what adds to the mystery is that she who selects the most undesirable male in the market is often the girl who could have her pick among the very best. This desire among sensitive and refined women to marry the men their broth- ers are ashamed of has never been explained. The more dissolute and unprincipled the man, the more complete seems to be his fascination over the carefully brought up girl, provided her natural instincts are sufficiently delicate and high strung. Where an honest, serious man, with a clean record and high ambition stands no chance, it is easy sailing for the half reformed sot who never pays a debt that he can dodge, and whom no man would have in his house if he could help it. A DISCERNING BOY. “LT SHALL DISCONTINUE SOME OF MY PAPERS AND MAGAZINES UNTIL THESE HARD TIMES ARE OVER.” “BUT, PAPA, AT PRAYERS THIS MORNING YOU ASKED THE LORD TO CONTINUE UNTO US THOSE GOOD THINGS OF LIfe WHICH WE HAD ALWAYS ENJOYED.” A bad record with others of his sex seems to be especially irresistible, and if she can once assure herself that his treatment of previous women has been so: absolutely without honor and so offensively brutal as to alienate his own friends, she throws herself into his arms with eager haste. It seems to be chietly the sensitive and over-refined women: who prefer this type of man. The enthusiasm shown by the gentler sex for peculiarly inhuman murderers, evidently owes its origin to the same set of emotions. The man who kills another in self-defence inspires in them no especial interest. But the brute who, in cold blood, kicks to death the mother of his children because he is tired of her, excites in the female heart an admiration, a yearning, an over-whelming pity that no male can understand, For this type of murderer ten thousand mothers, daughters and sisters, in frenzied haste, sign petitions for a pardon, and worry the governor with tearful prayers, It may be hard for decent men that the brutes and blackguards should secure so many of the plums, but they certainly can understand how commonplace they them- selves must appear. And they will make a grievous error if they try to improve their chances by being bad. For these wily girls are not won by the good man who does bad deeds. It is the bad men who never can be good to whom their hearts are given. JAM,