The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-03-16
THE PERFECT AGE.
Is 1t Only When Young Tint Women
May BE Charming!
Girlhood is Il charming period.

GirIhood Is Il charming period.
We have so long recognized this
fact that when we realize it is past,
that never again can youth be- offered
a an excuse for ignorance or folly.
that simple muslin frocks are not
quite as becolpine-thot instead Of
making us look a. fresh rs roses they
seem absurdly youthful-it is then
that We who are wonicn begin TO think
Of how sad Il thing it is TO really crow
old.
II We are sensible. we do not wish
to haze it seem that We fear we are
g%rowipr old. and try to ssill appear
girlish By dressing in gMirlish fashion.
In fact, We fly to the other extreme
and dress too sobcrly. 1t does not
take u long to pass this sober period.
No woman can afford 10 believe herself
inasse, y" matter how much others may
think her so.
But what is the perfect agc?'
This is al old question, you know,
but, however often asked, it always
brings new answers.
In the Fighter novels the heroincs
are all quite young girls. In those of
the deeper class it is the mature
woman that the novelist chooses to
depict emotions. We have confidence
in the mature woman. When she
laughs we laugh with her, because we
feel that she has really found some
thing worth laughing about. When
she wccps we weep with her, because
We know that tears do not come as
readily to the mature woman's eyes as
they do to younger mes less used to
grief. And when she loves-whcn
she loves, VIC say that is Il woman's
love. 1t is the love Of Il limetimc.'
"a womans love- There is a d.
vinity about that, isn't there?
When hearts are young they are
easier healed. God made them so.
AS each year passes it teaches it's les
son. Is it any wonder, then, that
many women as they have grown older
have grown more fascinating? Pink
checks and Laughing eyes are not all
that make womanhood charming.
The women who have fascinated
men Of genius have, as u rule, been
women who have seen their girlhood
slip away maybe, 100, with IL sigh
and tear, for it is So romantic to be
young!
The two recent biographies Of Lord
Tcnnyson and Elizabeth Barrett
Browning reveal a fact that is rather
remarkable.
Elizabeth was 40 years old and in i'll
health when she ast0nisieG hcrfamiiy
by literally arising from a sick couch
and clipping with Robert Browning,
and all the world has known, long ere
this, that theirs was one of the hap
piest Of marriages.
Tcnnyson first met his wife when
she was Il slim little girl of II. This
was in 1880, when many girls of that
age were brides. Six years later
Bliss Sellwood vas then 23-therc was
an engagement between them. This
was broken off because Of lack of
means to marry on. Tennyson was de-
pendent upon his widowed mother,
and suffered from poverty until 1850,
when he received enough from his
publishers &c make sor himself a home.
Though it was 20 years since he had
first met the woman who won his love,
when he again met her in n friends
house he found in the woman CT 81 all
the charm that in the girl of II had
thrilled his heart. Again he propos-
ed, was accepted and they were imme-
diately married. And they lived
happy ever after for it is a matter of
record that the great poet was SUI
premely happy with his charming and
intellectual wife.
Lord Beaconsfeld's marriage was a
happy one, though his wife, who was
= widow when Re married fhcr, vas
many years older than himself.
Napoleon really loved but one wo-
man-Josephine-thoush he was d.
vorced from her, but for State reasons.
She was 33 when he married her, and
that, for a creole, was quito Riddle age.
AZ ~, when he divorced her, she was
still SO attractive that Napoleon ad-
nired her above all women and never
forgot her. Even after his marriage
to louise he called eftea to see her.
.Aiaonx other famoua woman via