The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1884-02-05
g.. Louis Repu ublican
CONTINUED YOUTH IN WOMEN.

ONAhNGED YOUTH IN WON EN.
The surest recipe for continued youth
in women and prolonged good looks is to
know that her looks still have power to
produce sensations in the other sex The
moment any woman finds herself a star
without a satellite-a woman bereft of
admirers that moment does age make
an inroad and fretful lines begin to mar
the smile which lately played about her
lips. This is true only of the worldly
trininin" types-those who make up the
we'll dressed crowd at all splendid gather
lngs, and whose names are whispered
with kind OF awe by non-society goers
and young girls, who gaze curiously at
them to find out if possible what the spell
Is with which they control all the men
within a certain radius.
There are women who do not finch and
cry when the polished mirror distinctly
points out the first gray hairs on the tenn
pie and the sall"wness of q neck once the
admiration Of everybody. But they are
women with stern purpose in life-a
motive other than to look AZ we'll as it is
possible To 2s long a. possible.
When woman ceases to take hatterv
kindly, it may be said that she has settled
down to her stony fate and resigns all
sceptres to the younger, prettier women
around her. Few women grow old grace
fully. The first feeling of terror at the
discovery of gray hairs and wrinkles has
planted a wormwood which obliterates
with ITS little bitter all the gathered honey
81 years OF adulation. The lines which
come are tense and tell of suffering, for
what woman does not absolutely suffer
when she feels that she is being left ont of
the roll of young and pretty women?
Once tw" women sat in the little back
room OF hair-dressrr's shop on Fifth
street, long since removed to make room
for u palailal building devoted to jewelry,
having their hair tortured into the then
outrageous fashion of pnffs and ringlets,
all impatient to appear in the ball room
graced bv the Grand Duke Alexis of Rus
>ia. The younger woman, then bnt 23,
with a magnificent but rather shabby
black -ilk with a plain white 6chu, looked
cnviously on the older lady, whose head,
nearly bald had to be covered with false
hair, but whose lemon colored satin, COW
cred with Chantlly hounces and over
dress, was simply too lovely for any
thing"
+" You are thinking now," said this lady
t" the poor little wife of poor man, with
a familiar and kindly tone, chow beaut-
FIJI my dress is, and my diamond and to-
paz necklace and bracelets, and you think
it bard not t. be able to wear such things
t" this ball, do you not, my child ?"
es, said the other, slightly embar-
rassel by this question from one she
hardly knew admire pretty dresses
and jewels. | am going to the ball as
the plainest woman there, probably 1t
hurts just little"
My dear" said the lady, on whose
still plump but wrnkled neck sparkled
the rare jewels, laying her hand on the
young woman's lovely hair &" Do not
envy me; pray don't If you only knew
what riches you possess in your magnif-
cent hair, yonr fresh face, your lustrous
=; =. - '''lA 'r..t e.~.->., NY G,"-s- ~rA
these baubles Oh that were az young
as you! If only could give YOU all my
dowry of diamonds and laces, and take
your youth, your little knowledge of this
wicked world, and your power of enjoy
ment You do not know it, but you are
to b" envied. not /. 1t is you who carry
wealth TO the ball, not such as |, an old
WON N whom no one will notice, save out
of chIvalry and kindness. For all this
head-lress, powder and yellow satin the
marks of age are here not to be effaced !"
She spoke from her heart, and that
other, grown older since and wiser, un-
derstands now her meaning fully, which
then she did not. She has herself since
then come into possession of satins and
jewels, but the fair face, the artless eve,
the rnsnlied heart are gone, and the same
lines which marred that others face she
sees now in her own, and feels the same
pang when looking into the .untroubled
eyes Of fresh womanhood. She longs
again for that little fichu and the worn
black silk, accompanied by 1.-THE form,
sprlnsy step and mind totally ignorant
Of the worlds hard places. Then at the
theatre she could weep with the distressed
heroine, and did not know that three
stage hands, and not Capulet's marble
walls, held up the fair Juliet in her moon
lit balcony.