Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-18
Written for THE EVENING STAR
BELLIES OF FORTY.FIVE.
Women Who Keep Beautiful and How
They DO 1t.

They DO 1t.
KEEPING ApIPosE AND WRINKLES AwAr-A WOMAN
WHOSE SON WAS PROUD OF HER-soME OF THE
FAIR ONES OF FORTY Oh MoRE-AMIABrL1TY AND
ITS EFFECTS.
"We have two things to dread" frankly con-
fessed handsome woman across the coffee
service in her pretty room in the p-ettiest ho-
tel In the country-that is to say in Philadel-
phia. "The foes of good looks are adipose and
wrinkles. thin woman may fascinate, in spite
OF her slimness, if she has flesh only to hide
the outline of her bones, like Sarah Bernhardt.
But when the form becomes tallowy, and that
layer comes at the back of the neck by which
men profess to tell womans age, good-by at
traction! When You see the handwriting the
nne lines on the face, it is sign that ones days
are numbered for pleasing. and say when q
woman ceases to attract she had better cease to
exist. That's the way feel about it, anyhow.
You can be useful and fill a vacant place in
society and be good to your family and all
tnat being passe, but then you can do all these
things just as well and great deal better for
being pretty. My brother doesn't think any
less OF me that people seem to notice rue favor
aply when he goes out with me, and 1t Is nice
and easy to get him to do what want, aud
u
him, can tell you, when am around"
PROUD OF HIS MOTHER.
"My son is rather proud of having his
mother taken for his sister," said another
gentle creature in a natty black cloth morning
dress, French and severely plain. which set off
her chestnut curls and rounded figure. You
won't believe had a purple suit made just be-
cause that boy happened to admire lady
dressed in that color. So 1 hunted up a
camel s-hair, darker, rich shade, fit for an
older person like myself and had it turned out
rs stylish as could be contrived. with velvet
hat and tea roses in velvet, strictly within the
line OF my years, for no remarks about frisky
matrons. il you please, and you ought to see
how the boy likes it, He is as critical if / have
spot on my face as if he was going to paint
my picture. Oh, it's nice to have your own
boys in love with you."
When they can't help it," said the hostess.
with glance which pointed the compliment.
"One such woman is enough to stir up So
cety to emulate her freshness and good ex-
ample"
1T takes caro- and thought" said pretty
matron arcAly. The boys and their father
watch my weight, and if L threaten to grow u
trlfe stout there Is uneasiness. and am adj
vlsed anxiously not to take chocolate or too
much dessert and there is general relief in the
family when return to original thinness. 1t
sounds absurd. but when mere little woman
keeps the house happy with few gowns
and nice ways l call it cheap at the pains.
Don't tell any one for the world, but the boy
this is the way she alludes to her son and heir
has n half-mile course laid down at our
place on Long Island, and nothing pleases him
better than to get me out there back of the
evergreens tor n run with him on bright
morning. You can run your flesh off quicker
than you can get rid of it any other wa-,
and 1t leaves one feeling as if you could set the
bay on fire."
OUGHT TO FEEL LIRE GIRL.
"That's the way woman ought to feel" said
an older woman, whose deep blue gown set off
face of rose red and white and brilliant keen
gray eyes made the glance wander after her.
When l was out in the country people used to
wonder at me, and they said, She goes about
like young girl l asked, How should l go
about? l felt light and perfectly easy in mo-
ton, while their women went about staid, mop
ing. artificial, because they thought they must
do so. l got In and out of rockaway withou,
help while one of their women had to have
three men come to offer hand, and then she
fell out with puff as if she were going to
pieces. When q woman has large lungs, as we
have, she is lighter and gets around easier, Just
as birds do with the air cells in their bones;
or they. are wadded with flesh about
the hips and chest with pokIng about their
housekeeping and breathing the fumes of SO
much cookery, and sitting around and moving
slowly when they go about afterward l can
get three times much done in the time those
women can, don't care what it is-dressng a
lunch table. or getting ready for fair. or help
ing my husband. I'm forty-tive my last birth
day, and I'm not going to turn invalid or peni-
tent or turn Mrs. Gladstone this year or next
either. My husband is growing corpulent with
sitting in the Office much and eating good
dinners, and he is going off hunting in the Rus
sian river country. where mountain tramps will
take the superfluous off him. 1 want him to
look something like the man liked and mar
ried, and l don't want to be left
a blooming widow by apople1y or
other fatty degeneration. When my book is
through the press I'm going on the Edenic diet
for SIX months to get this suet Off my hips that
intolerable boarding house fare put on me last
winter, and I'm not going to feel more than
thlrty-five the next twenty years. look young
because feel young. am young. There isn't
an organ about me that has flaw or is disordered
in any way, for haven't taken care of myself
these forty years for nothing, and before that
my mother took care Of my health for me.
feel very much like being happy myself and
making everybody else happy, and if that's a
crime I'm criminal of the deepest dye"
AN IDEAL PICTURE.
''You were ideal when that picture was taken"
said the youngest lady, glancing at photo
graph whose shoulders were smooth as mar bic,
while the face had the studious, dreamy air of
n sweet girl graduate.
When do you suppose that was taken?"
quietly asked the hostess.
why when she thirty-fve, / suppose"
said the coquette with a naive insolence of
twenty-five.
1T was taken five years ago, with her six
grown children about her. and nine men out of
ten would turn to look after her then where
one would look at US. petite
''And the tenth?' demanded the beauty, de-
family, flushing little.
"The tenth would follow her." was the dulcet
reply. ''See the expression, full of sensibility
and fervor, with the look of musng DIANA
You find that look in the eyes of studious
women of warm hearts and large brains. and it
is a look that attracts when complexion and
toilet pail
AVAILABILITY COMES WITH YEARS.
The beauty tossed her little head, sneered
and was offended. Availability is one of the
gifts one learns with years. Taking the ques-
ton on facts, society is far ahead of theories,
as usual. Its homage has not all been poured
at the feet of girlhood. To whom did Angelo
write his sonnets and Petrarch his, whom did
Titan and Nandyke paint, and for whom were
swords oftenest crossed, but women of an age
which would raise the sneers of our boy and girl
American society? And who hold sway over
the inner circle of New York society today but
women long past girlhood. except such youth
as Is inherent and immortal? Our Beauty is
the title Of affectionate pride with which the
finest men allude to Miss Beckwith whose
dainty, patrician loneliness still commands the
devotion Of the most exclusive set in New York
although she is not far from the dead line Of