Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-11-07
Whole Number 1857.
What Constitute Personal Attractions.

w naG OOnSlllult LeLcOAdA AlIdClAUl8a
Every person is interesting in proper
ton as he excites or secures our SYM
pathy; as we feel that there is no need
of playing a part or Of echOing lies; as
we feel that in hispresence We can afford
that most delicious of luxuries, unlimited
freedom. This feeling is generally par
tial it can very seldom be entire. But
as it is more or less, interest grows or
diminishes. When it is nearly full, it is
friendship with man and love with
woman in the highest sense. When it
is moderate 1t determines our associates,
our companies as they commonly are,
who are often interesting by turns, and
to endure whom is the best most of US
can do. Flashes of sympathy we get
from a number Of our acquaintances,
for they are all human sometimes, even
the worst of them; but we could not
think of calling them interesting save
on occasion or under given conditions.
Inherent interestingness Is disclosed
invOluntarily and often as clearly in
single phrase or a small act as IN i'm
portancies. Who has not sometimes
observed and felt it in an entire stranger
speaking of the weather, or performing
a trifing courtesy? Something In his
tone or facial expression or gesture or
suavity reveals his quality individual
ICES him, touches the common chord Of
humanity. He makes an impression
positive and distinct; you remember
him; you want to know more of him,
and if you do, you find your intellectual
curiosity well warranted.
Among a number Of women you meet
cemely ciphers, finely-dressed cOuver-
sationalists; you are not disappointed,
for you expect nothing. As you move
mechanically about to the slow tune OF
conformity and repetition, you hear few
words which, worn as they are, contain
vitality. You look to their source, and
you say, 'aThis is genuine womanP
and if opportunity favor, your opinion
will be verified. She is one Of the IN
teresting class, not handsome, perhaps,
nor intellectual, but unit, with force
and favor of her own. You think you
have made a discovery, and you have for
yourself, though many have before you.
A really interesting woman cannot hide
herself in society, whose trlteness serves
to set her of. She has plenty OF earnest
admirers, and those are for the most
part her friends, who, while they know
the fact, cannot quite understand why
|
She attracts her own as well as the other
sex, and her praises are chanted on
every hand. She is called lovely, tascl-
mating, wonderful; she Is merely lnterst-
/ ing. but to be so is rare enough to
explain, if not to justify, exaggeratlon.
The memory retains many interesting
persons who have similarly suggested
| themselves, and then vanished, as If to
l -ooOlInofIOT1d Of " hat.
we might have eniOyed. The dearest
! friends are often those we fail through
/ circumstances to secure. They that we
oucbt to have known passed US on the
| Gi1decca while we were first In Venice,
or Quilted the ParthenOn Just as We
! came up. When we are ascending the
| Nile they are going back; when we are
| in Bagdad they are in Boston. 1t may
be kind of Fate to keep US away from
| the interesting souls we struggle toward
| thev are great derangers of established
| order and humdrum satisfaction. 10
! know a very few of these at intervals Is
/ sufficient, since each one gives and de-
| mands so much tnat to have the number
| we crave might taDgle the prophecies:
They who interest us may not be
interested in turn; they whom we IN
| terest may not be interesting to Us. The
opinion that interestingness is reeiprO-
cal springs from desire, not from truth
| It ought not to be so, and therefore 1t IS
not. Interestingness implies individ-
uaIity, breadth, spontaneousnesss su-
periority, and to it are frequently drawn,
| bv a natural law, persons, who lack these
| yerv traits. It is the need, the cravings
of the weak for the strong, of the rest
less for the calm, of the neglected for
the favored. One sided attractions are
common everywhere and out Of them
grow the spiritual tragedies Of Life. The
interesting man or woman Is constantly
drawing men and women whose nature
it is to be drawn, but never to- draw.