The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-12-14

Ears and Ear. Rings.
A pretty ear is great beauty and
finds many enthusiastic admirers. We
could name many o noted man first at
.racted to the girl he loved and married
by her pretty ear; and we have even
heard some men say: ''rhe first thing
see when am in company of ladies is
the ear We need not tell you that
such men, and all indeed who admire
pretty ears, abhor earrings.
Jewellers need not frown; for If fewer
earrings were sold, more finger-rings,
lockets, brooches, etc., would be sold,
and they would not be the losers if ear
rings disappeared from fashion to-mor-
row. Beside, our aim is to preserve
beauty when possible. and earrings d.
stroy it by lengthening the ear and de-
stroying the symmetrical outline We
say nothing of the barbarity of the Gus
tom of wearing earrings. You might
as well wear rings in your nose as in
your ears. We merely say that, setting
custom aside, earrings lengthen the ear
and spoil its shape and symmetry.
Therefore, if you would preserve your
ear small and pretty, as nature makes
it, never wear an earring.
On the other hand, if your ears are
large and ugly, do not wear earrings,
for you would then only attract extra
attention to their ugliness. Hide them
as much as you can by light waves or
curls of hair allowed to fall over the
ears as if by accident, but do not invite
attention to them. Our models of
beauty, the ancient Greeks, did not
wear earrings, or rarely did SO. Egyp-
tians and Asiatics were and still are
fond of all kinds of jewelry, and they
wore huge earrings very often which
weighed down the ears to tremendous
length.
Roman women also were partial to
earrings, as they were to all other jew
elry. As Ovid tells us: "Their dresses
We're heavy brocade. their fingers were
covered with precious stones, and Orien-
tai pearls hung on their necks and
ears" They also wore bracelets, anu
lets, and, according to Martial, rings
on their toes, which were visible when
they wore sandals. This fashion, in
deed, was initiated by the Countess
Castellani at a fancy ball at the Tuiller-
les during the last Empire. The Coun-
tess Castellani was considered the most
beautiful woman at that Court of Beau
ties. She was an Italian, with an
Italian skin and golden hair, something
like the new American beauty, Miss
Chamberlain, who is spoken of as a
gypsy with golden hair.
To return to the subject of earrings,
the Roman women wore as many as
three, and sometimes four large pearls
on each ear. This style of earring was
called Crotalia; and the pearls clanked
together like so many bells, which was
very flattering to their vanity. The
funniest thing of all was that they even
put earrings on the fish in their aquari-
ums. Just to see their effect in the water.
Francis the First of France initiated this
absurdity, and had earrings put to the
famous carp of Fontainebleau.
Who has not heard of Cleopatra's
famous pearl earrings, which cost two
millions of francs each, and one of
which she melted in her cup and drank
it to Anthony's health? She would have
done the same thing with the second
earring had she not been prevented.
This earring afterward passed into
Agrippa's hands, and he had it cut in
two, to form two earrings, with which
to adorn the ears of the statue of Venus
in the Pantheon of Rome.
Cesar also once paid million of
francs for pearl, which he gave to the
mother of Brutus. and he had so great
a veneration for pearls that in his laws
against celibacy he forbade them TO be
worn by women who had not husband,
or children, or any one who was under
forty-tive years of age. Now, however,
pearls are the favOrite ornaments for
young girls, and looked upon as EN-
blemS of innocence and purity. But a
string of pearls round the neck alone
should be worn by young girls, and not
pearls in the ears.
Italians and other southern people
full of old fashioned superstitions have
their children's ears bored almost as
soon as they are born, under the idea
that this hole in the ear preserves the
eyes in good sight and strength. We
may here add that we know young
women of twenty with failing sight, al
though they wear earrings, and others
of "past" thirty who never have worn
an earring and have their sight as sound
and clear as child's. Earrings, there
fore, do not invariably protect the eyes
from weakness or disease, though they
sometimes have beneficial effect. We
hope that none of our readers will wear
them if they have pretty ears, for pref
ty ear is doubly pretty without holes in
it, and an ugly ear can not be too timid
and retiring.
But putting the question of beauty on
one side, there really are some women
with very thin, hollow cheeks, to whom
rather long earrings are becoming.
They seem to fill up a vacuum, and if
are ever suitable it is in such
Queen. a-s,.'
MIR. Jones Has an Evening at Home.