The suffragettes are too intent just now on getting "Votes for Women"
to listen to proposals of marriage, but when they succeed in obtaining
universal suffrage I should think they would have little difficulty in
obtaining brave husbands, for the suffragettes have courage. These
women, however, are serious, and I do not think that men in the West,
judging from what I have seen, like very serious wives. So perhaps
after all the ballet-girl and actresses will have more chances in the
marriage (I had almost written money) market than the suffragettes.

I may be mistaken in my theories. I have never had the opportunity of
discussing the matter with a millionaire or an actress, nor have I
talked about the stage with any of the ladies who make it their home,
but unless it is their superb independence and their ability to throw
off care and to act their part which attract men who are looking for
wives, I cannot account for so many actresses marrying so well.

What, however, we may ask, is the object of the theater? Is it not
amusement? But when a serious play ending tragically is put on the
boards is that amusement? The feelings of the audience after
witnessing such a play must be far from pleasant, and sometimes even
moody; yet tragedies are popular, and many will pay a high price to see
a well-known actor commit most objectionable imitation-crimes on the
stage. A few weeks before this chapter was written a number of men of
different nationalities were punished for being present at a cockfight
in Shanghai. Mexican and Spanish bullfights would not be permitted in
the United States, and yet it is a question whether the birds or the
animals who take part in these fights really suffer very much. They
are in a state of ferocious exaltation, and are more concerned about
killing their opponents than about their own hurts. Soldiers have been
seriously wounded without knowing anything about it until the
excitement of the battle had died away. Why then forbid cockfighting
or bull-baiting? They would be popular amusements if allowed. It is
certain that animals that are driven long distances along dirty roads,
cattle, sheep, and fowl that are cooped up for many weary hours in
railway trucks, simply that they may reach a distant market and be
slaughtered to gratify perverted human appetites, really suffer more
than the cock or bull who may be killed or wounded in a fight with
others of his own kind. What about the sufferi