Los Angeles herald., 1905-02-26


ever loses a fan. Your society maid
may lose a jewel, or purse, a bit of
lace or ribbon, a handkerchief or a
key, but never fan. Possibly her
victim had it last and left it on the
stairs. He will come after 1t in a short
safe. He took 1t from her. 1t was all
she gave him. She knows that it is not
lost. No, my boy, there is no such
thing as a lost fan"
1 once heard Guy Barham, long be-
fore his first marriage, say: "How
many men are there who would
not flee from gun pointed at them,
and yet feel safe in the presence of
fan? But there is more danger in the
latter. 1t may not kill so often, but
rifically. In the hands of a perfect
markswoman-she with q fair COM
plexion and beautiful brown or golden
hair, fringed or half-banged across the
forehead, and perfectly arched eye
brows untouched by pencil or other
process of art, and sweeping lashes
that may be made to 'drape big hazel
or brown eyes, and a voice with a
kingdom of sweet sounds-it is a needle
gun of tremendous range. 1t is dyna-
mite. 1t is hurricane. 1t is an
earthquake. 1t is a cyclone that car
ries havoc and destruction in it's way.
1t is a feminine Faust, casting about
for a masculine Marguerite, with ten
thousand unseen devils to assist. 1t is
a chansonette; it is a dirge; it is cham
pagne; it is poison. 1t smiles,
it frowns; it loves, it hates; it is every
thing, it is nothing. 1t invites atten-
ton to pretty hands, to rounded arms,
to sparkling eyes, to pearly teeth, to
velvety lips-and then it seriously
wounds, and sometimes kills"
Proceeding further, there has been
fiutter of fans at least from as far
back as the time of the Chinese en-
peror Won-Wang, B. G. 1134. Even
before Won-Wang. fans like bat wings
served in China as a generals flag or
baton, as a rallying sign like the
white plume of Henry of Navarro. The
Chinese dandy for many centuries al
ways carried silken fan, and Celes-
tial maidens firted with the same as
expertly as do the senoritas along the
banks of the Guadalquiver. The Jap
anese have used fans upon all occa-
sions for at least three thousand
years. The fan is as necessary a per-
sonal equipment to a Jap as the pock-
ct handkerchief to the genteel Cau-
casian.
During my stay at Thebes noticed
that the frescoes of the palace of Med
inet-Abou depict Rameses III being
famed by suite of fan bearers whose
fans were of semi-circular shape and
brilliantly painted, while the mural
paintings of Beni-Hassan and OF Ho-
rus show women waving square fans.
The Medes, Persians and Assyrans
used fans and deemed them an access
sorry of exalted rank, and they became
highly esteemed among classical peo-
pie and persons Of high military COM
mand. Among the hieroglyphics at
Philae. 800 miles up the Nile, 1 saw
fans similar to those at Lupor and
Karnak. Thus the use Of the fan may
be traced back at least four thousand
years.
No one who has visited Pompeii or
has seen some of the paintings un-
earthed at Heroulaneum can forget the
fans of peacocks' feathers that are on
exhibition at the museum near the en-
trance of the former city. Nor can
any reader of the Arabian Nights for
get that Abou Hassan. who fancied
himself Commander Of the Faithful.
was waited upon and famed by seven
fair maidens named Alabaster Neck,
Coral Mouth, Sunbeam, Moonface,
Hearts Delight. Pleasure-of-the-Ey
and sugar Cane. Heliogabulus, who
was the most voluptuous bon vivant