St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1891-03-07
THE PRETTY WOMAN.
An EzanDls Of the Aftenti0n She Attrae
In Public.

In Public.
81 have many times wondered" sait
the observing man, ''what the feeling
OF the ordinarily attractive woman ar,
upon finding herself the center of ths
respectful but evidently admiring gar
OF number of men unknown to her
During several years of daily travel ir
the surface and elevated cars and the
ferryboats Of this metropolis I have
struggled with this problem in vain. ]
have studied the faces of women under
these circumstances, and have cautious,
ly led up TO the subject or asked it faiz
and square of those of my charming
women friends with whom have been
on terms of sufficient freedom. But ]
know practically no more now upon the
question than 1 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 l 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 appear
ance and bearing. The women were
exceedingly plain and poorly
dressed. and one was positive
" homely. The men all kept
their faces studiously buried in their pa
pers. At One Hundred and Fifty fifth
street . woman of about twenty-five 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, vivacious manner, and her
dainty way Of handling herself. She was
tastefully and neatly dressed, and looked
every inch q refined woman. She was
instantly attractive to . 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 l was primed to observe these
things. ! was expecting them. As /
said, the men were all gentlemanly.
and as consequence their glances were
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 compliment
ary to any woman. The fearfulness was
evidently twOfOld. In the first place, it |
that the men were afraid that
the young woman would notice their
ylances and be offended. Secondly, It |
showed that they were fearful that their |
fellow passengers would notice their |
weakness. To a perfectly-impassive
observer. as tried to make myself, the
was amusing. was sitting
On the same side of the car as the young
SO presently I got mp and sat
lown opposite SO could observe how
'he took all this implied alteration. She
lid not allow her eyes to fall once upon
! single man in the car. She talked to
he older woman, who may have been her
mother, constantly. Her color height
med and she became more vivacious and
more charming every minute could not
,elp thinking that this may have been
lue to her consciousness of the general
ldmiration she was provoking. But
Who could tell? At Eighth avenue both
got ont. The younger one
ooked at no one as she walked out in
lignified manner.
This is only single example of
What you can see . dozen times daily,
10 pretty women, or do they not recog-
lize the admiration they arouse every
vhere they go? II they do, how does
effect them? No pretty woman will /,
onfess TO her dearest masculine friend
hat she notices the sensation she
makes daily any more than she will
how her unknown admirers in the
trccts by glance or smile that she is
ware even Of their existence. IN. VI