The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-11-19
Moro ABOUT p,atn1.,rrs.
From The London Saturday isspie,D.

Champions of plain girls are not
| wanting who boldly take the difficulty
by the horns, and deny ia toto the tact
that in mHtTimonY aud In love the race
is usually to the beautiful. Look
about you, they tell us, in the world
and you will as often az not lind beau.
ties fading on their stalks, and plain
girls marrying on every side of them.
And no doubt plain girls do marry fire.
quen,ly. Nobody, for instance, with
half an eye, can fail to be familiar with
| the phenomenon, in his own circle, of
astonishing ugly married women. IL
does not, however, follow that plain
girls are not terribly weighted in the
race.
There are several reasons why. wo-
men who rely on their beauty remain
unmarried at the last, but the reason
that their beauty gives them no advHn-
tage is certainly not one. The first
reason perhaps is that beauties are In
clined to be fastidiOus and CHpriCious.
They have no notion of following the
advice of Mrs. Hannah More, aud be.
ing contentcd with the first good sensi-
BILE Christian lover who falls in their
way; and they run, in consequence, no
slight risk OF Over-staying their mar
ket. They go in for more splendid
sort of ofmHtrimOuial success, and think
they can afford to play the more daring
game.
Plain girls are providentially pre-
served from these temptations. AT tho
close of well-spent life they can con-
scieutiously look back on N career in
which no reasonable opportunity was
neglected, and say that they have not
| broken many hearts, or been sinfully
and distractingly particular. And
there is the further consideration to be
remem bered in the case of plain girls,
that fortune and rink are nearly as
valuable articles as beauty, and lead to
| u fair number of matrimonial alliances.
The system of providence is full OF
kindly COInpensHIlOns, and 1t is proof
OF the universal benevolence we see
| about us that so many heiresses should
he plain.
Plain girls have right to be cheered
aud comGorted by the thought. II
teaches them the happy lesson
that beauty, as compared with IA settled
income, is skin. deep and valueless; and
that what man looks for in the com
punion OF his life is not SO much Il
bright cheek or blue eye, as IL sub
stantial and useful amount of this
worlds wealth. Plain girls again ex-
pect less, and are prepared to accept
less, In lover. Everybody knows
the sort of useful, admirable
pructicrl man who sets himself to
marry plain girl. lie is not ii
man of great rank, great promise,
or great expectations. Had il been
otherwise, he might possibly have
flown ut higher game, and set his heart
on marrying female loneliness, rHther
than homely excellence. His choice, il
it is nothing else, is an index OF u con-
tented aud modest disposition. He is
not even vain enough to compete in the
great race tor beauties. What he looks
for is some one who will be mother OF
his children, who will order his SER
/ Il la. rnk,. 81.
bills; and whose good sense Will teach
her tn recognize the sterling qualities OF
her husband, and not object to his diu-
ing daily i'll his slippers. This Is the
sort OF partner that plain girls may rA-
tIOnally hope to secure, and who can
saw that they ought not 10 be cheerful
and happy in their lot 4? For a chHrHc-
ser OF this undeninble subrIety, there is
indeed a positive HdvHntHgetn Il plain
girl AS vile. II should never be for
gotten that the man who nIurries Il
plain girl need never be jealous. He
is in the Arcadian and fortunate Gondi.
ton OF II lover who has no RIVALS. a
sensible, unAmbitinns nature will re-
cOgniZe in this solid benefit. Plain
girls rarely turn into trisky matruns,
and this fact renders them peculiarly
adopted to be the wives of dull and
steady mediocrity.
Lest it should be supposed that the
above calculation of what plain girls
may do Leaves some of their power and
success still unnccounted ior, it is
quite right and proper to add that the
story of plain girls, II it were carefully
written, would contain many instam-
ces, not merely of moderate good tor-
tune, but of splendid and exceptional
triumph. Like prima donnas. opera
dancers, and lovely milliners, plain
girls have been known to make extra
ordinary hits, and to awaken illustri-
Gus passions. Somebody ought to take
| up the subject in a book, and tell us
how they did it. This is the age of
golden treasuries. We have golden
treasures of English poets, OF French
poets, of great lawyers, OF famous bat.
Ties, of notable beauties. OF English he
roes, OF successful merchants, and uf
almost every sort of character and ee-
lebrIty that can be conceived. What is
wanted is u golden treasury containing
the narrative of the most successful
plain girls. The book might be called
the Book of Ugliness, aud we see no
reason why, to give reality in the story,
the portraits of some of the most re-
markable might not be appended.