Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1886-04-14
WONIIlN'S Icy lis.

speaking and one is ready to swear
that sho is tho most radiantly beautiful
woman in the world, OF all French
women, probably Sarah Bcrnhardt has
tho most powerful and at the same
time the most incomprchensible eyes,
With hem she can express every
thing-from tho hurting of silent
anathemas at Nine. Colombier TO re-
quest for brandy. The change from
one emotion to its exact opposite, as
from tenderness to fury, she accom-,
plishes with the quickness of Lightning.
and her whole cyc-lids, lashes, and
all-diates and reccdes, the same as
the pupil OF n cats eye, No two men
can be found who will agree perfectly
as to the exact size and color OF
Sarah's remarkable orbs; they vary con-
stantly. like the colors of a rainbow,
and never appear twice alike, even to
the same person. 1t is said that two
friends once laid q wager as to the size
of Sarah luminaries. Oneprouounced
them large and gazclle-likc, almost
eleph antine; and tho other said that
they were minute and piercing, like
the eyes OF n cobra or basilisk. The
friend to whom the stakes were handed
informed Sarah of the wager. and
when the two young gentlemen were
ushercd into her presence to decide
their good-natused dispute. there was
nothing in her expression to Justify the
standpoint that either OF them had
taken, and so they divided the stake
money, ahook hands, and declared
that Sarah had tho most enigmatic
eyes in Europe.
The German madchen and fraulcin
cannot stir up such tumult and revo-
luton in masculine heart rs can
their more fiery and impctuous cousins
of nla bello France" but their softer,
moro sensuous, though perhaps cooler,
eyes weave a spell about one which is
not altogether unlike the weird. dreamy
languor of m autumn landscape in
Southern Germany.
In direct contrast to German women
are the women Of Russia. They gem
orally have eyes which are fascinating
in their very malignity. This is prin-
cipally q faint of Tartar blood, which,
more than any other, prevails in Rus
STA. Attire n woman of Russia and
another of Tartary the same, and, ex-
ccpt for the duskier skin of the latter,
they would be SO much alike in feature
and expression that even the most
careful observer would pronounce
them sisters. The Russian woman can
smile, and murder while she smiles.
Ivan Turgenetl, in one of his Russian
tales. describes woman OF Ichernl-
GOV who "drew her victim TO her side
and held him there by the eldritch,
snakc-like glitter of her Dyes. " She
destroyed him, land concealed his
dead body under her skirts, while with
smiling complacency she waited to try
her arts and her dagger upon her next
visitor"
Entirely unlike these nothern sirens
are tho
Fair-mbcd sylphs Of the Ionian Isles,
tho sweet, gentle women of Greece,
Whose chances stir each pulse OF love,
TO end each rapture in dream!
Their eyes, to them, seem to have been
made but for one purpose, and they
uso them tho same rs their other
charms for the beguilement of the
sterner sex into an interest in the
divine passion.
The dusky, dark-lashed women OF
Italy. Spain, and Mexico are, all things
considered, the "autocra,s of the eye. "
Whether moved by love, hate, contri-
ton, or triumph, you can read their
inmCst thoughts liz their perfect eyes,
and words are scarcely necessary to
confirm that which Tie eye, dull or i'm
passiuned. shining or fearful, has al
relny spoken. In Mexico, where
courlshp is u matter Of great diff
cu'ty, except under the rareat circlm-
stance, the signing swain reads the
words for which his heart hungers in
the eyes Of his beloved. She manages
1t the right moment to eilldc the al
most tireless vigilance of those who
watch her, and, with one quick, telling
glance, convinces the trembling and
nearly-hopcless youth who haunts her
uncovered window that no is the
very man for whom she is signing and
pining. 1t is not an uncommon occur
renee in Mexico for the courtship, de-
claration. acceptance-everything but
the formal betrothal in the presence of
the young woman's family--to take
place in the street without word be-
ing exchanged between the lovers; the
whole transaction being consummated
through the potent agency OF the eyes.
The marriages growing out OF these
optical courtships are nearly always
more satisfactory to tho contracting
parties than n majority of the mar
riages in England and America after
several years OF verbal counting. Whom
rightly understood, the language of the
eye, in which there is less opportunity
for deceit than there is in words,
questions even when it aflirms; and
the two who employ it. if they are
skillful. know each other perfectly be-
fore they ever touch each others
hands.
The women Of Italy are not good
conversationalisis, but they manage
their eyes so judiciously that one
scarcely realizes how little speaking
they do and how poorly they do it.
A close but perhaps somewhat pre-
JUDGED observer who has spent much
time abroad can scarcely comprehend
why the eye, which is of such vast i'm
portance to the women of nearly every
other nation, IS merely an organ OF
sight to the English and American
woman. Tho latter. probably. does
more flirting than the women OF every
other country put together yet the
eye, her greatest, most effective. and
by far her most adaptable charm. she
can only exercise in the most practical
and commonplace way.
Pugilists in New Role.
A well-dressed young man of gentle
manly appearance, but somewhat