Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-05-12
uglinOSs and its Preventlyes.

should be so rare-that there should be sc
many plain people in the world Such i.
the not unreasonable lament of refined
taste, looking abroad for the qualification
OF It's love for beauty and fair proportion
and finding such rare and scanty indul
| gence of the heaven.born longing. 1t is a
truth that most of the people we meet in
the streets and highways are plain. We
have different standard for our home
| friends, for relations and intimates, bui
out OF doors it is an exception to meet a
! comely, nobly formed, handsome man OF
woman. II is surprise when we do meet
with such. So unusual, indeed, is it to
meet with perfect, or anything like ap.
preaching to perfect symmetry, that one
OF the attendants on beauty is surprise
We gaze upon something rare, unaccus.
toned, startling from its singularity. The
universally of this fact, stated broadly, is
fortunate for those among us who cannot
boast of anything typical or go6like in
lace or form. There are enough plain peo-
ple--ordinary, some persons call it, to show
how universal is the doom-to keen us in
countenance IL would be dreadful to be the
only ugly fellow in the world. But, even as
IL Is, 1t cannot but be annoying to men
and especially to women-Whose place. or
works, or deeds give them prominence.
not to be better worth looking at, to be so
little good-looking, as sooth TO saw, thew
often are. What do you think when so
many people come to see you ?" Miss Bre-
mer was asked by her American adorers,
wish that l was handsomer," was her
reply. when all things are bossoming," /"
writes woman of snowy, conspicuous
genius, lit seems strange not to blossom,
too; man is the slowest aloe, and / am
such shabby plant, of such coarse tissue.
| hate not to be beautiful when all around
is so" Who can tell how much Gold
smiths ugliness, which made him a butt
In childhood, was at the bottom of the
restless, unsatistied vanity of which so
much is written. With men, however, the
consciousness of ugliness has constantly
acted as an intellectual stimulus. Because
Richard III. was rudely stamped, wanting
loves majesty, he shaped out a great un.
scrupulO1s Udioer IUr himself; anu mira
beau and Wilkes might, perhaps, not have
made so public figure if they had been
less conspicuously ill-favored. But the
draught was probably bitter all the same
The most successful Jester on his own i'll
looks finds the fun very fiat in his solitary
hours, but consciousness makes him rest
less and when it is hopeless to pass un-
noticed, his best eXpedient is to be pleas
ant upon himself.
These people are ugly because they can
not help it, but we have been led to our
subject by the reflection how much of the
depressing ugliness of the world is of
mans own making, and need not be if
people did not fall into tricks and bad
habits of feature and countenance We
are not going deep, we are not entering
into the question how far the principle of
yat ION iCrh iTnv h.a nfh h,,
manity; how high thought might elevate,
the practice of virtue beautify, immunity
from poverty and vulgar cares ennoble the
race. What we note here is the universally
of tricks and bad habits of countenance
lIIulI IcUu not have a worse source than
neglect of appearances, inducing an aggre-
gate of uncomeliness for which nature is
not accountable. In keen wind and
frost people cannot command their best
looks; but observe one face after another
as we drive along the road on a summers
day. How many faces are twisted into
permanence of i'll looks merely by screwing
up the eyes against the suns rays! The
poor tramp cannot help the tan, nor the
sun burnt hair, nor the freckles, but the
utter abandonment of the screw-nose,
mouth, forehead all gathered into an un-
natural coalition for miles at time-im-
plies an absence of self-respect; and this
he could help. 1t is the instinct of the
observer to call himself to account on
meeting one of these masks-to compose
his features, lest he should have to give
way to the degrading yet natural tempta-
ton. Again, that too common downward
look and heavy mouth is trick. One
would not like to pass the scowling NAVY
in an unfrequented lane; but the fellow is
honest and hard-working the scowl is but
a trick acquired behind his wheelbarrow.
So is the grin which confers such pe-
culiar torpitude on many a couutenance,
for which heart and brain are by no means
answerable. And the women of the
poorer classes in streets and railway
stations, what lowering brows, what aban-
donment of mouth, till it has grown TO
twice the size civilization would have kept
il. What seams and wrinkles and erin
kles; what misplaced angles and corners
If some invisible hand could smooth them
all away, and show us only the natural
wear and tear of time, what transforma-
ton.
But after all, active tricks belong rather
to another class. There is the simper,
which, though sometimes indicative of
mental qualities, may be only habit of
the muscles the grimmaces of preoccupa-
ton, the unmeaning elevation of the
eyebrows carrying the ears along with
them, which strangely varies the repose
of some physiognOmies, the stare of absent
eyes, the scowl of near-sightedness, the
winks and twitches of restlessness, all in
dicatipg certain carelessness, and iudif,
ference of what others think of US, which
results in an injustice to nature. 1t is
only in some occult way that they are
characteristics; they need not be, and
man would have been handsomer without
them. And how many tricks disfgure the
laugh "You shall see him laugh till his
face be like wet cloak i'll laid up" says
Falstatf of Prince Hal-a selfabandon-
ment which he acquired in company where
selfrestraint of any sort was least in his
thoughts.
And tricks are Objectionable, not only
becase they spoil good face and exagger.
ate the worst points ON bad one, but be
cause in their degree they outrage propri.
ETY.. De Quincy, who expiates on the
meanness of DR.. PARIS personal appear.
ance, and his coarse and ignOble features
is careful to explain first, that al that
write this paper have myself a mean per-
sonal appearance" and next, that "I love
men Of mean appearance !" but he remarks
how this original unkindness of nature
sis enhanced by grimace, and further by
the basalisk functions of the eye," illus
trating this by the trial it was to nervous
preacher to see comical looking old man
from below leveling one eye at him
Tricks arise from absence, shyness or alb
sence of superiority and indifference tC
the opinion of the vulgar. Biography is
full Of the absurd personal habits of great
men thus lifted out of the sphere Of hon
est remonstrance.
AS fact, the tricks we speak of are re
corded mostly of persons who have nC
beauty to spare. Thus, Margaret Fuller
the American muse, is described as of ex-
treme plainness, and with trick of inces
sanity opening and shutting her eyelids
No doubt the consciousness of the gooC
looks, the memory of the image reflected
in the morning mirror, is a preservativC
against distortion and grimace; whil'
plain folks may throw themselves upoI
expression, and trust, as is often the case
! that their glass does them less than iuatipe