American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-12-18
The Merely Beautiful.

IT is unfortunately true that beneath a
mask of beauty there often lies much that
Is hideous, This is the case with many
pretty women. Their lovely faces and
their sylph- like forms are their only merits,
II merits they can be called. Shallow of
intellect and unfeeling of heart, they have
been utterly corrupted by the course of
f1attery through which they have passed.
of what may be called the higher life
they know little and care less. Their one
aim Is to extort homage from those with
whom they are brought in contact So
long as they are successfully doing this
they appear to imagine that they are justi-
fed in administering snubs right and left,
and in holding up to ridicule those Whit
awkwardly attempt 10 pay homage TO them.
They take delight ia making their neigh
bors look small, Obtain an introduction
to them, and they will probably declare to
your frfeseds that you are a lout. Nor is
this ALL Unless you are content to be-
spatecf them with praise, unless you are
willing to show how deeply impressed you
are with their projections, they will treat
you in very curt manner; in manner,
in fact, which, IL 1t were adopted by
ordinary creatures, would be considered
downright rude. They must have, if
they arc to be satisfied, the best of
everything; and when they cannot get the
beautiful cheeks there Turk tongues of
peculiar sharpness In many cases they
cannot love like other women. If one of
them has lover she feels bound to be
showing him continually that she is
amazingly condescending to have any
thing to do with him, and that unless he
acts very humbly and discreetly she will
decline to continue her connection with
him. More frequently, however, a woman
of the art in svt1esfipp bae M 1ovar in
particular, but a great many in general,
whom she does not think are nearly good
enough for her, and whom she cuts and
wounds so numerically that notwith
standing her charms they desert her one
by one, and she at last discovers, to her
amaxement, that her beauty has faded,
and that there is no one who is worth any,
thing ready to marry her. Then begins
her humiliation Time goes on, and her
charms undergo further decadence, and
At last even her def manipulation of cos
metics is unable to cope with the ravages
which have been made in her beauty. Still,
feeling that her beauty is her only pos
session, she patches herself up, often to
such an extent that she becomes
positively disfgured. Perhaps she i'm
ssnes that People the ao nS ake oh through Rn
peace of mind it is to be hoped so. But
the fact remains that few persons have any
compassion for a worn-out beauty, while
the great majority take an unholy delight
in exposing the articles which she adopts
in order to still secure to herself admira-
ton and fIattery. Those over whom the
WORKOUT beauty (who, IN spite of her
beauty, is perhaps married to man whom
she does not love, or else is an old maid)
once riumphed experience intense delight
in expatiating upon the melancholy cir
cumstance that she is decaying before her
time; that she has become as sharp in
temper as she is in visage, and that she is
growing q silly, vain and Unlocking
creature. Nor is it surprising that spent
beauty should be thus treated, for beauty
of form and face is but gift, for which
the recipient is not responsible. On the
other hand, beauty of mind is an acquire
ment-often long and laborious acquire
ment. Still, though never SO potential as
beauty of form and face, it is more en-
during; and thus it happens that women
who, IS girls, attract little notice outside
small circles, as the chariot of time rolls
on, become queens, to whom crowds of
subjects pay loving homage. Cannot
beautiful women draw q lesson from this?
-Home Journal.