Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-07-24
A LAMENTABLE FACT.
The Blondes Slowly Disappearing
from This Country.
What an Octogenarian Proves by Fig
ures and Observation - The
Dark Type More PerxIst-
ent Than the Light.

New York Sull.
One Sunday afterToon agray old man sat
near fle sfoun.aih in Nadison square, his
Thin, shrunken hands resting on the knob Of
a stout Malacca care. Unkempt white hair,
as glossy silk fell in a waving cataract
over his wasted shoulders. A pair Of eyes,
once large and black, but now faded and
sunken. with the peculiar appearance that
dark eyes often contract in old age, peered
from beneath grizzled brows into the faces Of
passers-by.
,'Glsd to see you." piped the old man,
grazing pasSer.by who recognized him. "A
tmsb of 50 bs ghost Rather, indeed, q
ghost is the better Off OF the two. Nobody
knows me any more when l come out for an
airing. I'm like one who has been dead, AMI
has risen again to vex the survivors" He
spoke with the peevish discomfort Of one who
parted with his illusions too long ago t. re-
member that he ever had any.
II was just thinking" he said, abruptly,
skipping from ne topic to another, what a
Transformation scene is going on in the
| physical appearance Of our people--particu-
larry IN complexion. ! have long been salts
fled that blondes are slowly disappearing in
this country-this city, at least-and Eve
never had better evidence of the fact than
| this afternoon. Since I've been sitting here,
cid ard yol&g. mistress and maid, thirty
| seven women have crossed my eye. Only five
! of them were pure blondes. Half dozen
| more wonli be dassed perhaps as nezzotint,
but at least twenty-five were distinctly bru
ne,te. 1t wasn't SO fifty years ago and odd,
when commenced ny professional told you
| "a al -;
AS ! recollect cur women then there were
nearly as many blo..des as brunettes. I'm
sorry for the transformation, for Il brunette
| angel is out Of the question. Blondes are 10
| more angelic, in spirit than their darker Sis
tiers, perhaps. In appearance, however, per-
feet blonde and periecs angel are synonymous
terms. An houri may he brunette, with
soft, dark, lustrously lGnguishing eyes; but
good. authentic angel must have masses Of
gOldsa hair and = complexion like alabaster
or Parian shot with pink. So deplore the
gradual elimination Of the blonde that is GER
tanly going on in the development Of the
American people as distinct type"
The old gentleman had gone on rhaIsodiz-
ing until his very muscles were braced with
a momentary access Of vigor. He beat an
impatient tattoo on the walk with his cane,
and continued: "Once an old man strides his
hobby follow the advice OF Longfellow,
Take carel bewarer And the study Of the
coming American woman has always been
a hobby of mine. Wat divine galleries OF
the beautiful 1 have created in my brain
What rare, ethereal girls! Talk as you
please about real love being a blossom that
unfo!ds slowly-I tell you a man was never
yet desperately, heroically in love who did
not fall in love at first sight. He meets the
woman sof his dream, and that is the end of
it. In point Of fact, he has known her all
his life, only he has never met her before"
Again the old man turned the conversation
abruptly. at was in 80 or 40, l forget
which, that l began to study the subject |
statistically. New York was nothing then |
compared to what it is now. Everybody
knew everybody who was anybody. I'd like |
I'd show you my Old note book, but haven't |
stumbled upon it myself for years In It l |
have descriptions OF 100 New York ladies Of |
that time-complexion, eyes, hair, type Of |
beauty, etc. There were forty-one Greek |
noses in the collection, twenty seven aquiline,
nineteen Celestial, and thirteen more or less |
pug. And let me tell you, young fellow,
that when a pug nose is combined with a pair
OF beautiful eyes it is simply irresistible; the
popular notion of pug noses is n libel Out |
of the 100 studies thus made the decided
blondes numbered forty-seven; there were
twenty one mezzotints, with light gray or
bluegray eyes and light brown hair, and |
thirty-two decided brunettes And let u
state, as a singular fact. that the aquiins
nose heloAes tspicalIy to the brunette.
Il intended, when set out, to make memo
randum on the subject once in every ten
years, but, in point of fact, il was 1851 be-
fore had leisure 70 pursue my purpose. This
time the notes comprised descriptions OF $50
women-some of whom / knew personally.
others were simply represented by numbers.
The proportion varied considerably, that Of
pure blondes having sensibly diminished In
ali only eighty could be fairly classod in that
category; there were seventy-nine mezzo-
tints, and the remaining ninety-one were de-
scribed as brunettes.
an 1870 took third budget Of notes: and
wrote paper on the subject for
. London magazine forget the title now,
at the request Of the editor, who had seen
about my hobby in an American
newspaper. This time l took 100 examples
only, just as they came, without discrimina-
ton. The ratio Of blondes had fallen to
twenty nine in 100; that Of mexzotints had
risen TO twenty-eight, and that OF decided
DruDettes TO iorty-three-
~In 1850 instituted another investigation,
but, in truth, was getting old and decrepit,
and the subject did not interest me as it once
had The result showed twenty-three pure
blondes in every 100 women, twenty-five
seInis, and 80 hrunettss.
you mik.H think me ron,sncing il / did
not sssurs Jon that rally have studied the
matter carefully. In our earlier history the
ratio OF blondes was vastly larger than now,
for reasons that are very evident Descended
in the main from English and Netherland
ancestors, the population OF this city, until
the tendency was broken by immigration
md intermarriage, showed decided inclinA-
ton to the blonde style in both SEXES This
remained undisturbed till
abcat ls4S, when the Development Of the city
IS great trade and money center brought !
IN q large influx from the darker races
II southern Europe. Since then the blonde
,as been slowly disappearing; for it
$ . remarkable fact that the dark type
$ more persistent than the light. under he
influence Of intermarriage. For example,
whether the wife Is dark and the husband
light, or vice versa, the posterity will show
he same obstinate tendency to the survival
If the dark skin and eyes, and the obliters-
hon Of the light As : physician, have bad
ample opportunity to verify this rule. and
rave noticed very few notable exceptions 10
{ during an experience Of fifty years The
ended 70 accelerate the disappearaucs Of
blondes What effect the German strain
sin have, when the increasing Teuionic adj
mixture has once been absorbed. in nes.ral-
sing other tendencies, is son,sthing the next
ranrx y,usf I