The Monticellonian., 1904-08-18
Light-Haired People Are Growing Scarcer with Each Succeed
 ing Generation.


 ing Generation.
 The blondes are a disappearing ku man type" says Anthropologist Otis T. Mason, of the Smithsonian institution, according to a recent report. They are going fast. Blonde women are becom- ing scarcer every year, and to-day there are not nearly so many fair haired and blue-eyed beauties as there were 90 years ago. In each successive generation there are fewer of them than in the last. Already such a thing as a real blonde, purely such. is so rarely seen in this country as to excite remark, and golden tresses are so .nfrequent that veritable ones are usually suspected to be dyed In short, it has become evil dent that before long this type of fem mine loveliness will have practically vanished from the earth.
 You may judge how rapidly the blondes are going when you consider the fact that wherever a brunette man mar ries blonde woman. or vice versa. SC per cent. of the children born have dark hair and eyes. At that rate not many centuries will be required to wipe out the fair type altogether. If you ask how this matter has been determined with such accuracy, I will reply that it has been by including statistical ob- servations on the point in the censuses of nations
 Observations made in this way, GOV ering millions of persons of both sexes, have resulted in the discovery that dark people bring more children into the world than fair people Furthermore they have greater muscular Vigor. and they live longer Thus in every point which has to do with perpetuation of a species they are superior The rule E. nature seems to be that pigment, which gives color to the hair and eyes, is an indication of force"
 Does the passing of the blonde mean the disappearance of the most beautiful hu- man type?
 It is a question which, of course. is open to dispute, and dark women espe- cially will be disposed to pooh pooh the idea Nobody can decide. Yet, it is undeniably fact that artists, who are supposed to be expert judges of beauty, usually select the blonde type when they wish to represent the highest feminine ideal. If proof of this be wanted, look at the finest works of art in which an gels are depicted. Nearly always they have blue eyes and golden hair.
 Go away back to Fra Angelica, who was the first great painter Of angels. His angels are blondes. That man. who. though only humble priest, refused ( bishopric. had q genius for the repre- sentation of things divine. and many church did he acorn with paintings of Scriptural scenes. in which the winged messengers figured prominently
 Angels represent the highest corcep- tions of physical beauty-the apotheosis of bodily perfection. as viewed by the artists who have painted them. Fra An gelico was first to depict angels of the gentler sex, and in his cay was severely criticised for 1t by churehmen, who claimed that the idea was a wholly i'm proper innc', ation. Angels up to that time had always been of the male sex 
 mine loveliness in this 8uise was taken up by later painters. and modern angels in art are nearly all women. the ex- captions being archangels, who. when they appear on canvas are necessarily men-as. for example. Gabriel and Raphael Among al the celestial hosts only the seven archangels are known as individuals and by name.
 In one respect the young women of to-day are approaching the angelic standard-namely, in stature. Angels, as shown in pictures, are always tall.
 That women generally are admirers of the blonde type. as opposed to the brunette, is sufficiently proved by the frequency with which they bleach their gen, and other chemical preparations. The fact that most people have fair hair in early youth would seem. by the way to indicate that our ancestors were a fair-haired race--a conclusion which. indeed, is borne out by history, though the so-called Anglo-SaXons are sprung from such a mixture of racial stocks lHdl II is nol easy lo d9olSli to 1heAi definite origin.
 One of the most melancholy things in the life of the average woman is the gradual darkening of the hair. which is liable to signify loss of its beauty. The phenomenon is due to an increasing supply of pigment. and there is no known means whereby the process can be arrested. Inasmuch as the colering matter is the same as that which gives its tint to the complex ion. woman may consider herself for tunate that the skin does not manifest the same tendency; else she might start in life as white and find herself a mulatto in her old age.