Washington sentinel., 1899-04-29
NO A

NO A
ment Of the great glacier at the South
= Pole has reached the point which imme
/ diately pTecedes its sudden breaking up
into fragments. AT any day or hour the
abrupt disintegration of these millions
oi cubic miles OF ice may let loose all
the accumulated waters Of the southern
hemisPhere-four ffths OF the whole
and start them northward on their
dreadful journey OF destruction. The
glaciers ofGreenlandan and other northern
lands Will at once become terribly
potent TO attract these loosened and
floating bergs and waters, and they will
come pouring across the equator in a
wal! mile high, bearing on their crests
the gigantic fragments Of the ice cap.
which will be hurled against all the low
lying lands Of Europe, Asia and North
America, burying them hundreds Of
fathoms deep before one can 90 more
than utter last appeal for mercy"
How do you view. the outlook} There
may be, of course, some flaw IN the
theory of these not too cheerful savants.
and perhf ps one Of the three exploring
parties at present on the way to the
Antarctic regions may discover it. The
Borchgrevinck expedition takes on
new interest now, In the meantime
timid Londoners will probably consider
the wisdom Of keeping life belts and
boats handy in case Of emergency.
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN BEAUTY.
"HarPeg's WtekG."
Northern beauty, however fine NAV
be the line OF its contour, is never. for
good or evil, mere beauty Of the BODY.
thing beginning with itself and ending
in ITSELF 1t contains always a suggestion:
1t is haunted by a soul. il leaves for its
completion something to the imapina.
ton. But in the beauty Of Roman
women there is no trace Of spiritual
beauty, none OF the softness OF charm;
tits the calm, assured unquestioning
beauty Of the flesh. There are faces
which should be seen always in pure
outline, for they are without melting
curves, delicate and variable shades. or
any OF that suggestion which comes
from anything but their own definite
qualities, as they are in themselves.
The faces OF Roman women OF the upper
classes are cold, hard, finished, and i'm.
penetrable as canoes. In a face which
is at all beautiful you will not find a line
which is not perfect, and this elegance
and sureness of line goes with that com.
plexion which is the finest Of all com.
plexions, pure ivory, and which carries
with 1t the promise OF a temperament
in which there is all the subtety of FIRE.
The distinction between the properly
aristocratic and the strictly plebeian
face is, l think, less marked IN Rome
than IN any city, Almost all Roman
women have regular faces, the profile
clearly cut and in straight line black
hair, often with deep tones Of blue in it,
andsometimes curling crisply; dark eyes
often Of a fine uniform brown, large,
steady, profound, with that unmeaning
profundity which means race, and which
one sees in the Iewess, the gipsy. They
have a truly Roman dignity, aud be.
meath that the true fire, without which
dignity is but the comely shroud of a
corpse; and though there is not a trace
in them Of the soft, smiling, cathke air
of the women OF Venice, and not much
of the vivid, hardy, uncaring provoca-
tIveness oil the women of Naples, they
are content to let you see in them that
reasonable nearness to the animal which
no Italian woman IS ashamed to acknow-
ledge. They have often certain mas
sIveness Of buIltl, which makes a chlld
look like aYoung woman, and a young
woman like a matron but, Tor Italians,
they are tall, and though one sees none
of the trim Neapolitan waists, It is but
rarely that one sees, even among the
market women bringing in their baskets
on their heads, those square and lumpish
figures which roll so comfortably
through Venice.
The day On which TO see the Roman
populace most easily, most Significantly
is the Gay Of St. Stefano, at that popular
saints church on the Celan. The
circular walls are covered VI firee III
century painting Of mart jrdoms, naive
saints, bold in color and distressing in
attitude, suffering all the tortures Of
pagan ingenuity. From early morning
till late in the afternoon an incessant
stream OF people, mostly young people,
out Of all the alleys OF Rome aud from
all 'he hills Of the Campagna, surges in
and out Of the narrow doorway, where
one is almost carried Off ones feet in the
difficult passage. Outside, where there
are lines Of booths covered with sweets
and TOYS, fruits and cakes, the lane has
the aspect Of a fair Inside, there is
service going on in the choir, but lew
pay much heed to 1t; they have come 70
see the show, and they make the round
Of all the martyrdoms The women,
almost all bareheadsd, stop at the door,
in the very press Of the crowd, to pull
out the folded haudkerchlefand throw it
over their heads, catching the ends
between their teeth. And face after face,
as | watched them pass me, was abso-
lutelY beautl'ul-nOw a Raphael Ma.
donna, now a Roman goddess-adorably
young people IN whom beauty vas a
tradition. Some OF them had complex.
ions like wax, others were as brown as
mahogany all alike had that flushed
regularity Of feature to which the
ardeucy or mildness ofthe eyes was but