Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-03-03
REFLECTIONS On BEAUTY.


The many and varied pictures OF Queen
Elizabeth much confuse the readers of his
| tory, and both friends and enemies Of that
great ruler of her time. 1t is generally
| conceded that she was, after her "hey-day''
I Of youth, a plain, if not an ugly woman ,
end that in her old age she was positively
L ideous. Ristori's perS0nation of the bold
hearted Queen includes the most wonder
full exhibition Of mobility of features ever
seen in the changes which SC perfectly
portray the advance of senility and render
almost pathetlcaly ugly face 50 beautiful
as that with which nature endowed the
Italian muse. When Queen Elizabeth was
far advanced ia life she ordered all pic
lures of herself painted by artists who had
not hattered her faded features to be col
lected and burned, and in 1898 she issued
proclamation forbidding all persons,
sssave special cunning ARTISTS to draw
her likeness. At last the Queen quarreled
with her impolitely faithful looking glass,
and Ristori's thought ought not to allow
the presence of a mirror in the final scene
of her Elizabeth" as it is an historical
fact that none were allowed in her pres
ence during her last years. No attendant
would have dared to permit her to see one.
Socrates called beauty a brief tyranny,
Plato called it a privilege of nature. Theo-
phrastus q silent cheat, and Aristotle at
frmed it was better than all the letters of
recommendation in the world Since tll0
time of Esther beauty has had it's potent
sway, and charm and value. Dean Swift
proposed to tax female charms, leaving
each woman to place valuation on her
own attractions. Lord Bacon said that
the best part Of beauty is meyer painted or
expressed in picture; with us the stand
ard of beauty differs toto COLO from the
ideals of other countries and races. The
Chinese admire black teeth and painted
eyelids. On the shores Of the Mediterra-
mean great corpulency is preferred. "Hair
like wheat" the ''honey- colored hair" of
Homer, is the most affected of late among
us. Brown in shadow, gold in sum-" is a
beautiful shade, but Elizabeth's bright red
hair, ''capelid,," as she called it, was in
spiration to sychophant pens in her time,
and even lovely Mary Of Scots sacrificed
her beautiful dark locks to the fred fronts"
Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, and the much
maligled, beautiful and noble Lucretia
Borgia had light hair and golden. Leigh
Hunt, who said many wise things concern
ing female beauty, dress, &C., and who re-
garded the lips as expressing character as
fully as the eyes, declared that beauty was
too often sacrificed to fashion. "The spir-
it of fashion is not beautiful but wilful,
not graceful but fantastic, not superior
but vulgar" Jeremy Taylor called woman
1.-The precious porcelain of human clay"
Aytoun says ga pretty woman is woman's
work in the world, making life summer by
a look which tells us of a large heart and
all the gentleness of humanity" A smile
which speaks Of heavens compassionate
ness, is, after all, the apotheosis of a pref
sy woman. Seneca said, "Virtue is more
agreeable coming from a beautiful body"
Beauty is sometimes called the ''fatal
gift" because Of the miseries which pur-
sue its chances in life. II have known
few women in my life," said Mary Mon
tague, "whose extraordinary charms and
accomplishments did not make them I'M
happy"
A erich" DINNER.-At a late dinner
given in San Francisco, Cal, to Hon. VIM.
Sharon, United States Senator from Ne
vada, by his old friends Of the Comstock
lode, more than half the company were
millionaires, and the remainder could
count their stores in hundreds of thousands
Of trade dollars. The feast was unpar-
alleled in all respects, and each gentleman
seated around the festive board found near
his napkin bill of fare engraved on a
heavy plate Of solid silver, dug from the
Comstock lode and highly polished. These
we're gotten up in artistic style, at cost
Of over $40 each, measured ahour 64x44
inches, of a quarter Of a dollars thickness.
At the end of the banquet each guest pock-
oted his unique programme as a memento
Of the occasion, and in remembrance Of
those who participated in the dazzling
event. This was truly a "big bonanza" in
the bill of fare line.