Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1873-10-28
Pretty and Ugly Women.
BY MOSES MONTAGUE

No woman can say truthfully that
she does not care whether she is prct-
ty.or not. Every women does care
The immutable laws of her being have
made physical attractiveness as mucii
Il natural glory 10 her rs strength is to
man.
Here l may be told 5hat what / am
saying is superfluOus. for perfect beau
w has no need Of art to enhance it. and
that those who have been born with
hard, or worse, with perfectly uninter-
esting features, don't want to be told
that physical attractiveness is lndispen-
asble to them. But it is especially to the
plain and to the generally iil-favOred
that | address these words of advice
and warning, and should Beauty's
self find a few useful hints, / see no
reason why she should not avail her
self of them, / know that there are
people who look well anywhere and
anyhow 10 vulgaTity. no carelessness
of speech, dress, or attitude seems able
20 Odisenchant them F; but these rarely
gifted persons are but the exceptions
that prove the rule; and even in their
case what Sir Philip sidney spoke is
true--he says there is that in we'll
chosen surroundings.
''which does even beauty beautify,
And most bewitcb the captive eye;'
and Herrick. too. in his Poetry of
Dress, seems to have had an astute
appreciation of hew beauty may be
beautified These men lived in the
sixteenth century, time when color
in dress was an understood and valued
adjunct. and before we had learned to
make our dwellings intOlerable to the
eye.
An immense number Of ill-tempered
ugly women are ill-tempered because
they are ugly. They do not know it;
their friends done understand, and
make 20 allowance; but heavy indeed
is the burden upon these poor women,
and .nernicious in its effect on their
moral character very often. / have
heard N said that ugly women are al
ways bad tempered; tins Is an over
statement: but there is a certain de-
gree of truth in the cruel saying as IL Is.
an ugly child cares nothing for its
uglineSs. bat when it grows older, and
perceives that it lacks something
which is priced and honored, and Is
twitted with the deficiency, ana neg
lected through it, and Is reminded OF
i every time it looks in the glass or I'D
another face. the constant dIsappolnt-
nent begins very early to enzbltter the
whole nature. and creates a melan-
choly shyneSs and when the desire to
attract awakes with years, and the
Young girl finds her fairer friends pre-
ferred before her, the vain endeaVors
10 please by other means dlshearten
her, aud she grows sarcastic, ill-natur-
ed. envious of everybody, though hall
unconsciously many otner faults iol-
low. and she becomes unhappy and
morose. No one ever knows what she
suffers; but she does suffer very
acutely.
am certain that. however laudab!e
the efforts of ugliBess to attract by
learning, by accomplishments by gen
eral usefulness, or by satire, nothing
really compeusates for the want of per-
sonal beauty. The best thing that an
ugly women can do is to makeyou for
get that she is ugly for the time being
she cannot compensate. And whilst
should advise all women TO become as
intelligent and clever as they can,
Whether they be plain or pretty, still
J wish mere beauty were made more
acknowledged and honorable art than
il is by all those 10 whom God has Civ
en- eyes and an intelligent brain 1t is
not a sin or folly to long, as every
woman longs, 20 be lovely. She is so
constituted. and her beauty SIS a glory
- hcr