West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-10-12
VARIOUS TYPES AND CODES
OE BEAUTY.
London Standard

lOnuVh otN"ete%'N'l
varieus, indeed, are the opinions
held by a wide university of races
regarding their beauties,t though it is
often difficult for people bred under
another sky to share their enthu-
siasm. The Circassian women, who
have sort of conventional reputa-
tion for loveliness, are affirmed by
those who know them best to be far
from worthy of their celebrity.
Short legs, glaring red hair, faces so
long and narrow that their head
seem to have been squeezed between
two boards and fattcned, noses out
of proportion to the rest Of the fea-
lures, and complex:ons of dull,
.ead-like hue, scarcely constitute
beauty according to our standard.
The Moors and the Tunisian Jews
regard corpulence as ABSOLUTELY es-
sential to beauty, and the inmates OF
rich mems harems are stuffed with
nutritious food, like Strasbourg
geese for market. The Chinese poet
sings of deformed feet as "golden IL
lies" and the rocking of their wom-
en- in attempting to walk as the
"waying of a willow" Other races
have equally odd ideas of what con,
stitute loyeliness, for they improve
their persons by fattening their fore
head, tattooing their skins, cutting
off their fingers, fling their teeth or
dyeing them black, blue or tartan,
painting their bodies, Sitting their
ears, compressing their waists, put
ting stones, bones or metal through
their lips, cheeks orears, and in
dozen other ways trying to enhance
the poor prentice work of nature.
A Felatah lady dyes her hands and
feet with hannah, stains her teeth
alternately blue, yellow and purple,
one here and there being left of its
natural color,pencils her eyelids with
sulphuret of antimony, and tyes her
locks with indigo. The Hydah wo
man inserts a plug Of wood or ivory
through her lower lip until it repre-
sents the hideous appearance of
a fieshy shelf over her chin. A Chi
nese or Siamese lady cultlvates
long nails. A Hottentot belle can
not get her nose fiat enough, or a
Persian beauty hers high enough.
On the northwest coast of Africa no
reproach is more bitter than for one
Indian girl to tell another that ''your
mother was too lazy to fatten your
head" Tattooing is almost univcr-
sal among half-civilized or savage
races; in New Zealand the Maori
women, before they began to imbibe
European prejudices, even tattoocd
their lips, lest they should have the
yeproach of being red. Some races
slit their ears until they hang in
loops on their shoulders. Others in
sert huge rings and other ornament
ais thro' the cartilage of their noses.
The Louisiade Islanders regard the
lid of a sardine box as particular
ly neat piece of jewelry; and even
European women have not yet ceased
to suspend bits of stone and metal
through the lobes of their ears.
There is, in truth. no possibility of
arriving at any standard of beauty
the points of which would not do
injustice to some of the competitors.
Even among the whites, there are va.
rious ideas of what constitutes good
looks. Like manners and morals,
beauty is very much matter of sky.
Just as an Indian told a traveller
what comfort his son was to him,
because "he could steal more horses
than any boy Of his age" so q West.
ern frontiersman assured visitor
that his daughter was the "fnest
girl'' in the settlement, for she could
''heft barrel of pork and lick her
weight in wildcats"
-S-H-S.