Los Angeles herald., 1891-01-19
THE PRETTY WOMEN.

How Do They Regard the Public Admire
tion Bestowed Upon Themf
~ have many times wondered" said
the observing man, "what the feelings
of the ordinarily attractive woman are
upon finding herself the center Of the
respectful but evidently admiring gaze
of number of men unknown to her.
During several years of daily travel in
the surface and elevated cars and the
ferryboats Of this metropolis I have
struggled with this problem in vain. I
have studied the faces of women under
these circumstances, and have even eau
tiously led up to the subject or asked it
fair and square Of those of my charming
women friends with whom have been
on terms of sufficient freedom. But I
know practically no more now upon the
question than did five years ago, when
it first appealed to me as an interesting
subject of study. can explain myself
better by practical example. This
morning I was riding on cable car on
Washington Heights There were seven
men in the Car and two women. The
men happened to be all well dressed and
very gentlemanly in appearance and
bearing. The women were exceedingly
plain and poorly dressed, and one was
positively homely. The men all kept
their faces studiously buried in their
papers. At One Hundred and Fifty fifth
street woman of about 25 got aboard
in company with an elderly woman. She
was neither blonde nor brunette, and
was in no respect prettier or handsomer
than fifty young women you might see
any afternoon in upper Broadway. She
was attractive chiefly because of her
mobile, womanly face, her pretty, vi
vacious manner, and her dainty way Of
handling herself. She was tastefully
and neatly dressed, and looked every
inch refined woman. She was instant
ly attractive to a refined man. but no
more SO than hundreds of women in the
streets daily.
But her entrance was the signal for
every man in the car to lay down his
paper. The next moment every man
looked guilty for this breach of man.
ners and picked up his paper again. A
block or two was traversed, and no
ticed that all the men began casting
covert glances at her over their papers.
You see ! was primed to observe these
things. was expecting them. As
said, the men were all gentlemanly, and
as a consequence their glances were
eminently respectful. They would wait
till the pretty woman was looking an
other way, and then allow their gaze to
rest full upon her. In every instance
these glances expressed both admiration
and fearfulness. The admiration was
of the sort that would be complimentary
to any womah. The fearfulness was
evidently twofold.. In the first place,
it indicated that the men were afraid
that the young woman would notice
their glances and be offended. Second,
it showed that they were fearful that
their fellow passengers would notice
their weakness. To a perfectly impas-
sive observer, as I tried to make myself,
the situation was amusing. was sit
ting on the same side of the car as the
young woman, so presently got up and
sat down opposite, SO could observe how
she took all this implied alteration. She
apparently did not notice it. She did
not allow her eyes to fall once upon
single man in the car. She talked to the
older woman, who may have been her
mother, constantly. Her color height
ened, and she became more vivacious
and more charming every minute. l
could not help thinking that this may
have been due to her consciousness of
the general admiration she was provok-
ing. But who could tell? At Eighth
avenue both women got out The young
er one looked at no one as she walked
out in dignifed manner.
"This is only single example of what
you can see dozen times daily. Do
pretty women, or do they not, recognize
the admiration they arouse everywhere
they go? IF they do, how does it affect
them? No pretty woman will confess to
her dearest masculine friend that she
notices the sensation she makes daily.
any more than she will show her un-
known admirers in the streets by glance
or smile that she is aware even Of their
existence. New York Sun.