, 1892-01-29
Highest of all in Leavsning pows5.-Latsst U. S. Govt Re
Highest of al. in Leavening Power--Latcst [. S. Govt Report
Roe! B BsMdsz
ABSOLUTELY PURE
ABSOLUTELY PURE

not like the Young girls of every
thing under the sun, n with q sweet
readiness to confess their own ig-
norance and ask for information. No.
The young mans prattle is generally of
himself, and with an amiable readiness to
give his own opinion upon whatever other
subject his interlocutor may try to in
troduce he has very little interest in the
views of any one else and shows a mar
velous ingenuity in soon bringing the
conversation around to his favorite topic.
But have patience with him, for day by
day the old mother is smoothing away a
little of the crudity, a little of the new
ness of his life, and imperceptibly re-
placing it with those gracious compen-
sating gifts we have already noted.
But the gift of fascination is quite
apart from these other gifts of youth or
experience, and although it does not
really develop during the first twenty
years of life, | have seen young girls in
whom the promise lay latent yet visible,
girls of whom n may say, "'She is n
charming girl and will be a fascinating
woman"
But if the secret of fascination lies
neither in youth nor beauty, where is it
to be found?
In mental gifts, in wit, in grace of
manner, or in cultivation?
No, no, no! In non of these, al
though of course all are accessories of
greatest value, but not one of these, nor
any other attribute is essential in its
presence or fatal by its absence to this
gift of fascination.
1t is not even n matter of refinement
or education, for in the annals of most
families, perhaps in yours, perhaps in
mine, is to be found the story of some
young man who, despite all the en-
treaties of his mother, his family and
his friends, despite common prudence
and the experience Of the world around
him, has thrown his life at the feet of
some woman whose charm for him is
like that of the Lorelei for the Rhenish
boatmen. Perhaps he marries her. l
knew of one young man, the only son of
a worthy Clergyman, who with great eff
fort and self denial ent the boy to col
lege; he graduated and came home for
the summer but before it was past de-
clared his intention of marrying his
mothers maid of all work, u moderately
pretty but totally uneducated girl belong
ing to a family of drunken ne'er-do-weels
in the neighborhood. All remonstrance
was u%navailing, the marriage took place,
and the young man. dragged down by
his wife and her relations. wandered
west with them and was killed in u
miners brawl.
She was to him, at least, a fascinating
woman, and this n word explains it
all Other fascinating women are edu-
Gated and refined enough. but they are
immoral; they are the scandal of the
community where they live and the sauce
piqudnte of its conversations, but still
they, in "A manner, hold their own even
among tire women, and certainly among
the men, by a power no one a explain
and yet everybody confesses. "She is
altogether Objectionable, but there is
something fascinating about her which
makes you forget all her shortcomings
SO long as you are in her presence" is
the verdict more than once passed upon
some noted rebel to the unwritten law
of propriety in my presence.
History, which seldom troubles itself
with the names of quietly v~irtuous and
commendable women, has preserved
those of several of these fascinating Bo-
hemians. Aspasia was one, for although
she wa very learned and very witty, she
never would have held the sway she did
over the minds and the wills of the
greatest men of her day, even after she
was more than middle aged, had she not
been a fascinating woman. Phryne was
another, and poor Penelope always looks
at her when their two pictures are hung
as a pair, as if she were saying:
well, what is it that makes her so
fascinating to The menu"
Cleopatra was another, for we all
know what sway she held in her day
over men of every nation, and for how
long she held it, although the archeol-
ogists tell us that she was a heavy,
swarthy, thick nosed woman of more
than thirty years old before Antony
ever saw her.
Then there was Ninon de rEnclos,
and it is quite useless for the perfumers
to oncoc and sell their Bloom de
Ninon" unless they can with the cos
metic give the secret of that wonderful
woman's powers of fascination. When
she was quite old her grandson, not
knowing his own parentage, fell desper-
ately in love will her, and upon having
the relationship explained, killed him
self.
But n of the most noted and one of
the most incomprehensible cases OF
fascination on record is that of Mime.
de Maintenon and Louis XIV. 1t began
I -