The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-08-06
Blue Eyes and GRAY.

From the New York Commercial Advertiser.
A newspaper finds fault with Mr..
Stockton for speaking OF his heroine
in "The Late Mrs. Null" as blue-eyed
on one page andgray-eyed on another.
But, ii this was an aninadvertance, which
we may doubt, the author can cite the
most illustrious precedents in his de-
fence. The great authority OF Shakes
reare, foreSample, supports him. The
dramatist describes the eyes OF Venus
first as gray and then as blue; COM
menting upon which Malone wrote:
What we now call blue eyes were in
shakespeare's time called gray ewes
and were considered beautiful" Else
where IN Shakespeare we find Julia, in
"Ihe Two Gentlemen OF Verona"
gwen eyes "as gay as glass;" and
Olivia, in Twelfth Night, when max
ing out schedule OF her beauty, in
serts as one item, "two gray eyes with
! lids on them"
! Byron, who loved the eye and stud
led it, favored gray eyes, "if they have
soul, as a safe and happy medium
between Blue and black. He gives
this tint to Mary Queen OF Scots.
But Byron trips as badly as our auth
or OF to-day, forin one case he speaks
OF Minerva as "the blue eyed maid
OF heaven" and elsewhere as a goddess
too wise to look through optics
black or blue"
One reason, perhaps why the poets
and romancers are little shy OF the
gray eye is because it approaches per-
ilously near the green. Yet not that
green is the literary fashion that OBJ
lection does not have it's accustomed
force. We shall not enter on a de.
Tense OF the green eye, but its popular,
known, and the fashion, be it
good or bad, has respect
able line OF literary precedents
Longfellow justihes its use in
"The Spanish Student" by a foot
note, which explains that "the greer
eye is much esteemed in some parts
OF Spain" Juliet nurse tells her that
Romeo is naught in comparison with
his rival Paris, OF whom she says:
An eagle, madam,
Hath not 80 green, 80 quick, SO fair an eye
Chaucer, also, gives Emeritus, III
the knights Tale" eyes of lemon
or citron hue. But as a rule, in spite
of these and other instances that
might be cited, the green eye is not
admired. Most people will agree with
Burns in scorn OF the wife of Willie
| Wassie:
| She had an ee, she had but ane,
The cat had twa the very color.
If space permitted us to 70 into this
subject more in detail we might show
that English writer's generally as.
sociated the blue or gray eyes with a
mild and truthful nature. But we
may be allowed to doubtif the blondes
are as gentle and the burnetts are
as ferocious as they are painted. In
an interview which appeared recently
in Western newspaper, q sheriff who
had had dealings with most of the
dad men" OF the plains, said that
these outlaws were almost uniformly
blondes with light blue or gray eyes
And Byron notes, to return to litera.
ture, that the cruel and licentious
Catherine, OF Russia, had very blue
eyes. Evidently the "heavenly" hue
OF some blue eyes is simply a coinci
dence.
But in reality there arevery few blue
eyes that outlast childhood. The
"baby blue" is soon lost and the eyes
become gray or green, until possibly
they again assume q peculiar glory o
heavenly radiance in the eyes OF some
one particular person OF the opposite
sex,