Stevens County tribune. (Morris, Minn.) 1877-1880, 1879-01-09
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ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE. .
WASHINGTON Capital.

The elder Dumas had, unfortunately, a
daughter lately. deceased sm who was
strangely disfgmed. While her face
was ugly to deformity, her neck was GOV.
cred with hair, and an exchange tells us
that literateur Of repute in Paris in
tends her for one of the principal figures
of novel he long ago outlined. He had
made her study, but forbore to pur her
to artistic use during her life. She would
certainly make strong character in the
lola or Cberbuilliez. Her very person
as decribed--the exaggerated lnharmor
nieus features, combining Jewish, Nor
man and African types, the preturbaut,
pale blue eyes, the patches of coarse red
in her yellow cheeks, turning purple In
cold weather. and the huge sensual
mouth-would furnished striking fig
ure for the morbid kind of story many
Frenchmen delight to narrate, especially
when their love of contrast can be graft
fed by depicting her form, said to be all
grace and symmetry, and to have pre-.
served its freshness and suppleness to the
last. The very idea Of hideous head
Joined by thick hisute neck to beau
tiful body is enough to captiVate the
imagination of a literary Gaul. And
then the fact of her being very intellec-
ual, learned and witty; of her marrying
man that lost his reason the day succeed
ing the wedding, and his refusal to see
her after his release from the asylum,
combined with her final love for a blind
savant, whom she solaced with sympa-
thy and readings from the poets, and of
her death in convent-what could be
more singular, unexpected or melO-dra-
matte in tictionl Her life was romance
ready-made. ~.~sE .. rs .--- r.
We know of case somewhat similar
to this, and equally distressing.
Some years since--it makes no ditfe=-
ence when-in one of our departments,
and it is not of the slightest Importance
which girl held the position as copy
list who was remarka BILE for her deformity
and her beauty.
She reversed the fact of ugliness in the
case of the daughter of Dumas; for while
her body was horribly deformed her head
was model of womanly beauty. Her
features were regular to a fault. Her
complexion Wed in delicacy the ocean
tinted interior of shell. Her chin
rounded out like the bow of Cleopatras
barge, Just broad and prominent enough
to give force to the sweet face above.
Her mouth had enough sweetness and ex-
preston for any other woman full face,
and at the ends of the ser sitive lips,
where the two bows of Cupid terminated,
instead of running off in weak lines, they
ended In two little wells, from which one
could imagine love flowed out ever fresh
and abundant Her eyes were dark hazel,
large and luminous. They were hairs
breadth over the width of one eye apart,
and gave, in this, to the face that frank.
honest, winning look that such width
ever indicates. Over all this was woman's
GROWING glory, great mass OF nut
brown hair, through which there seemed
to play the caught and tangled sunlight
for sixteen years.
Passing from this to the body was like
passing from the eXquisitely chiseled
head of a marble saint to the charnel
house below. The poor girl did not seem
to have any part of the human frame in
its proper place or answering to its prop
er JUNCTION.
It was all the result Of cruel causalty
that happened when she was young. She
had hurried from home one winter night
in search of medical relief for sick
noth' +, lost her way, fell, perishing from
cold, and was picked up hours after, tC
hnger for months between life and death
and death held all of her but her lovely
head.
How nature accommodates herself tC
the inevitable 1t was years before she
was free of pain, and when at last she
could hobble about in sdificult way or
crutches, she seemed to look at life a.
cheerfully as anyone. The sweetness
her nature had not been destroyed by
pain, nor the cruelest wrong that could
be done to woman. ....E ....a
She was poor. and her misfortunes Sc
cured her place where she could earn
her plain food and poor lodgings.
This was the day in the traditionary
past before the penitentiary system pre-
vailed in the departments, and the Gov
eminent, not SO poor as now, was abe II
employ gentlemen, as heads of bureaus
The one who ruled Immediately over tn
room in which the girl worked was no
only gentleman, but one of those sensi
tive natures that go to wreck on the rock
of life from not being iron-clad. His in
tellect and culture has secured for him
comfortable pl7ce in the department, ant
into this he settled TO dream of what b.
would do some day and never did.
1t vas observed that this official wa
very fond of lingering about the desk @
the deformed girl. and the other inmate
of the room spoke to each other of hi
goodness. After time it was observe
that the two continued talking and laugh
ing after business hours. And then b
began the practice of helping her fror
and to the building.
One afternoon, at the end of Ions
pleasant talk, she was about leaving, whe
he suddenly seized upon her thin, whit
fingers, that had been blighted by shah
ing hands with death. and in a ra.he
confused sort cf wav, as if the utteranc
choked him, he poured into her ears
passionate avowal OF love, ending in ash
ing her to be his wife,. .. go
1t is said by those inhuman brutes i
human form who kill deer by cutting th
thoat of the poor animal while swimmin
that the startled, pitiful pleading look
the doomed creature is never forgotte]
1t was tnis sort of look the girl gave b,
woeer. She tried to speak as she wit
drew her hand, but her lips only. tren
bled and then che abruptly rcaahed f
her crutehes, and hobbled from her roor
That night she wrote long letter
the man who had so strangely approachs
her. Ii was despairing cry of a lost sol
Her poor heart under that deformed boc
was as keenly alive to the one passi,
that controls humanity as that Of Al
other heart. But she shrank in teri