The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-08-30
Ears and Ear Rings.

EtAk6 tAthk AleAA kAAhSSs
A pretty ear is great beauty and
finds many enthusiastic admirers. We
could name many noted man first at
tracted 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 de-
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 ali 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
elfy. AS Ovid tells us: "Their dresses
were 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 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 rs many as
three, and sometimes four large pearls
on each ear. This style of earring was
called Crotalia; and the pearls elanked
, together like so many bells, which was
very fiattering 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
i absurdity, and had earrings put to the
famous carp of Fontainebleau.
Who has not heard of Cleopatra
, famous pearl earrings, which cost two
millions of francs each, and one Of
I which she melted in her cup and drank
, it to Antheny's healthp She would have
! done the same thing with the second
!, earring had she not been prevented
This earring afterward passed int
: Agrippa's hands, and he had it cut il
/ two, 10 form two earrings, with which
to adorn the ears of the statue of Venul
: in the Pantheon of Rome.
4 Caesar also once paid a million o
/ francs for pearl, which he gave to thu
\ mother of Brutus, and he had so greS
! generation for pearls that in his law
' against celibacy he forbade them to b.
q worn by women who had not husband
4 or children, or any one who was unde
4 forty-fve years of age. Now, however
: pearls are the favorite ornaments TO
young girls, and looked upon as EN-
IS blems of innocence and purity. But
n string of pearls round the neck alon
u should be worn by young girls, and no
pearls in the ears.
= Italians and other southern peopl
s full of old fashioned superstitions hav
a their children's ears bored almost a
q soon as they are born, under the ide
that this hole in the ear preserves tn
eyes in good sight and strength. w
=. may here add that we know youn
f. women of twenty with failing sight, a.
though they wear earrings, and other
10 of past thirty who never have wor
a an earring and have their sight as SCUM
r. and clear as a child's. Earrings, there
le fore, do not invariably protect the eye
] from weakness or disease, though the
n sometimes have beneficial effect. w
3 hope that none of our readers will wes
10 them if they have pretty ears, for pre-
,e ty ear is doubly pretty without holes
Il it, and an ugly ear can not be too timi
and retiring
"A But putting the question of beauty @
n one side, there really are some wome
to with very thin, hollow cheeks, to who
le rather long earrings are becomin;
They seem to fill up vacuum, and
ID earrings are ever suitable it is in sue
:. cases.-AmericG' Queen.
d. '----
1 v,faf1 10 the dssaoi