Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-02-14
WOMAN'S WITCHERY.
IT WAS POSSESSED BY NOTED CHAh-
 ACTERS IN HISTORY.

Age at Which Woman Reaches Her Full
 est Powers.
 What, asks Walter Besant, is wom- ans greatest charm? Sweet looks, sweet speech, sweet smiles, sweet voice, lovely eyes, a comedy head, a graceful hgure-all these are gifts and graces to be ardently desired. Yet there is one gift that surpasses all the rest. At the Royal acdemy in London there are the portraits of three women, Lady Hamil- ton, Mrs. Jordan and Sophie Arnould. The lovely Emma is a type of rustic beauty at its best-nOt refined-llkely to become coarse. Mrs. Jordan shows, behind charming face, intellect, wit, cleverness and gentle heart. Sophie Arnould shows greater wit greater clev- erness and a heart not so gentle per haps. On each cf the faces there is in addition unmistakably the same quail ity, rare and wonderful. It is the quail ity for which there is no other word than witchery. These were all three witches, but instead of being burned at the stake they set fire to every mascu- line heart that approached them. And the noble procession of fair women Delilah, Bathsheba, and her cOntem- pOrary, Helen of Troy: Aspasia, Cleo patra, Diane de Poitiers; Mary, queen of Scots; Nell Gwynne-they were all witches, and they all possessed the won derful, indescribable look which pro claims their mysterious power of fas- cination. Many there are who have this fairy $ gift ill a greater or less de gree. 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 gift? It is certainly not faultless beauty, for it is a perfectly comprchensible para dox that as rule tine women who have been noted for the fascination of their beauty were not pretty women at all. Anne 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 Mime. de Mainte- non, had a gOitrous neck and decayed front teeth, yet she was proclaimed a beauty. Marguerite de Valois, with whom most of the prominent French men of her day were at some time or another desperately in love, had heavy cheeks, too prominent eyes and a thick, hanging under lip. The last Duchess de Berri would not have been allowed to so much as compete at beauty show had she presented herself incognito. Sir Walter Scott, who was close to her at mass in the Tuileries chapel, wrote ill his diary that she was plain, and that her eyes were not fellows.
 At what age is this charm most sub tie? Swift wrote with cruel candor of Stella s fading charms and sent her as birthday gift rhymed Receipt to Restore Her Lost Youth" at period that we should consider the prime of life. The caustic dean of St. Pat rick's wondering
 How angels look at thirty-six,
 proves a sharp contrast to the more modern writer, George Lewes, who in his Life of Goethe" speaks of 33 as the fascinating period in a wOman's life, being that in which he considered her to have reached the full develop ment of her powers of mind and body. 4 Ind 33 was the age at which Frau von Stein proved dangerous to the heart of
 
 youthful charms of a Gretchen. Char lotte and a Lili. The line between jeune file and vieille file is, in the po- lite land of the French, drawn with q sharper and more merciless hand than in our own; yet 1t Is the glory of that French life, with its clear and praCti- cal Limitations and its adoratiOn of youthful beauty, to have presented the finest flower of courtesy that the world has ever know to women who had lost the charms of early youth and ruled the minds and even the hearts of men by their wit and their wisdom, their vi vaCity and their grace. It is impossible to read the descriptions of salon life in Paris without realizing the immense power of such women as Mime. de Ram bouillet, Mime. Deffand, who could tol- crate anything but the commonplace; Mime. Necker, her brilliant daughter, Mime. de Stael, and her cherished friend, Mime. 'Hcudetot, exercised in literary, social and political matters.
 It is interesting to see how the age of the heroine of the modern novel differs from that of older writer's Out of 30 of Scott's heroines 16 are described as under 20, three are over 20, and only one, Amy Robsart, is a heroine "of an uncertain age, since she is historical ly a middle aged matron and fictitious ly youthful bride. But the conspicu- ous character of the modern novel is woman, not girl, who has lived and experienced much, and not infrequently ismarried before the story introduces her as its central figure. York Sun.
 The Drama of Life.
 Man-You say your mother is on the stage?
 Boy-Yessir.
 Man-Where's your 3ather9
 Boy-He's on a hoss car.-Detroit Free