Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-06-04
THE MATURE BELLE.
W0man's Age of Greatest Charm Il
Being Extended.
San Francisco Argonaut.

/ EAtehucus
San Francisco Argonaut.
The ruling woman of the present
day is the mature woman. The
maiden of bashful Is, the bud of Is,
the clear eyed girl of 20, all must
stand aside for their older sister, who
leads the procession. The age at
which women are supposed to exercise
their greatest charm varies with the
varying of fashion and taste. In the
Elizabethan era it was II. Other
heroines as celebrated in their day
and generation as Juliet were the in
stigators of tragic loves and hates at
that extremely juvenile age. Half a
century ago Balzac astonished his
countrymen by claiming unusual
powers of fascination for the woman
of 80. Ever since she has held the
stage as an incarnation of coquettish
attraction. At the present day the
period of beauty and charm has been
extended even further. Balzac's 80
has received an additional ten years.
Women of 40 are no longer looked
upon as ruins in which the antiquarian
may trace relics of bygone splendor.
With the vanishing of the term cold
maid" the old maid herself has with
drawn into the place of departed
spirits. In France an unmarried girl
of over 25 is looked upon as dead
stock, for where there is nothing but a
convent. To-day, in the United
States, women of independent means,
women of society, women who are self
supporting, rarely marry under 25,
and generally put off that episode in
their existence to five or ten years
later.
There are many reasons for the
present vogue of the mature belle.
She is more attractive, understands
human nature better than her younger
sister. She is still good looking. Her
youth lasts longer than it used to, be-
cause she has learned how to take care
of herself. American women formerly
ruined their beauty by bad diet, no
exercise and too little fresh air. Now
they know better. A healthy, we'll
groomed woman, who is not over
worked or Overworried, looks about
the same age at 40 as she did at 25.
With her additional years has come
additional wisdom. If she has not the
engaging simplicity that was hers at
Is, she has knowledge of men and
manners which makes her more in
teresting companion, more lovable
human being. Experience has given
her the gift of sympathy, of which the
young girl feels nothing. To men she
has come to represent not only all
that is graceful and gracious and tact
full in womanhood, but all that is
broad and tender and feminine.
Among workwomen - from the
artistic to the plain workingwoman-
the maturer ones are naturally in the
ascendant. The young girl among
the workers is the novice whom no
one knows or cares much about. 1t is
when the years of endeavor have been
passed, and mind and heart have
reached their fullest powers of com.
prehension and feeling, that she is at
the pinnacle of her development. In
these days of hurry and pressure and
intensity of effort such a creature
naturally takes precedence over the
untried girl who is waiting with ex-
pectant eyes for the message of the
future. Existence is too full, the
struggle too serious, for the return of
those days when youth, ignorance,
beauty and folly were the great re-
quisites of women. The times are
stirring, the pressure of existence
desperately earnest, and man in his
struggle demands helpmate who can
assist him onward, not drag him back.
Chivalry in its downfall carried away
many pretty myths, the pretties the
myth of the child-wife hanging,
frightened and faint-hearted, on her