The St. Johns herald., 1889-08-08
THE Pue-NosED GIRL
rr1cotrin PrOnounces Her a Thing of
 Reauty and Joy Forever.

rricotrin Pronouuces Her a Thing of
 Beauty and Joy Forever.
 Ido remember me, in these faint and weary days, of the youth of my spirit, when wandered fancy free through such works as those of the mortal Junius Henri Browne, writes Tricotrin in Puck. And do, moreover, remember me of a remark Of his which went thus; "Her nose was divine inasmuch as it pointed toward Heaven" Whcreat was won't to laugh, knowing that thereby did Browne signify pug-nosed girl with large gray eyes and sunburst of ambrosial curls that filled the earth with white horses.
 Now that the sand-paper of diversity has scraped the gloss off my youth. and ex- posed beneath the varnish some of the cheap ness of the natural material, laugh not at the pug-nosed girl. smile at her. For, verify, do conceive that she is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
 But, alas the philosophers are not with me. Authorities on personal beauty, from Winckelmann to Henry T. Finck, say that a nose should be straight. Brother Finck says that the Greek artists, who made straight noses, took their idea of the divine nose from the contours of childhood. Their gods and goddesses possessed no cavity at the root of the nose, and this, quoth Finck, is characteristic of youth. "Later in life, he continues, "these cavities (brain cavi- tiesJ bulge forward and produce the hollow, which is, therefore, an indication of superior cranial development and higher intellectual powers. Hence, as Prof. Kollmann sug- gests, the object of the Greek artists in making the nose of their deities form straight line with the forehead was prob ably to give them the stamp of eternal youth"
 But why should a straight line be beauti- ful in the midst of the gracious contours of the human facet The curYilinear prospect is that which wholly inspires the artistic mind. Does not even a small boy, even one who has but one eye, and sees but One-haIf the glory of nature, rejoice more in the curves of dogs tail, velocipede, he goat, mlnce pie, football, a marble, a silver quarter, or what not, than in the square of the hypothenuse or the instruct or's ruler!
 And what is a small boy, with unkept hair and freckled checks, with seven warts upon his hands and the essence of joy in his heart, but the incarnate spirit ot eternal youth, net yet tangled ont of tune by the shadow of age and the inevitable wrestling for the whcrewithal? Does he bite his lips if the world grows old and kingdoms fail, if commerce vanishes into "traciZlcSs, blue immensity, "and the tariff swells like the shadow of doom, if the school keeps or not!
 These things show that there arc both beauty and eternal love in curves, and argue that the Greek artists did not well when they made foreheads and noses of their gods run into one another in a straight line
 Better is the mild and gentle hollow at tho root of the nose, and better still the wide and deep excavation on the upper surface oi the organ of smell, which gives it the as- piration of divinity, according to the i'm mortal Browne.
 Moreover, if the girl with a straight nose obeys the time-worn injunction and follows it, whither will she tend! Surely around and around the earth on a parallel of lat itude, meridian of longitude, or, what is more difficult of navigation, rhumb-line. But if the girl with the pug nose follows it, she goes as straight to Heaven as smoke ou windless day.
 It may be that my more conventional friends and fellow-citizens will laugh at me for loving a versatile nSse. Yet have thus much merit; I do not love the prehensile nose of the tribes that refused to be lost. These noses are the antipodes of the inno- cent and heaveuward pug, winch is dear to mine eyes.
 And lastly, brother-let me whisper this softly, with an accompaniment of low music the pug nose interferes not with the di- vine institution of osculation. It is beneii- gently turned upward out of the way, and leaves the lips free and undefended, so that you may impress thereon a salute, a friendly touch or slow print of love.
 Sonny, this is where the pug-nosed girl has the everlasting bulge on her sisters.