Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-06-13
slonpss o.sAppsAs,mc.
An octoGenarian who Gives Facts
and Figures.

ana Figures.
One Sunday afternoon gray old man
81 near the fountain In Madison square,
his thin, shrunken hands resting on the
knob sf stout Malaeca cane. Unkempt
white hair, as glossy as silk, fell in d
waving cataract over his wasted shoul-
ders. A pair of eyes, once large and
black, but no W 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
''Glad to see you, piped the old man,
greeting a passer by who recognized
him. "a man of eighty is ghost.
Rather, indeed, a ghost is the better one
OF the two. Nobody knows me any
more when I come out for an airing
I'm like one who has been dead. and has
risen again to vex the survivors" He
spoke with the peevish discomfort Of one
who parted with the illusions too long
ago t0 remember that he ever had any.
II was just thinking" he said,
abruptly skipping from one topic 10 an.
other, "what Transformation Is going
ON In the physical appearance OF our
people--partieularly in completion. l
have long been satisfied that blondes
are slowly disappearing In this country
lin this city, at least--and I've never
had better evidence Of the fact than this
afternoon. Since I've been sitting here,
old and young, mistress aud maid,
thirty.seven women have crossed my
eye. Only tive Of them were pure
blondes. Half dozen more would be
clnssed, perhaps. ms mezzotint, but at
least twenty five were distinctly bru.
nette. 1t wasn't so fifty years ago. when
/ commenced In my profession---l told
you was o ghost. he intorposed, par
suthetically. "As recollect our women
then, there were nearly as many blond,s
~ brunettes. | am sorry for the trans
formation, for brunette angel is out oI
the question. Blondes are no more
angelic In spirit than their darker sisters,
perhaps. In appearance, however, per-
feet blonde and perfect angel are synon-
ymous terms. An houri may be bru.
nstte, with soft, dark. lusrously Ian.
gushing eyes; but good authentic
angel must have masses of golden hair
and . complexion like alabaster or Parian
shot with pink SO deplore the elm
ination Of the blonde that is certainly
going on In the development of the
; American people os distinct type"
= The old gentlen al had gone on
rhspsodixing until his very muscles were
braced with q momentary access of vigor.
He beat an impatient tattoo on tho walk
with his cane and continued. "Once an
old man strides his hobby follow the
advice Of Longfellow. Take care! be
warel' Aud the study of the coming
American woman has always been q
hobby of mine. What divine galleries
Of the beautiful l have created In my
brainl What rare, ethereal girlsl Talk
~ you please about real love being
blossom that unfolds slowly. i tell you
man was never yet desperately, hero
ically in love, who did not fall in love AT
first sight. He meets the woman Of his
dream, and that is the end of 1t. In
point Of fact. he has known her all his
life, only he has never met her before.
l saw my wife, only for an instant, years
ago. She passed me in a crowd, and
had only glimpse of the features Of the
d,vinest blonde that ever wore an opera
wrap. Strange to hear such bursts OF
sentimentalism from the lips Of palsied
old man, ehg But one OF the most
curious points about human nature is its
paradoxical inconsistency. Very able
men, says one of Montagne's cleverest
imitators, have passed their lives in
trying to prove that what is is not and
what is not is.
Again the old man turaed the conver
sation abruptly. ut was in 30 or 40,
forget which, that ! began to study
the subject stutistically. New York
was nothing then compared to what il
is now. Everybody knew everybody
who was anybody. I'd like to show you
my old note book, but ! haven't STUN
bled upon it myself for years. In it
gave descriptions of u hundred New York
ladies OF that time-compe pexion, eyes,
hair, type of beauty, etc. There were
forty-one Greek noses in the collection,
twentyseven aquiline nineteen celestial
and thirteen more or less pug, And let
me tell you. young fellow, that when
pug nose is combined with II pair of
beautiful eyes it is simply irresistible;
the popular notion OF pug noses is libel.
Out Of the 100 studies thus made the
uuClutu uuiuDtftu lpTty -htNtn,
there were twenty-one mezzotints, with
light gray or blue gray eyes, and light
brown hair, aud thrty-two decided
brunettes. And let me state, As sin.
gular fact, that the aquiline nose belongs
typically to the brunette.
81 intended when | set out to make a
memorandum on the subject once in
every ten years; but in point of fact, it
was 1851 before had leisure TO pursue
my purpose. This time the notes com.
prised the description of 80 women
some of whom knew personally, while
others were simply represented by num-
bers. The proportions varied consider.
ably, that of pure blondes having sensi.
bly, diminished In all ouly eighty could
be classed in that category; there were
seventy.nine mezzotints, and the remain
ing ninety one were decided brunettes.
'ln 1870 l took third budget of
notes, and subsequently wrote a paper
on the subject for a London magazine, l
forget the title now, at the request of
the editor, who had seen something
about my hobby in an American newpa-
per. This time | took 100 examples
only, just as they came, without dis.
elimination. The ratio of blondes had
fallen to twenty mine in 100; that of
mezzotints had risen to twenty eight,
and that of decided brunettes to forty
three.
'In 1880 instituted another investi-
CATION, but in truth l 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 semis and
fifty two brunettes.
"You might tn nix me romancing il
did not assure you that | really 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 Netherand an.
cestors, the population of this city, until
the tendency was broken by immigration
aud inter-marriage, showed decided
inclination to the blonde style in both
sexes. This predoniuance remained
undisturbed till about 1915, when the
development of the city as a great trade
and money center brought in large
influx from the darker races of southern
Europe. Since then the blonde has
been disappearing; for it is remarkable
fact that the dark type is more persist.
ent than the light, under the influence
of inter. marriage. For example. whether
the wife is dark and the husband light,
or vice versa, the posteuty will show tn,
same obstinate tendency to the survival
of the dark skin and eyes and the oblit.
Grafton of thelight. As physician
have bad ample opportunity TO verif,
this rule, and | have noticed very few