The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-07

made better diagnosis" he said, than when l decided to try and win Louise,
 and bring her into my life"
 | l. who knew Louise well, agreed with him. She had been a dear girl always,
 but not a great beauty.
 | Very slight things, a random word, the tone of laugh, the readiness to
 please by trifling self-denial, often bowl a man over, in that spring-time
 of live when young mans thoughts | are lightly turning toward love. It does not occur to him to think of Mol | ly whom he has met on a moonlight | drive, or at picnic, as plain or hand some. Something in herself more sub | tie, less showy than her looks, has
 called him to her. Nature, who may be | said after many thousands of years to | know her business pretty well, has
 successfully managed the call of mate
 to mate. All through the lesser crea- | tion 1t Is the male who outranks the | female, in external splendor, the latter wearing the plainer dress and demurely receiving the homage of her more bril- liant lord. Apart from this, the habit of beauty l having reached its acme, is to fade. The superbly beautiful girl rests on | her laurels and forgets to cultivate her mind. Singularly, and 1t is rather puzzling, too, the most gifted women
 are not lowered with very marked per- sonal beauty. There is no reason why | homeliness should monopolize brains and culture, but there is a snare which | betrays the beauty and seldom entraps
 her opposite. It is the snare of a too | easily satisfied and too complacent mood over what has already been gain ed, and without something of the di- vine despair that is always reaching forth for more knowledge and more in- tellectual stores, no woman grows. The commonplace mind inevitably stamps its dullness after awhile upon the face. Mind and heart have a great deal to do
 with making people good to look at. But shall we conxede the fact that the majority of married women are
 plain? They may look so in the eyes of inexperienced girlhood. Perhaps they are in the midst of those years when the nursery is crowded, and they are losing nightly sleep in bending over cradles. Wait five or ten years till
 this period of stress has passed and you will see them reach a season of second bloom which Is quite as beautiful as the blossoming out of girlish days. At tend any convocation where women on the hither side of middle age are pres- ent in numbers, as for example & Fed eration of Clubs, and you will see hun dreds of pleasing and attractive women who were plain in girlhood, but who are daily growing lovelier. No girl would admit that her mother is any thing but beautiful. and most girls dis cern beauty of soul in all older women whom they love, a beauty beyond that dependent on tint and line, illunlnes the face of a good woman.
 So, the plain girl may take comfort. Time will be kind to her If she give wide berth to discontent and fretful- ness, if she be gentle and considerate, and above all. if she continue to cul- tivate her mind, to know what is going on in the world, and to live outside of herself. She shall grow more beautiful with the years. Let her expect this. Far more than we know, the ego dom- mates character and dictates what im- pression we shall take in society and at home, what sort of looks we shall have.
 lovely soul may now and then be housed in an ungainly body, but should this be the case, there will surely be some compensation in a beautiful smile, a quick appreciation of fun, or a genu- inc regard for others which will tri- umph over the disability.
 How about the assertion that there are so many handsome men? Suppose we confess It. Men have a great ad- vantage over women in the freedom of their garb. Their clothing does not hamper them. A woman on a wet day, tugging frantically at her skirts to keep them out of the mud, holding her pocketbook and her umbrella and very likely bundle, is a spectacle to excite the pity of gods and men.
 Her brother Striding on beside her has none of her disagreeable impedi- menta. In all weather he marches on with entire freedom and joy. He meets men out of doors and his day is more or less filled with excitement. A wo- mans life. unless she rise above 1t by sheer force of will, is apt to be monot- onous and circumscribed. The man has every chance for growth and de- velopment. If he Is not handsomer at fifty than he was at twenty-five, he Is somehow to blame. But the plain wo- man. too, may console herself; she will never be plain in the eyes that love her.