Idle Ideas in 1905Jerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)
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Idle Ideas in 1905
Jerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)
English essays; English wit and humor
It is all so simple, and, when you come to think of it, really not
expensive. Age, apparently, makes no difference. A woman is as old as
she looks. In future, I take it, there will be no ladies over
five-and-twenty. Wrinkles! Why any lady should still persist in wearing
them is a mystery to me. With a moderate amount of care any middle-class
woman could save enough out of the housekeeping money in a month to get
rid of every one of them. Grey hair! Well, of course, if you cling to
grey hair, there is no more to be said. But to ladies who would just as
soon have rich wavy-brown or a delicate shade of gold, I would point out
that there are one hundred and forty-seven inexpensive lotions on the
market, any one of which, rubbed gently into the head with a tooth-brush
(not too hard) just before going to bed will, to use a colloquialism, do
the trick.
Are you too stout, or are you too thin? All you have to do is to say
which, and enclose stamps. But do not make a mistake and send for the
wrong recipe. If you are already too thin, you might in consequence
suddenly disappear before you found out your mistake. One very stout
lady I knew worked at herself for eighteen months and got stouter every
day. This discouraged her so much that she gave up trying. No doubt she
had made a muddle and had sent for the wrong bottle, but she would not
listen to further advice. She said she was tired of the whole thing.
In future years there will be no need for a young man to look about him
for a wife; he will take the nearest girl, tell her his ideal, and, if
she really care for him, she will go to the shop and have herself fixed
up to his pattern. In certain Eastern countries, I believe, something of
this kind is done. A gentleman desirous of adding to his family sends
round the neighbourhood the weight and size of his favourite wife,
hinting that if another can be found of the same proportions, there is
room for her. Fathers walk round among their daughters, choose the most
likely specimen, and have her fattened up. That is their brutal Eastern
way. Out West we shall be more delicate. Match-making mothers will
probably revive the old confession book. Eligible bachelors will be
invited to fill in a page: “Your favourite height in women,” “Your
favourite measurement round the waist,” “Do you like brunettes or
blondes?”
The choice will be left to the girls.
“I do think Henry William just too sweet for words,” the maiden of the
future will murmur to herself. Gently, coyly, she will draw from him his
ideal of what a woman should be. In from six months to a year she will
burst upon him, the perfect She; height, size, weight, right to a T. He
will clasp her in his arms.
“At last,” he will cry, “I have found her, the woman of my dreams.”
And if he does not change his mind, and the bottles do not begin to lose
their effect, there will be every chance that they will be happy ever
afterwards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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