Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-03-03

FdludOie time that might be more prof
lJaoly spent otherwise. The time has
come When women should be heard in
ner own defense on this question. Ac-
cordlngly to give her an opportunity
OF doing so, several OF the most prom
inent ladies in the dramatic profession
Women of national reputation
which by reason of their occupation
are compelled to devote a great deal of
time and thought to dress, have been
asked to jOt down their views on the
subject of the cultivation and preser-
walton of woman's beauty. Some of
the responses printed below make a
most interesting symposium.
LILLIAN RUSSELL COMPARES WO-
MANS BEAUTY AND MANS
STRENGTH.
1t seems to have been the intention
of the Creator that man should be
strong and women beautiful Novel
lists, who are creators in a certain
sense, since they call into being men
and women born of their imagination,
follow the same rule. Thus. we find
the heroines of Charles N. Reede, for
example Helens, Hebes or Junos in
beauty, while his heroes are marVels
Of strength and athletic proficiency.
Solomon has written: The glory of a
young man in his strength" and never
did young men take greater pride in
that glorious quality or cultivate it TO
a greater extent than at the present
day. This being the case, may not wo-
man. who is denied so many privi-
leges that man enjoys, and upon whom
the burden of sex is made TO weigh
/ heavily in so many ways, take pride
i'm her glorious quality, her beauty, and
devote to its cultivation as much time
as her brother to the development of
his muscles without rendering herself
liable in any greater degree than he
to- the charge of misusing or wasting
her leisure?
The people of the world are one great
family. all having the same first par
ents and being, therefore all related to
each other in a greater or less degree
of cOnsanguinity. There is certainly
as much truth as humor in that line
spoken by Dazzle in London Assur-
ance' about a person whose name he
hears for the first time. He is a rela-
tive of mine. One of my ancestors mar
ried one of his-Adam and Eve" TAX
ing this view of the matter we must adj
nit that to all the men and women by
whom we are surrounded we owe the
same duty of making ourselves as
pleasant as possible that we owe to our
more immediate relatives. The first
step in the fulfillment of this duty of
being pleasant is to look so, and conse-
Guently it necessarily follows that it is
obligatory upon every woman TO al
ways appear at her best l, therefore,
do not think that a reasonable amount
of time devoted by woman to personal
adornment is misused or wasted.
Beauty is a rare and divine gift.
Like any other such natural gift, the
fortunate recipient owes it the duty
of civilization. We are all familiar
with the Scripture parable of the man
who gave certain talents to his SER
wants. and who afterward rewarded
those who. by employing them, had
gained others. and severely punished
the slothful servant who had made no
use of the talent given him. Those to
whom beauty has been given should
endeavor TO enhance it by every harm
less and justifable artifice of the tot
| let. and those who lack it should en-
deavor in the same manner to supply
/ the deficiency of it,
But. after all, what is beauty? The
| late Henry Ward Beecher used to say
that great many people think they
/ have religion when in reality they only
have dyspepsia. 1t is a good deal so
with personal comliness. 1t would be
hard TO find a woman who believes her
self wholly destitute of physician
charms. and doubtless one who really
is so would be difficult to find.
Beauty is purely matter OF opinion.
/ There is no accurate, universally rec
| ognized stanard, or height. or depths
| by which it may be judged. She who
is a beautiful woman in the opinion of
one man may seem very hOmely to the
ewes of another Women who are
sometimes very ugly in the estimation
Of most people, often seem to have
powerful attraction for certain men,
who will prefer them to all the other
women whom the world calls beauti-
ful. 1t has been said that every wo-
man is a beauty in some mans eyes.
If this be true. and all history and eX-
perience confirm it, who shall dare say,
since beauty is a matter of opinion,
and one mans opinion is as as good as
anothers. that there is such thing as
an ugly woman in the world?
But not only is beauty matter OF
opinion. In many respects, as Mad
anne de Stael has said with regard to
religion is a geographical question.
That which is a crime in part OF the
wOrld-the assassination of ones aged
parents. for examples the highest
act of piety in another. So very love-
lv woman in TimbuctoO or among the
Esouimaux would be regarded as the
most bideous of frights in Hyde Park
or on Fifth avenue. In view Of these
facts. it seems the height of nonsense
for a learned university to award
priZe-as one did a few years ago-to
n Young man and a young woman for
being the best formed specimens of
their sex. What right has any uni
yersitv or any nation to say what is
the best form? Travellers tell us that
i'm some countries the standard of
beauty in both face and figure is adj
nose tissue. and she who is the fat
fest is the most admired belle. In
those countries the standard of the
learned university would be laughed TO
scorn. and the young man and woman
with the university medals for phys
zeal perfection would be objects of
ridicule
Beauty is a strange, indeinable
something that attracts. Annie Syl-
vester. the heroine of Wilkie Collins
novel of Man and Wife, was one of
the homeliest of women in the eyes of
all her sex. but she exercised an ire