Morning journal and courier., 1882-11-28
The Broken-DOwn Beauty.
Who Clings PassIonateIy to the Memories
Ofthe Past.
tba

| Who Clings PassIOnateIy to the Memories
Of the Past.
from the London Worldl
The broken-dow beauty is as melancholy
an example of having known better days as
Is the decayed gentlewoman. She is even
| more affecting to look at. The decayed gem
| tlewoman is touching when one observes her
Efforts to preserve some personal dignity and
| command certain respect, on the strength
| OF once having possessed money and position
She clings passionately to the memory of the
past, and fancies that. the halo of wealth and
gent1lty still surrounds her, even to common
| eyes. But the little decisions and fond rec
objections which gladden. her existence sit
| cheerfuhy ana with grace upon her compared
| to those which make the broken down beauty
l so sad spectacle. In going about the world
| one sees this out at elbows queen at various
| stages of her decay. She is a great theater
| goer, though she seldom understands the
| play, and is generally bored by it. Though
| romance is word she cannot spell, and love
l sentiment of very simple character to her
mind, she haunts the theaters, and NAV be
observed constantly In these places of amuse-
! ment: She is no longer drawing-roo
| tavorlte; her invitations are few. CONSEQUENT
| ly she regards a box at the opera or stall at
the tneater as nightly necessity of her life :;
she must have something to dress for, some
where to go, where she will find much gas and
many young men.
When she is beginning her downward
oAeo u uecay, ana mas Still some vestiges
OF youth about her, she always has some
stald dame with her, who neither has. nor
ever had, any pretensions to appearance.
lhls lady Is part of the toilet as it were, of
the overblown beauty. Her presence gives
an air of youth and innocence to her com
dress add to the effect of the beauty's eIabor-
ate makeup. If a gentleman is with them,
he must show himself, certainly: but the
lady who plays the part of the duenna in this
little comedy is put well in the front of the
box, while the beauty herself peeps shvIv
round the curtain. Screened like this, she
may yet look very well, and some of the CAV
young creatures in the stalls, gorgeous in
spotless shirt fronts and incipient moustaches,
are pretty certain to be taken in by her and
ogle her through their opera glasses This
admiration is food and wine to her it makes
her sleep that night. The friendly shadow
of the box curtain gives her deliberately made.
up complexion chance of looking like nature.
and the stephanotis on her head seems to
nestle most naturally into the artificial coil
and curls upon which it is pinned. Her neck
Is young enough still and needs no cream
when she wears the very low cut dress, which
is her idea of the correct thing to wear at the
theater. Her day il aot quite over yet, she
says to herself, when she fads couple of
very young men out of the stalls waiting
about on the theater steps to see her get in.
to her carriage. She drives home a happy
woman.
At this stage, though she is unmistakable.
she is not absolutely terrible; but as the
years pass on she becomes more and more
alarming: Strange to say, as her youth more
completely vanishes from every memory but
her own, the Illusions which support her
grow stronger. She begins to fancy herself |
quite giddy girl again; she gets herself up |
in much more youthful STYLE and then |
filings discretion to the winds. She Is seen
out now without her duenaa, most often we |
meet leaning nf
young man indeed. Heaven knows how these
young men are pressed into the service; |
sometimes they are known to have assured |
their friends that she is their mother or
grandmother, even when these respected rel |
atives have long been laid in the grave, or
are quietly living in the country. Probably
the ancient beauty pays her boy Flowers debts
and ties him to her heels in this way ; at all
events, it is certain that young man she will
have, and does have. She makes him take
her to her beloved theater she goes there
in very very low.necked dress onIher head
she wears golden wig, in imitation of the
hair of girl of sixteen on the top of that
Is pinned red, red rose, which looks as old
and crushed as it's wearer. But she is happy;
her illusions never desert her. She smirks
with pleasure when people turn to fix amazed
looks upon her. 1t Is certainly kind of that
fate which takes from us quickly all that we
value most in life, to grant these happy hal
luclnations to supplant what is gone But
the worst feature about the shrivelei siren is
that she so steadily makes it patent to all
men that she has known better days. The |
aecayed gentlewoman and the ruined million
aire cannot bore us with their sorrows when
we go to see the play; whereas the woman
who once was beauty not only does not
conceal her face-that melancholy relic of
the past-but invariably wears a low dress, in
order that we may see for ourselves that her
health is gone indeed.