For Better Or For Worse Cro-Magnon sported real leather between his ears. After a wife, he went out in the dark of the moon and plucked her blindly from some farmer's hen roost. Back in the light, it was too late to "crawfish." These days things are not so tough as enticing prospects are all about. Yet young people on the prowl often exhibit a double case of chills and jitters. Scribulus correspondent Neil Hess was sent out with note pad and pencil and 25 cents for fountain expenses to ferret out a few rough rules now in use for making the selection but good. He returned with something printable after being sent back only three times. By NEIL HESS Life must have been simple for Adam and Eve when they resided in the Garden of Eden away back there at the beginning of time. For them there was none of the fuss and bother of this modern world. They just took each other for granted, and the old adage "for better or for worse" had little meaning. They knew that there was no better and no worse. Times have changed. Through a process of multiplication, division and multiplication again, the Adams and Eves of today can now shop around a little before they select their "ideal." And that is just what the students in the colleges and universities of this country are doing. To them it is just as important to make friends among the opposite sex as it is to learn the life habits of the Ornithorynous or the dietary deficiencies of the Anthropophaginian. According to a questionnaire put out by the office of the president, ninety-five percent of the unmarried students enrolled at Weber college would like to meet more individuals of the opposite sex. They have come to the right place. A college campus has always been the ideal shopping center for finding a life partner. Where else do you find such a large and varied assortment of single men and women of marriageable age? Hundreds of colleges throughout the country capitalize on the "lonely hearts" factor every year. They flavor their circulars with the "come to college and find romance" sort of thing and use it as bait to increase enrollment. As a result many young coeds leave high school with the idea that they will be whisked off their feet the moment they enter those college doors. It is not quite that simple. The maneuver takes something more. What does it take? one might ask. The fellows can answer this, since they are the sole judges in such matters. The one quality fellows like most in a girl is naturalness. College men prefer girls who are sincerely friendly, not those who turn their charm on and off like a water faucet. To be natural means to use a little common sense in place of some of the rigid formal social etiquette society has invented. For example, a boy brings a girl home after a date and when he pulls up to the curb in front of her home there happens to be a large mud puddle just outside the car door on his side. The natural thing for the girl to do would be to suggest that she open the door herself and they both get out that way. The unnatural thing would be for her to sit sedately and make her escort wade through the mud simply because society decrees that he must open the car door for her. In giving his definition of naturalness, James B. Harvey of the Weber college sociology department said, "Naturalness means simply to be yourself. If you feel a certain way about something, do not be afraid to give your viewpoint. Do not stick to strict formalities when common sense will fill the bill." While most men agree that competition stimulates interest, they do not care much whether or not a girl is popular. The general attitude of the fellows was pretty well expressed by Freshman Dee Jacobs when he said, "It's silly to think that the most popular girls have the best personalities. I think girls who are not overly popular are more fun on dates because they can think about something besides themselves once in a while." A lively sense of humor is a must for any girl who aspires to be among those most preferred. Humor is appreciated by the fellows as long as it is not overdone, because it makes them feel more at ease. Along with a sense of humor comes vitality, or pep. Girls with this quality can adjust more readily to new situations. They do not travel in the same cycle all of the time. They enjoy meeting new people and they participate in church and school activities. Such girls usually have happy dispositions and are therefore easier to get along with. This trait will be useful later since life in double harness is known to bring inevitable "rugged" moments. College men as a group think that high moral standards are important in a girl. They frown upon the girl who smokes or drinks. The dictionary defines morals as the doctrines or practices of the duties of life; manners, conduct, behavior. If a girl is the owner of elevated ideals and lives up to them, she is bound to make a more favorable, more lasting impression upon everyone she meets. page ten To win approval of the opposite sex, the coed must be neat in appearance. Wilford Schmidt, sophomore man about town at Weber, in speaking of appearance said, "I believe that you can detect from a girl's appearance just what kind of a wife she will be. If a girl has good personal habits and a neat look in clothing and hair-do she will probably be neat in other things, such as keeping a home." A majority of college men feel that the "new look" is a definite improvement. As Marx Tyler, husky Weber college gridster, put it, "The new look makes women more feminine, and besides it switches attention from the legs to the face." Most college men have what is known as a sweetheart concept, the interviews showed. That is, they have a definite type of girl in mind as the type they plan to marry. This sweetheart concept might be influenced by the movies, radio, books, magazines or by experiences associated with the opposite sex. For example, a boy might have "crushes" on many different girls during his high school years. He also goes to the movies, listens to the radio, and reads romantic literature of various kinds. All of these factors, and many others, work in a subtle way to give this boy a sweetheart concept. When the girl comes along who can make him think she is the combination of all his other sweethearts, half a dozen screen and radio stars, plus the heroines he has read about, she has just as good as hooked him. Nearly all college men agree that in many cases beauty is only skin deep. Among twenty-five fellows who were asked to list the qualities they like most in a girl, only two of them put physical perfection at the top of the list. The general opinion is that it may take looks to get a man but that it takes something more to keep him. Now that the masculine viewpoint has been aired, let us switch to the feminine side of the story. College girls like men who are well-mannered and considerate. While they do not expect every man they meet to be a knight in shining armor, they do expect the common little every day courtesies such as opening the car door for them. Girls do not like men who are too bold, but they do not like them backward either. Marion Budge, clever Weber coed, covered the feminine outlook with, "Just give me the happy medium; they're easier to handle." When the question was asked, "What do you look for most in a man?" Marion went on to say, "One thing I watch for more than anything else is how a fellow treats his parents. If he is considerate of his folks, it stands to reason that he is usually sincerely considerate of other people." The type of man most preferred at Weber is one who is ambitious and has the ability to make friends easily. In speaking of this, Carol Folkman said, "I feel that these are two very important qualifications for a fellow because if a guy does his job well and has lots of friends he will get along much better in life. This type of man is also a better provider." As a rule, girls prefer men taller than themselves. They do not particularly care whether he is tall in comparison with other fellows, just so long as he tops them by a considerable margin. Truthfulness rates high with girls as far as fellows are concerned. They dislike the show-off who is always monopolizing the conversation by telling experiences that probably never happened. Weber college girls prefer the home and family type of man to the type who likes to be on the go all the time. Take this first type of man, load him with a fair amount of intelligence, give him a sense of humor and-a neat appearance, add an extra pinch of ambition for good measure, and Weber coeds will rate him strictly all right. Well, there you have them, the likes and dislikes of Weberites regarding the opposite sex. It is nice to know that the "guys and gals" of today have something their Edenite ancestors did not have. . . freedom of choice. Eden was never like this. page eleven