Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-04-24
BETWEEN OURSELVES.

Mrs. Clipper is thoroughly satisfied with
her charms, and yet she belongs to the trium-
virate of conspicuous bogus beauty in st.
Paul. In looking at her you are immediately
reminded Of wax doll. The eyes are dark,
and so shallow that they have glazed, fiat APP
pearance. The color is too even, and there is
scarcely any pupil visible. No emotion ever
invades, ruff1es or transfgures that utter su-
perficial serenity of out looking self-conceit,
and hence the eyes suggest the notion of being
wired for the opening and shutting process.
They see objects, and that is about all.
There is no observation, no speculation in
them. They are merely dials to note the
stages of complacent admiration of self and
the experiments of the toilette. The verdict
of the looking glass is enough for Mrs.
Clipper, and you couldn't make her believe
that there could be any dissent from it.
She regards less favored women with plying
glance-which has as much pathos in it as
she is capable of feeling and looking. 1t says
plainly, "PoOr things, you never can know for
one instant the luxury of sensation expert
ence with every breath Of my triumphantly
transcendant gift?;
The coloring of the face is hagrantly arti-
fetal; the cheek bones high; the mouth rather
thin and prim, with protruding smirk about
the curve of the lips which is intended for a
bewitching pout, but is really vulgar imita-
ton of demirep very familiar to the public
gaze every hour of the day. And the night?
Ask me no more, as is the sombre refrain of
Mr.. Alfred Tennyson. 1t depends. Madame,
it may be on the engagements of Monsieur,
your husband, your son, or your brother.
Who knows?
Mrs. Clippers face is hard to describe,
because it is essentially unhuman. There can
be very little beyond bare inventory of fixed
up charms. Expression is nil except in the
most exaggerated tacitness of self-conscious-
ness.
That is simply immense and comprehensive.
Her figure is merely passable, and on the lean
order: It's deficiencies are knowingly manipu-
ulated. Only the tell-tale shoulders rise up
sharply in contradiction of the simulated
roundness.
Upon this wiry frame, instinct with inor-
dinate self-love, and pulsating with towering
consciousness of extraordinary beauty, Mrs.
Clipper masses whatever fnery the money at
her command can buy. r
With all the lavish expenditure her outlay
may be called cheap extravaganza, inasmuch
as in it all, from first to last, there isn'tan ar
ticle in quality, at least that lady would pur-
chase or order. Her dresses are excessively
trimmed. Masses of imitation laces are punched
up about the neck. Conspicuous jewelry Of
suspicious massiveness, or pretentious hollow
ness, is ostentatiously displayed.
|. We call this in our own minds the extrava-
gance of cheapness-i. e., common place things
endlessly multiplied in wanton profusion. And
yet it takes most of the earnings of two or
three men to keep this incarnation of cold and
calculating vanity up to the mark of her am
bition, which is to be regarded as the boss
beauty and dresser of the town. Her own re-
gard is never wanting.
In manner she is demure. The dark shallow
eyes-so shallow that they look like dabs
of the thinnest enamel-have semi-furtive
glance, which is on the alert for admiration
with what is meant for coy suggestiveness,
aud is in reality the observation Of the bird
of prey, when what it is after is in sight.
Mrs. Clipper lie always quiet. Her demeanor
is best summed up in the current vulgarism
"genteel." When she sits in the Opera House
arranged with Photographic precision, oil her
specious resources are brought to bear upon
the audience, and she believes herself the veri-
table Venus showing exguisitely above, and
against an artfully disposed triekery of wrap,
laces and things.
The Venus of mythology, f0rsooth, is q
mere Pigment of the magination-unworthy
of reference. When Mrs. Clipper is to fill the
bill, and surely from an ''artistic" point of
view she can beat the Medici, or Milo off their
pedestal.
Now it must be said that these Opera House
occasions are almost the only opportunities
Mrs. Clipper has for indoor display before
certain people. For alas! Now wherefore
alas!! We set out by saying that the verdict
of the looking glass was
enough for Mrs. Clipper, but it is
a good deal like Balzac's saying of solitude
| that it is nice thing when you can have
| some one to tell it 10.
Mrs. Clipper has found that out-and (here's
where the alas comes in) with it the result of
some inexplicable incongruities in her mode
of life. Which puzzled some people for a
time where they thought the acquaintance
| worth while, and then relegated it to the twi-
light of ecognition-which means voicelcss
suspicion of something wrong-and yet SO
vague, shadowy, and inpalpable that our
claimant for the full honors Of beauty cannot
quarrel with it-nor set it aside-nor cope
it, ror even mention it unless it be to her
plodding, obtuse husband, who can only ask,
| what in the name OF all the baleful fates ais
the people that they cannot rate his treasure
as she deserves.
OF course it is nothing but envy.
There is always the slogan. But we know
better, and Mrs. Clipper does, too. In her
own petty sway she has drawn the line pretty
taut for individuals who were careless of the
conpcnanccs. But what would you have her
do? How else was she to show how good
she was save by this exemplary elision?
And yetin the bottom of his heart, sorry oafish
Clipper must feel an occasional lodgment Of
uneasiness, as he sees the dissonance in his
home. While engaged in putting this and
that together,to account for the elusiveness of
even their casual acquaintance. He sees there
an expenditure and display totally unwar-
ranted by his clerkly income.