Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-01-27
BLONDES.
A woman's opinion Of Thcn,.

Mrs. E. Lynn LyttOn writes in CdssetPS
Magazine about ''Fair Women" She says:
The tall, dark, formidable locking woman
OF fiction, who is equal to any crime you
like to name, and whose very presence in
spires all behOldeTs with fear or TepulsiOn,
has had her day. When We open one of
the books wherein our youths and maidens
learn their first lessons of life-as
it is n0t-and we come upon a he
roine with yellow hair, marvellous eyes
Of geenish hue, small wais', sharIey
hand ami s'Hnted but symmetrical growth,
we may sel.l1 ourselves comfortably to an
after-GaTra;IvG Of horrors; to a case or two
Of secret poisoning; or a bolder murderer,
with the chances Of exposure by full
grown witness hidden where only an owl
could hide; while bigamy will be thrown In
to give the right flavor Of improperly, or
perhaps, for diversion, a marriage of that
kind known to the FTeRch as ''Of the thir-
b9enth arondisement.n
The fair-haired heroiues Of modern nov-
els have now tbs mOnOl oily of Ii the vices,
crimes-and diamonds invoked; the former
typical brigandess is sheiyed; while the
chestnut-headed girls are relegated to viz
tue and patience and mildness and despair,
and the loss of their lovers through the
Vaccinations of the too-f4scinating and I'M
moral blondes. 1t is all the difference, say
the analytical novel writers, between iron
and carbon, electricity and brute matter;
and they give the preference to the former
fOI that queer manifestiOn Of character they
call Force.
Well, perhaps there ls something in the
theory, thodgh it may be carried too far.
Given q fair woman, with dark, or even
light hazel eyes, aquiline features, a narrow
forehead, and great width between her
ears, all enhanced by a nervous tempera-
meDt--while is a different thing from
nervousness-and we have the type Of the
Borgia, whence We Hay reasonably expect
something more than would be possible to
the lymphatic matron, whose worst
sins are peevish humOTs, and whose
widest pleasure is a box at the
theater at Christmas time, with all
her little ones about her. Society goes
pretty smoothly between its ordained banks
SO far as we can see; but we are all aware
of the difference between reality and ap-
pearance, and if we do not know the precise
strength of the under-current, we all know
that there is an under-cuTent, and that
many lives, which look quite calm and re-
spectacle on the outside, are turbulent an d
unrestrain0d enough below.
So it is with your fair women Of certa In
type; creatures who might have sat to Guido
for his angels, but whose souls are as the
soul of I.ihth and of Melusine; the Borgias
and the Brinvilliers of historic crimes, the
f.moden AIessallnas" of present life. Who
does not know these wOmen?-Whose secret
Al, rrI,{-v,oyoI ohnrrf from frinnd tn
friend-for all there Is no Asmodeus, happily
for them, to render rosfs transparent-whO
go about wel-lighted drawing rooms looking
much like other people, save that they
are, perhaps, more careful OF obseTVances,
and, when tiley give utterance to their
opinions, express an edifying strictness OF
morality which puts the very matron her
self on the list Of the careless encOuragers
of vice? Weak as their rO0tlets are, they
still keep their place among the honest and
the honorable; perhaps because of their
fathers name, perhaps because Of their
husbands place; people all silently cOm0in-
ing to so much kindly hypocrisy as in
eludes their formal acceptance; though none
of the better sort care for more than this.
In society, rs 1t is called, these full, fair
women are always surrounded by men;
and BY men only. They are both disllked
and dreaded by other women, and they
return the feeling. Between them and the
rest,in that dreadful hour Of upstairs retire
ment from the last glass of claret to the first
cup Of tea, there Is a visible bat unspOken
enmity. They are left alone in their blonde
beauty to practice glanCes and gestures till
the men come up; or if any one goes over
to speak to them, it is woman Of like ma
ture but Of less daring than themselves, or
an innocent who does not know the goats
Of the drawing room from its sheep.
To be sure, all fair women are not
of this intense kind, and there are the doves
of Old-time romance yet eXtant; blue-eyed,
tender, virginal; who blush much, hold the
creed of shocking" and who would be IS
incapable Of the sins TO which their more
electrical sisters are prone as a child
would be incapable of carrying the weight
of man. But we are bound to say that
these doves are comparatively rare, while
the hawks with golden wings are more
abounding, and blondes 'withOut salt less
numerous than those with too much.