The Man of Your Dreams... The Girl of Your Dreams

Three young ladies and two young men, to whom the correspondent of "The Woman's Voice" puts this question: "Who is the man of your dreams — and who is the girl of your dreams?"

Miss Jacqueline Karam: A brunette, light of spirit, twenty-four years old, with a French upbringing acquired from her mother, and a Latin culture. She took her law degree from the French Law Institute and is now teaching at the French Evangelical Girls' College. I put the question to her and marveled at her hesitation to answer and to speak her mind frankly to me before consulting her mother on the matter! It appears that some of the French-educated are still conservative in what concerns social freedom — even the freedom of expressing an opinion about it! The following conversation passed between us:

She — And how am I to describe the man of my dreams to you when I have not yet met him?

I — Tell me at least how you hope he will be.

She — I do not know exactly. But when I fall in love, and make certain that it is true love, the man I have chosen will — without doubt — possess the qualities I love. And I promise to let you know what they are as soon as it happens!

A charming answer! So she relies on love first; love is the absolute ruler who will decide the qualities of the man who is to be her partner — God grant her success.

Miss Jessie Sarkis: I moved on to the quarter of Ras Beirut in search of a girl of Anglo-Saxon upbringing, to see the extent of these two cultures' influence upon the emotional and social thinking of our girls. I had the good fortune of interviewing Miss Jessie Sarkis, a graduate of the American College for Girls and an employee at the American Embassy. She is a girl willowy of figure, wheat-colored of complexion, who has not passed her twenty-fifth year. She said, while the signs of thought showed in her attractive eyes:

She — We must understand each other and love each other before all else. After that, every difficulty before us is smoothed away.

I — And do you want him rich, as most of our girls in this country do?

She — No, never! That is not an absolute condition... I would not even mind resuming my work after marriage, to consolidate the building of a happy married life. The young man I love is the one whose personality I feel take hold over my own, so that at his side I feel his strength and his manliness.

I — And do you make it a condition that he be handsome?

She — On the contrary! In general I do not favor the handsome young man; rather I love him to have a quick wit and to be cultivated and wide in knowledge; and to be a "sport," aged between thirty and thirty-five — and I prefer him dark! I thanked her and went away carrying glad tidings for dark young men!!

Jamila Yousef: She is a young woman from the village of Ammar al-Hosn in the Alawite mountains — still in the state of nature in her looks and her thinking. Hardly had I put the question to her — and I was not sure what effect it would have upon her — when a storm of laughter seized her; she laughed and guffawed until it became difficult to obtain full particulars. But the thing I made certain of at first glance — and her artless village nature chose to show it bare — was her pressing eagerness in this matter, which is natural in every girl; only the girl of the civilized cities puts on airs and hides it. She said:

She — I want him "kwayyis" (nice), and well-off, and sweet, and sensible, and decent!

I — Slowly, slowly, take your time! "Don't gallop off at a run"... And how old do you want him?

She — No harm if he is an "old one," for then he will know my worth the better — (and hardly had she given this declaration than she repented and changed her mind, saying: No, no! A young man is much better! Let him be my own age! And no harm if he is twenty-five — one year older than I.)

I — And what trade would you like for him?

She — I wish he might be a goldsmith, to deck my arms and my neck and my fingers with jewels without counting.

I — Very well! I shall order you a bridegroom in whom all these conditions are fulfilled. Anything more?

She — Yes! I beg you — the most important condition is that he never beat me, for I cannot endure beating. We have a neighbor in the village whose husband beats her, and how I pity her!

I — Never fear! I shall impress upon him that he is not to raise his hand to you — unless, of course, it be by way of jest or dalliance.

Bahij Tabbara: I came in upon him in his study and cut across the current of his thinking and his lessons. Mr. Bahij Tabbara is a law student at the French Institute, of Latin culture, who has not passed his second decade. He was taken aback when I proposed a discussion of this subject, and said:

He — I have not yet dreamed of the girl I shall love.

I — I know you have not yet thought of her, nor is it expected of you to have thought of her while you are still on the school bench. But let us suppose that you will think tonight and give me your answer tomorrow... Here I found difficulty in bringing him to be convinced of the innocence of my purpose, and to give me one of his photographs to be published with his interview... At last I succeeded in getting from him an appointment for the following day, to fetch his opinion of the girl who ought to become his life's partner in the future. And this is his opinion:

He loves her possessed of beauty and knowledge, a model of femininity in delicacy and elegance, according to the poetic sense of the verse:

"The passing breaths of the breeze wound his cheeks, and the touch of silk makes his fingertips bleed."

He wants her quick of wit, the smile never dying on her lips, bearing the meaning of resolve in the hour of weakness, and carrying hope as wide as the horizon.

And Mr. Bahij insists that his girl should not believe in woman's political rights, and should forget all demand for them. He says at the close of his talk:

To such a one I stretch out my hand — but I fear I may be like the child who stretches out his hand to seize the moon!!

Georges Boutros Rbeiz: Mr. Georges Rbeiz frowned when I put this question to him, so I seized the opportunity and looked at him at length, for I had not known him before. He is a young man of Anglo-Saxon culture, tall of stature, full of body, whose age does not exceed twenty-five.

— I want her tall and slender, dark, with a round face and wide, attractive eyes, and her age between twenty and twenty-two. It matters to me that she have a share of beauty, but not that she be one of its queens, as some men dream; I prefer her of middling beauty, lest she occupy my mind — and other men's minds!

— I want her a "sport": she rides horses, plays tennis, dances, and swims; and she must have a taste for music, above all classical music.

I — And do you want her highly educated?

He — No. I prefer a middling education; I believe it will then be easier for me to reach an understanding with her.

I — And do you prefer her rich?

He — Wealth is not an essential condition — though there is no harm if it happens to come as a secondary one! But I want her well-mannered, avoiding the habits of some of today's ladies — gaming and drinking. And after deep thought he looked toward his mother with respect and added:

He — And before everything, I want her to honor my mother and regard her as her own mother!

I thanked him and went away, marveling how this young man had passed over the condition of "love" between himself and his life's companion — or was he ashamed to declare it in his mother's presence?!