The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-05-19
PART IL.

or TOO small 10 DC Nlsipic W en~ i"nNN
eye, but IL is there nevertheless. In
deed, il Is SO much part of our nature
and tastes that they all unite in declar-
ing that the curved line--a definite part
OF the circle--is the line of beauty. Well,
the large circle that we are pleased TO
call time--in the hope that under that
name il will become straight line and
so take us away from many things that
are disagreeable and perplexing-
brings with il at certain stated and un-
varying periods Qf we but knew how to
measure them rightly the noxious in
fiuences which, when they culminate,
we term war.
1t was in the sixties, as time goes,
when these noxious influences culmi-
mated in this vast nursery of manhood.
the American republic. Some of us
have already forgotten what the bother
was about, never having had very clear
ideas as TO the occasion of so much des-
peration. Nevertheless il will be long
time before some of the details and de-
velopments are wiped from our memo
Ties. AS good luck would have it, Tray
mountain was out of the line of march,
so 10 speak. The great circle encircled
il, to be sure, but the noxious vapors
were thinner here than elsewhere, SO
that Tray elbowed it's way skyward
in perfect peace and security, and
would hardly have known that the
war was going on but for one event
which came like an explosion on the
quiet neighborhood. The echo of the
explosion, Mrs. Pruett claims, was not
heard until Toog Parmalee's pistol
went off close TO his sweetheart's bosom
c--and that Was only the other day.
Now, the war began gently enough
and went along easily enough so far ns
Tray mountain was concerned. It's
sunsets were not more golden nor its
wonderful dawns roster on that ac-
count. The thunders that shook
Manassas, and Malvern Hill, and Gettys-
burg gave forth no sounds in the crags
of Tray. III the truth must be told,
there are 60 crags nearer than those Of
Yonah, or those which lift up and form
the chasm OF Tallulah, for Tray is "a
commonplace, drowsy old mountain,
and it does nothing but sit warming it's
sway back in the sun or cooling ii in the
rain.
But Tray mountain had one attrac-
Nion, IL no other, and the name of this
attraction was Loorany Parmalee. In
a moment of high good humor, Mrs.
Pruett remarked that "ef Jerd had any
fault in the world it was in bein' too
- Do fa -, x.,1. .,ta
and il would fit Loorany Parmalee to n
r.. If she had any fault it was in being
too handsome. But beauty, it must be
borne in mind, is a relative term wher
you employ it in a descriptive sense. Nc
doubt Loorany would have cut n very
unfashionable figure in n group of
beautiful girls dressed according TO the
demands of fashion. She lacked the high
color and the lines that are produced by
contact with refining influences; but
on the mountain--in her own neighbor-
hood-she was a cut or n cut and half
above any of the rest of the girls. Her
eyes were as black as Goals and latent
heat sparkled in their depths. Her
features were regular, and yet little
hard, her under-lip being trife too
thin, but she had the sweetest smile
and the whitest teeth ever seen on Tray
mountain. Her figure--well, her figure
was what nature made il, and that wise
old lady knows how to fashion things
when she's let alone and has the right
kind of material TO work on. She had
the leisure as well as the material in
Loorany's case, and the result was that
the girl in form aud in grace belonged
Grecian marbles.
All this is mentioned with proper
reserve, and with all necessary allow
ance for conflicting views and opinions.
Everybody to their TASTE" as the old
woman said who kissed the COW and left
her spectacles and one eye hanging on
horn. If those who admire the fanci-
seen Loorany Parmalee when she was
driving the cows home, chunlSing old
Brindle and using n good deal of
language with good deal of laughter
--or, worse still, when she was digging
for woodchuck, and trying TO keep the
dogs from tearing the creature all to
finders, they would have laughed at the
suggestion that she was beautiful
enough TO be put in picture.
But just reflect over the matter
minute. How many pictures of note,
ancient or modern, contain figures that
are dressed fashionably? Count ON
your fngers-leaving out portraits
and give the number. II you live 10 be
thousand years old you'll never get
10 your thumb in a count Of that kind.
And now as TO portraits; can you muster
a dozen painted by masters OF the art in
which the painter has not struck q
blow at frills and furbelows by invent
ing costumes and draperies 60 suit his
own ideas OF what is beautiful?
But this is bordering on argument,
and, in matter OF this kind. argument
always weakcns the case of those who
employ II. The whole contention comrs
90 this In the end: that. i'm the right
light, and in the foreground of a
bowldcr. with a roguish streak of
sunshine whipping across her bacl,