The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-18


 "what is the first requisite for woman's greatness?' was a question asked of a philosopher.
 Beauty" was the answer.
 And her second?'
 And the last?" persisted the inquirer.
 Beauty"
 A beautiful woman is always beautiful Even if 1t is true that in a couple of de- cades a splendid woman will be faded and unlovely. the main point Is that she is beautiful now and has distinct esthetic influence upon life. She is painted on canvas, cut into stone and enshrined in verse. .E
 Beauty is greater now. and there is more of 1t, than in the Greece of classic times. Beside any of the beautiful wo5 men of our day-those glorious creatures who ride and dance and go out on the links. whose perfect bodies are perfectly apparelled-the Venus of Milo looks like a peasant girl deformed by overeating.
 Some slim and faultless otero, some Cleo de Merode could she slip back through 9 foophole of the years into old Greece, would set the world by the ears as Helen never did. The women of today outcharm all the dead women over whom there is 50 much bother.
 No woman has been more celebrated for
 
 but if she were to walk unannounced into a London drawing-room today 1t is doubt full If she would cause much remark. Yet Msry's beauty was enough for her con Itemporaries; 1t sent the men of her day of their heads. and filled her cousin Ell zabeth with deadly jealousy. - The famous Cummings were declared by their contemporaries to be "the handsom- est women alive.'' TAB. When they went into the park, they were mobbed by curious gazers When they were present at court, the other la dies attending the drawing room climbed upon the chairs and tables to get a glimpse of them. When they travelled, people sat up all night so as not to miss seeing them get into their coach in the morning.
 We do not see any such enthusiasm now, and we are apt to think 1t Is because We have nothing lovely enough to be en- thusiastic about. But this is not the true explanation. The beauty of the Misses Cunning can certainly have lost nothing under Reynolds's bFush yet his portraits of them do not reveal any loveliness which we should consider wonderful. Ii Is not. then, that we admire beauty less than our ancestors did. but that we have more of 1t and, therefore, it excites us less.
 It is not merely that there are more DCdulleS or Ine UTSL OTupT than there seem. ever to have been before, but that beauty has become so general. You can see more lovely women i'll one afternoon in the streets of an American city than in all the Reynoldses and Gainsboroughs.
 Indeed, in the matter of beauty our age has gone a good deal ahead of all it's predecessors. We live in the most beauti- full age of the world. Beauty is greater now and there is more of it than at any period of the worlds history.
 Where shall we look for the highest type? In America.
 Native beauty. as developed fin Amer lea, is the outgrowth of such heterogen- eous clements. such d experimentation of nationalities. the interfusion of so many races and types, that any attempt to classify or even account for it. save as American is futile. It has been said that the ideal Amer ican type of the futuIe will combine the head of Greek statue. Iresses of classic tint, the eyes of the odalisque. the flesh tfnts of a Bougerean. Roman shoulders, Ionian arms Austrian bust, and Boetian feet. She will be a marvellous being anil mated with French savoir faire. Irish wit, German imagination, Russian adap- liability. Hindoo grace, Japanese talent and Indian fortitude.
 An American girl is wonderfully fine in her finish. She has a mingled com pleteness and deIicacy which make her perfect in detail like a line engraving.
 Tall, perchance. as daughter of the gods, and slim as the legendary alder from which Odin made woman.
 Then there is the type which possesses picturesque charm-a type which fasci- mates quite as much as that which pos sesses beautiful eyes and damask rose complexion. Added to this is certain air of fine. keen brilliance. which conveys the idea of intense vitality-the arch glance, the melting eye. and the spirited