The morning news., 1891-01-28
PUNISHMENT Foa BEAUTY.
1t Falls Heavily in the Dark Days Of
Old Age.
Nrom Rarper's Bazar.

Old Age.
yrom Hdrpers Bdzdr.
The woman who is pretty is far too liable
to think that that is enough she will con-
quer her kingdom by means of it, and
when the day of reckoning the day Of fad
ing comes, the kingdom will be already hers
by right of possession. Indeed, she does
MOI consider the day of fading; it is some
thing as difficult for her to realize as death
itself is to the young; it is far off, vague,
all but impossible; how is she ever going TO
look other than she does now and still
be herselfs And at any rate there
are always ths means to make
the repairs Of beauty; and sufficient
unto the day is the evil thereof. And so, in
an average of more than half the instances,
she goes dancing off about her pleasure like
fly in the SUI, as full Of the present, as
careless of the future, she makes no prepara-
tion for the impending fate which is sure to
come to her If she lives long enough; !;
she relies on her far face, her blushes, her
dimples, her radiance, her smiles, her
glances, her sweetness. To please, 10
a tract, to marry, TO marry well is the
mark she has set before her, and it does not
need cultivation of the sterner virtues for
that; the sterner virtues are not greatly
called into account in this quest, have little
=
of being missed.
Nor is great intellectual cultivation in the
scheme of our pretty woman's life; accord
ing to her plan of action it is sntirely unnec-
essary. Who cares for syllogisms, lee urss,
instructionsl she unconsciously argues
from rosy lips. Who will stop to ask If the
bright eyes have dulled themselves over dry
pages OF scholastic loreg L who will be
learned it is enough for her to be gay and
happy.
What, then, has our pretty creature left
for the dim passages of middle age, when
beauty has fallen away, but there still is
left the desire to hold captive what once
beauty gainedg The time is coming when
there Will be deep crescents round the
mouth whose lovely curves have been
dragged down by haccid muscle, when there
will be fine spider web lines about the eyes,
when there will be hollows in the cheeks,
when the red aud white Of the skin W IL
have become blurred and mottled or over
laid with yellow sallowness, when perhaps
there will be present in the vacuous face
only ''that divine smile which has lost the
two front teeth"
Let the pretty girl remember that in the
darkness of that middle passage the beauty
| that she had before she entered it will not
| signify; all faces are in the dark together
then, the gil that was plain with the girl
that was beautiful; the wreck Of beauty
| signifies then no more than the wreck of
what never was beauty. 1t is the sweet
voice, the kindly manner, the burden of
what is said, the tender hear tedness of what
is done, that tells with any effect then. l.
will not be long before she arrives at this
time. which in comparison to the blaze of
youth, neighbors close on the dark; and she
will need them all with which she can have
filed her intellect aud fed her soul; all that
wit and virtue and breeding eau have given
her, in order to return anything of that
kingdom to which in the early days she felt
herself born by right divine.