Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-06-12
THE COMFORT OF UCLINESS.
Persons Possessed of Beauty Are Seldom
Contented and Happy.

A pretty man is p nuisance says the
New Orleans PScdyet'ae. This is the
professional pretty man, whose hair
curls, whose cheeks are red, and who
poses in public places where he may
be easily seen, and who always wears
a sozodont-cut smile on his thoughtless
face. He is a nuisance because of his
conceit. Girls have grown weary of
looking at him, but he still keeps in
the way. believing he is giving them
treat. The handsome man is ALWAYS
welcome. He may be large and strong.
and have big hands and feet-he must
be brave and honest-yet he will be
sought after by girls when they want
protection, after they have danced with
fools, and by patrons of husbandry who
wants to marry their aging and fiirta-
tionworn daughters.
Give men or women minds bio
enough and they will not think of and
the world will not worry itself about
their faces. though they may be as plain
as Charlotte Cushman, as rugged as
Ralph Waldo Emerson, as ugly as
George Eliot Poor little misshapen
Pope said: ''The minds the standard of
the man., and the world said "Amenm
He had the mind. 1t is useless argu-
ing with a young girl that beauty is
not a blessing. 1t is in her nature to
want to be pleasing and admired. She
sees roses loved and worn because they
are beautiful, and she would be one of
them and with them in the rose-leaf
longing times of her spring in the
world.
Homely girls have set up nights to
cry and, thinking of fairer faces that
have been more courted because fairer,
have fallen asleep on pillows wet with
tears that have come from kindly eyes
and dropped from homesv cheeks in
sympathy. Tell them that beauty is
only skin deep. and that it brings I'M
happiness, and they will still sob:
Give me the beauty" 1t is like tell
ing poor, tired, overworked man that
great wealth only brings misery"
He will still wish to take the chances
on little wealth. But all the same
there is lots of comfort for the homely.
They can be good, and wise. and, hav-
ing much time away from their mir
rors and their fatterers, can think and
do great things. Let woman speak.
One writing for the Ladies' Home Jour-
nal says:
I'm my life / have known many
women well. Among them is a fair
majority of what the truly appreciative
would call happy, for which fact /
thank God, as it has helped me to take,
on the whole, a hopeful view of life, as
well as of human nature. Now, are
these women, blessed as many of them
are with devoted husbands, cheerful
homes, cultivated society, and leisure
for the exercise of any special talent
they may possess, beautiful women?
With one or two exceptions, no. In
deed, more than a few of them are
positively plain, if feature only is con-
sidered, while from the rest | can single
out but two or three whose faces and
figures conform to any of the, recog-
nized standards of physical perfection.
But they are loved, they are honored,
they are deferred to. While not elicit
ing the admiration of every-passer-by,
they have acquired, through the force,
the sweetness, or originality of their
character, the appreciation of those
whose appreciation confers honor and
happiness, and consequently their days
pass in an atmosphere of peace and
good will, which is as far above the
delirious admiration accorded to the
simply beautiful as the placid shining
of the sunbeam is to the phenomenal
blaze of an evanescent flame"