Smyrna times., 1871-11-01
Privileges of Ugliness.

1t beauty has its privileges and its benefits,
homeliness is not without its advantages. 1t
requires long, weary time to find them out
sometimes, but they are of very substantial
character when discovered. To be beautiful is
to be petted and hOnored to receive honor,
and favor, and obeisance-and all that free and
spontaneous tribute which we love to bestow
on the happy pOSSeSSOrs of this rare virtue
10 be beautiful is to be born despot, with the
uunqustloned and admitted symbols of authority
IN every glance OF the soft, bright eye, in the
cut OF the delicate nostril, in the lips, the chin.
the cheek, the forehead, the silken hair. the
small hand, the tapering fingers the rosy nails
In all the attributes and graces that make up
the perfect living picture. TO be beautiful is
to be obeyed and worShiped with that ready
reverence and alteration which is no less a plea-
sure to those who are not beautiful to give than
Tor those who are beautiful to receive. But.
unhappily, youth does not last forever; it is
the hard late OF human beings to grow old and
even the more than royal gift of beauty does
not exempt It's pOssessOr from the common lot.
Beauty Is not to be trihed with 1t flies from
the tamlllarties OF time and the pitiIess trials
anu cares OF hte. 1t is capricious. and exacts
white teeth, bright eyes. glossy hair, a radiant
brow, and warm, generous blood. courSing in
delicate, cerulean lines under the skin: and,
unfortunately, these are the very things that
lime hates most remOrSelessly, and on which
! he works his worst havoc. Count no man
! successful till he is dead" said PHILOSOPHER.
| Count no woman beautiful till she is FORTY
! years OF age, might be said as an addendum.
Awoscore years is terrible test, and there are
very few who endure it. IF one absents him.
self from the gay social circle for ten yesrs, and
then returns, he stands appalled, at the fearful
work which that decade has wrought in the
| pictures he left behind.
The bride, whose wedding was so notable
an event, Is pointed out to him in the wan and
worn mother of three or four chiliren-a faded
bonnet on her sunken temples, dress all too
large over the once rounded shoulders, and sad
| eyes that no longer make the imperial exac-
tons OF homage they were wont to- Her rival
Tor the beleship of the circle is still maiden.
fancy free, to the infinite surprise of herself
and her friends; but her eyes are larger aud
harder than they were, her bloom is gone, the
shapely hand has become attenuated, and a
cruel line on each side of the once poutine
mouth tells the tragic story of the departure
OF beauty that will never return. Homely
persons escape all these disastrous results of a
struggle with time. The years seem to regard
| them with fOndness they handle them gently.
hey not only do not grow homelier but they
actually grow better looking. Their plainness
seems to reach crisis, like fever; and, after
they have passed that safely, they rally, and
steadily improve with time and trials until as
the former bellies of the circle in which they
once stood as unnoticed and neglected wall
flowers begin to fade and wither we find them
growing absolutely beautiful 1t matters little
whether they be maids or mothers, their plain
ness ripens and bears itself bravely under the
trials OF life. They are not bereaved by the
loss OF charms they never possessed, and thus
they escape one Of the sorest experiences that
nearly all beauties have to encounter. They
have no complaints to make, no regrets to utter.
They learn to accept their homeliness as some
thing that cannot be helped, and cheerfully
make the best of it. Time cannot hurt them.
and so 1t helps them. Their plain faces and
unromantic features show none of the wrecks
that the malignant hourglass strews along the
cheeks, eyes, mouths and necks of their more
favored sisters What was uglinss at eighteen
softens into plainness at thirty, and rpens into
something that is next to real beauty at two
score; and thus time, which makes all things
even, deposes her who was once the. belle at
eighteen, and elevates the neglected wallhower
to the dignity of queen of matronly circle