The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-22

New York Commercial.
''I have listened with despair" says a
wise and charming woman, ito men telling
clever girls, who were well aware of their
own gifts, how brilliant or witty or wise
they We're. Those men were wasting time,
and in some instances, making enemies.
They should have been delicately insinuat-
ing what exquisite hair Miss Minerva had
or what wonderfully magnetic tones sang
in the voice of Miss Bias Bleu. AS a rule
clever girl is clever enough to resent heavy
compliments about her accomplishments
and to detect the 'dutifur note in a mans
pean of praise. No woman is so proud of
her graces of mind as to imagine that man
admres them more than gTaces of person.
She knows that men admire women of
brains, but not for that reason. And she
knows that beautiful soul has a poor
chance of recognition if it looks out of pale
eyes and that the most sparkling chatter is
as pleasant as the droning of a bore, unless
the chatterer have q sweet voice. The
woman whose voice is sweet can babble of
brick dust and make you think of lutte
The wise man when he talks to a clever
girl refrains from compliments unless he
knows himself to be adroit His rapt ex
preston and silent wonder pander suffi-
GENTLY to her pride in her own eloquence.
But if he does open his lips TO say some
thing, let MIN SlnSerly get AROUND 10 the
subject of pretty hands or taste in dress,
exquisite manners or some one of the thou
sand physical charms which every clever
woman fancieS she alone of clever women
possesses. You may be quite sure that, al
though she has written thirty successful
books, been called a genius by Andrew
Lang, had a play produced or been bowed
down to as a social power, she is more
proud of her perfect profile the line or her
shoulders or the CLINT in her halr than OF
all her solid qualities put together.
when l spoke of clever women | meant
very clever women--nOt the fiickerfngly
bright girl who gives up repartee with her
last beau and whose badinage is all about
babies and BONES as soon as she marrles.
And when l speak of the pretty girl | mean
the very pretty one, whose 9eabt oS,4 Is 50
it has no novelty for her. 10 mint ABOUT
splendid eyes and rosebud mouths and lily
and wine complexions to sucn woman IS
tiresome, unless she has speclal interest
in you. She has doubtless heard the same
things most POLITICALLY expressed, ana they
are to her an old story anyway. what she
wants to hear is that she has charms that
other beauties do not possess, quaIltleS that
set her apart from rivalry with mere pretu-
ness Intimate that it is a pleasant shock
to find so beautiful a girl bI1lllant as We'll
Praise her poems and ignore her nan, 90
into ecStacies over her water colorS, and be
silent on the subject of her eyes; euloglze
her pluck on horseback, but refrain from
illusions to her figure. TINS IS ne qesign-
ing mans way into the graces OF the beauty
surfeited with manifold compliments ana
dixie all beauties) convinced that she has
all sorts of unappreciated virtues and gifts
.erThe very essence Of a compliment is its
individuality its apparent applicability to
only one person in the universe. There are
a thousand silent ways Of scattering these
must tread. To send really good picture
or a really good book TO man or woman
of no taste but with a great ambition to be
thought discerning sometimes has a wonder
full effect. To send q bouquet OF the nrst
spring narcissae to a woman who IS Vulgarly
fond OF gladiolas and snowy crimson roses
and is dimly aware of her own dubious tastes
will cause her vanity to plume Itself and give