The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-08
CAPTURE PRETTY WIVES.
That Is What the ~Aggressively
Homely Men Do the
World Over.
Instances Both Ancient and
Modern to Prove tho Truth of
the Assertion.
The Ugly Mans Success Accounted for in
n Number of Ways-He Is
SO Persistent.

A writer in the Indianapolis Sun expresses
some surprise that SO positively and agrees
sively homely a man as Joel Chandler Har-
ris ever succeeded in captivating SO beauti-
full a woman as that little brunette wife of
his, says the Minneapolis tribune. The
Sun man is evidently a careless observer of
the habits of his fellow bipeds. As a matter
of fact your ho1nely man almost invariably
succeeds in capturing a pretty wife. His
tory and daily observation furnish innu-
merable proofs of this proposition.
Socrates, who was so ugly that the scuIptors
of his time used him as a model of every
thing to avoid in their work. had q fright
full scold for Il wife. but Xantippe is said to
have been q beauty in her younger DAYS be-
fore the eccentricities of her philosopher
husband soured her disposition and the
constant and increasing acidity cor
roded her once regular features.
Richard H., misshupen bunch
back. won the fair Lady Anne
at her dead husbands very bier. Lincoln,
the awkward rail splitter whose face was
strong and kindly, but devoid of nearly
all the charms that enter into the makeup
of Il "hnndsome man. captivated the
charming Mary Todd, of Lexington, XIV.
And this was twenty years before he had be-
come famous, too, so that it could not have
been ambition that led the future mistress
of the White house to surrsnder her hand
and heart. Grant, the plain and unprom-
ising young lieutenant, captured the aristo-
cratic Miss Dent; Sherman, almost ps
homeiy AZ Lincoln, was accepted, among
scores of handsomer and waaithier ~suitors.
by the brilliant Ellen Boyle Ewing, dauph-
ter of the friend of his boyhood. And this
was in 1S5O-many years before William
Iecumseh sherman was known far heyon9
his own mess teQt.
so 1t COOS in all walks of life, all grades
of society. Pick out the homeliest man
you meet IN Il days walk-the man whose
lack of beauty derails the electric cars.
makes babies cry and dogs howl. causes
milk to curdle on a cold uay-inupire
about him. and If he be married, Won VIII
be told that his wife is a beauty. Now
there mus be II reason for this. Try to
find 1T by tracing the growth of your
holnely man. AS Il boy YOU see him "A
ffeckled, big eared, wide mouthed bundle
of awkwardness. Caressae and compIi-
nlents are reserved 70 others; cuffs and
jeefs are has portion. He soon learns that
be lr handicapped in the steaple chase of
sff5-or thinks he is-anG he huckles down
- his work. Ha studies and becomes Glib
OF tongue and Shrewd IN reading clarac-
ter. The rough edges of tie world
against which he is constantly thrown
gives him polish. He has n biz.
sympathetic heart, for generosity
ai"ays goes with overglown
ears and supei tluous width of mouth. lie
is progressive, combative and Courageous il
his nose be of the exaggerated Roman or
aquiline tyre; rucnacious, lnde. endent
and witty If 1t be a ~"tufn-ap.'' There are
no tlatterers to make a fool of him, nor
does he waste golden moments cooking a
mnstachs or learning to tie q cravat. The