The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1900-06-04
HEROINE WITH LARGE WRISTS
Aud Her Fingers Didn't Taper-The
Work of brave
Author.

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Heroines Of fiction change their
type SO completely every few years
that one finds ones self wondering
II the readers Of long ago Who wept
over the woes of Amanda Malvina
Fitzallen in the "Childrcn of the ABB
hey" could possibly enter into the
feelings OF the bicycling. golf-playing
maiden who stalks, short-skirted and
loud voiced, through the novels Of to-
day, says the New York Commercial
Advertiser. Once upon time every
heroine was beautiful. Then came
Jane Eyre and the fashion Of plain
<heroines ragged. For some years they
yacillated 'twixt absolute ugliness-
welded always to tremendous fasci-
nation, Of course-and wholesome
comeliness. that depended more upon
expression and coloring than Grecian
features. At one time heroine could
be told by her golden hair and eyes
and forget-me-not blue. At a later
epoch no self-respecting hero could
bring himself to make love to girl
whose tresses were not black as the
ravens wing and whose eyes were
other than large and langurous and
black as sloes. OF late the nearest APP
proach to beauty has been green eyes
and red hair. But these charms have
proved quite as fatal as those of the
golden-haired or raven-tressed sirens
of other days. Perhaps heroes change,
too.
Now the type is changing again.
The red-haired or Anthony Hope style
Of charmer is being supplanted by
beauties of the first water, but of 4
type entirely new in fiction, if not
in nature. The delineator Of one new
heroine says plainly-and he ought
to know, for he made her and she is
said to be the most popular heroine
of the day-that she is "a beautiful
girl" Somewhere else he ayers that
"she is wonderfully pretty Then
he proceeds to describe her Her
skirts always hang just SO, her belt
is ever trim, there il never a pin out
Of place in her attire and she is ss
smart and as trim as a crack yacht.
All this is commendable, not to say
delightful, and the kind Of good thing
one can't have too much Of, even inI
real life. But he goes on to smash
all previous standards Of mans ideal
Of beauty in women and gives this
wonderful pretty maiden traits which
she alone, perhaps, of heroines of fic-
tion possesses:
"She was tall as most men and sol
idly, almost heavily built. Her hair
was not golden nor faxen,
but plain; honest yellow. '
Her eyes were small small, but Of
the deepest, deepest brown, and all
ways twinlling and alight, as though
she were just ready to smile or bad
Just done smiling, one could not say |
which. And nothing could have been
more delightful than those sloe-
brown, glinting, little eyes of hers.
set off by her white skin and yellow
hair She had a great many other
charms, mental, moral and physical,
and he would be a churlish reader
indeed who would not fall in love
with the small-eyed, solidly-built /,
maidenLyes. even in spite of the fol
lowing: sHer arms were large, her
wrists were large and her fingers did
not taper" Is not this the first hero
inc of fiction to have thick wrists and
fingers that did not taper? It is more
than likely that Tom Grogan had both
these traits. But her author didn't
boldly say So