Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-14
When is a Woman
Most Charming?
BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
Copyright, 1906, by Joseph B. Bowles.)

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Charm has no age limit There is charm
of the maiden in her teens and twenties,
| charm of the matron in her forties, a
charm of the beautiful old age that has
lost no grace with the beauty of silver hair.
Charm does not depend on looks. 1t In
heres in personality. A very plain woman
may have more of it than beauty, and
may outshine the latter In consequence
Beauty perhaps has it's best innings in girl
hood l have seen a distinguished man of
letters. man whose attentions were a
compliment, spend an evening in devotion
to an empty headed girl, who had neither
brains nor wit but whose head was set
faultlessly on her shoulders, whose eyes
were like stars, and whose complexion was
dream. Rallied his absorption, he
laughed and said: Just to look at Miss
- is liberal education. Anything SO
perfect does not need intellect" Maybe
not. But few years hence, when the rose
and white tints may be sallow, the eyes
lose their luster and the slender figure
grow f1eshy, the charm will vanish Charm
built on mere looks without soul behind
them is necessarily ephemeral
An artist was one day commenting on two
was conceded to be homely. The other was
extremely handsome. Wait, said the
artist. Ten years from now 1 would like
to paint the older girls portrait She is
lance. and her mind will mold her face.
Her sister will lose her advantages. No.
do not care to paint either as yet Dimples
and a. creamy skin are common enough.
They do not constitute beauty.
Charm is almost fndefnable. 1t Is as
subtle as a perfume, as elusive as remem-
bered music.
But when, II a woman Is charming, is she
probably most so?
Well, it depends. II unmarried, she prob
ably arrives at her meridian Of queenliness
when she is in the sunny region of the
thirties. In these days woman at thirty
occupies precisely the ground her grand
mother occupied at twenty-three. The clock
of time for pretty woman stands still
during the five years that she passes after
the twenty-fifth milestone. young mar
ried woman with babies coming. and the
cares of her nursery and her Housekeeping
upon her. often loses much OF her bloom at
this period o ks fretted and paid, has
lines on her srow and dropping mouth,
the result O. broken rest and anxiety. Her
beautiful time is later on. The matron OF
forty is seldom other than attractive.
X
1t is idle to discount the part that dress
plays In enhancing a woman's outward
charms Once in a while woman is built
on lines SO noble, and has so statuesque a
figure and SO fine a face. that what she
wears is of no particular consequence But
this is exceptional. A woman who is badly
goWned who has no sense OF color and
proportion, whose clothes are is-chosen and
who has the air OF dowdy, may be a saint
genius. but externally she viii lack
something that her better-dressed sisters
have. The manner of wearing clothes adds
to the charm of some wearers
There are women who are what may be
called painfully smart, yet their clothes
make no impression of belonging to them.
They might be fashion plates for all the
good their costly costumes do in giving
them a stamp OF distinction and refinement.
And fashion plates are-just fashion plates,
tiressmakers' dummies, nothing more A
really elegant woman wears her clothes
with the same simplicity that the rose and
the lily and the rest of the flowers show
about their royal raiment.
Charm may be aided by cIothes but tn