Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-11

II was disappointed in your American
women. I had expected to find them
very beautiful. They are not beauti-
full"
So spoke his royal highness, the Gaek-
war of Baroda, And the American ma
ton was up in arms against him.
THE English women are not at all
beautiful The women Of my country
are far more attractive"
So spoke the king of Cambodia, and
all England was arrayed against that
African potentate.
But wait. there no truth in what
these men, half savages though we
fancy them say? Are American and
English women beautiful? Do they lack
the charm of the French, of the
oriental? Have we heen worshipping
them under a delusion that they were
the incarnation Of all that is beautiful
and pretty?
And now comes another oriental. a
Japanese, who declares that the Amer
can women can never be beautiful until
she attains the prime requisite of
beauty-a soul
The beauty of the japanese women"
says this Japanese. "is simply thought
coming out in bodily form"
There you are. No cosm etics are
needed, no new way of dressing the
hair, no different form of corset no
original type of heel-nothing at all,
only thought.
There may be a good deal in what
this Japanese woman says on the sub
ject. At any rate, it would not hurt our
American women to read what Madame
Fuji-Ko, the eminent Japanese actress,
recently arrived here, has to complain
about.
Seated in her apartments, with her
black hair piled high above her
childish face, her tiny figure draped in
the beautifully embroidered gown Of
her own, country, Madame Fuji-Ko,
who is woman of broad education and
culture, discussed the beauty of Ameri-
can and Japanese women, with de-
cided partiality for the latter. If beau
tiful thoughts do influence bodily per-
fection, then 1t must be admitted that
Madame Fuji-ko has been thinking
about some very lovely things. The
Japanese actress is five feet in height
and her figure is exquisltely developed.
Japanese women are the type Of the
classic Greeks on a smaller SCALE" she
said, without any show of personal
'
tapering at the wrist and ending in
small, beautifully shaped hand.
"Oh, corsets," suddenly exclaimed
Madame Fuji-I<o. "They are death to
beauty of figure!"
oh, you American women, how you
do distort what nature has given you!
There Is no beauty which is not a re-
Election of nature, or nature itself.
Japanese women lead natural lives,
they are simple in their tastes, their
minds never dv-ell on anything that is
not good and beautiful, and the long
centuries back of them have made their
lasting Impressions upon their physical
beings.
THE women of my country have
beautiful bodies because they have
beautiful thoughts. American women
must not scott at that statement, for If
they would only believe it they, too,
might make future generations of per-
fectly formed women.
''It will not make a womans figure
beautiful, however, for her to sit down
and try and think about beautiful
things. 1t will take longer than days
endeavor before the lasting impressions
of such beautiful thinking could have
definite effect"
$50 you do not think American
women have beautiful thoughts?" Ma
dame Fuji-Ko was asked.
"Oh, in America it is always ambi-
ton or striving of some kind that
crowds the thoughts of the beautiful
out of the mind. American women are
the great fretters. They are always
worrying about something. The Jap
anese woman is ever placid and con-
tented. Her mind is tranquil, and there
fore receptive to beauty. The long
years of never changing tranquility and
patience have made her what she i5.
First Of all, she is happy, for her
happiness is born of the contentment
that follows an acceptance of circum-
stances. She is true philosopher. She
is the ideal woman, moreover, for she
is the expression of what nature most