The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-26
wITCHING WOMEN OF HISTORY.
Many, Though Not Really Beautiful,
Possessed Mysterious Powers of
prom the Chicaqo Herald.

Fascination.
From the Chicago Herald.
What, asks Walter Besant, is woman's
greatest charml Sweet looks, sweet
speech, sweet smiles, sweet voice, lovely
eyes, a comedy head, graceful figure; all
these are gifts and graces to be ardently
desired. Yet there Is one gift that sur
passes all the rest. At the Royal Academy
IN London there are the portraits of three
women, Lady Hamilton, Mrs. Jordan and
Sophie Arnould. The lovely Emma is a
type of rustic beauty at its best-not re-
fned--likely to become coarse. Mrs Jor-
dan shows, behind a charming face, intel
lect, wit, cleverness and a gentle heart
Sophie Arnould shows greater wit,greater
cleVerness and heart not so gentle, per-
haps On each of the faces there is in
addition, Enthusiastically the same quality,
rare and wonderful. 1t is the quality for
which there is no other word than witch
cry. These were all three witches, but
instead of being burned at the stake they
set lire TO every masculine heart that APP
preached them. And the noble process
sion of fair wOmen-Delilah, Bathsheba
and her contemporary. Helen, of Troy /;
Aspasia, Cleopatra, Diane de Poictiers,
Mary Queen OF Scots Nell Gwvnne-they
We're an witches, and they all possessed
the wonderful, indescribable look which
proctaims their mysterious power of fas-
cination. Many there are who have this
fairy's gift in greater or less degree.
Providentially, few know their own
power, and are content to bewitch one
man alone out of all the earth
And what is the secret of this giftl 1t
is certainly not faultlesS beauty, for it is
a perfectly comprehensive paradox that
as rule the women who have been
noted for the fascination Of their beauty
were not pretty women at all. Annie
Boleyn had many plastic defects. The
Duchess OF Burgundy, who lit up in the
old age of Louis XIV. and the court of
Versailles, and neutralized the morose
influence of Nine. de Maintenon, had "a
goitrous neck and decayed front teeth,
yet she was proclaimed beauty Mar
guerite de Valois, with whom most Of
the prominent F'renchmen Of her day
were at some time or another desperately
in love, had heavy cheeks, too prominent
eyes, and thick, hanging under lip The
late Duchess de Berri would not have
been allowed to SO much as complete
at a beauty show had she pre-
sented herself incognito. Sir Walter
Scott, who was close to her at mass in
the TuilerleS Chapel wrote in his diary
that she was plain, and that her eyes
were not fellows. At what age is this
charm most subtile2 Swift wrote with
cruel candor of Stella's fading charms,
and sent her as birthday gift rhymed
Receipt to Restore Her Lost Youth" at
a period we should consider the prime Of
life. George Lewis, in his Life of
Goethe" speaks of 80 as the fascinating
period in a woman's life, being that in
which he considered her to have reached
the full development of her powers of
mind and body And 33 was the age at
which Frau Won Stein proved dangerous
TO the heart of the poet, who had SER
vived the more youthful charms of a
Gretchen, a Charlotte and Lilli.