The Prescott daily news., 1909-06-28
CHARMS OF UGLY MEN
Case of John Wilkes, the Famous
 London Alderman.
HE WEDDED A NOTED BEAUTY

And He Was So homsly That He
 Looks Frightened the chiidrsn h the
 Streets-Baiiiy, With . Face Like .
 Horse, Won . Famous French Beauty.
 There was perhaps as much truth as boasting fin the statement of John Wilkes, the famous London alderman and champion of British electors, Ugly as I am. if can have but a quarter of an hours start will get tho better of any man, however good looking. in tho graces of any woman"
 Of Wilkes abnormal ugiiness there was never a question. for is 1t not re- corded that the very children in the street ran away affrishted at tho sight of him?" And yet his powers of fasci- nation were so great that ladies of beauty and fashion vied with each other for his notice. while men of handsome exterior and all courtly graces looked enviously On."
 There were. 1t is said. few beauties of the day whose hand Wilkes might not have confidently hoped to win, and when he led Mary Mead to the altar he made wife of one of the richest and most lovely women of her time. Beauty and the Beast they call us," Wilkes once said to his friend Patter, land cannot honestly find fault with the description"
 Jean Paul Marat, whose name will always be associated with the evil history of the French revolution, was notoriously the ugliest man of his day in Paris. When this reputation reach ed his ears Marat Is said to have re- marked, "But why limit my suprema- cy to Paris?" And indeed the restric- ton was much too modest.
 And yet in his earlier years, when he was the most popular of court doc tors, his very ugliness seemed to exer- else such a fascination over aristocrat- tc ladies that they crowded his consult ing rooms in order to catch a glimpse under the flimsiest pretexts of imag- mary ailments. The studied indifter- ence with which he treated alike their charms and their flattery only made them the more insistent until he de clared to friend that he would have to fly from Paris to escape the perse- cution of his fair admirers.
 Bailly. mayor of Paris at the time of the reign of terror, is said to have had a face almost exactly like that of horse. His appearance was, in fact. so abnormal. so mOnstrOus, that chil dren shrieked and women tainted at the very sight of him, and yet his wife was one of the most lovely women in the whole of Tranoe-so lovely that as a girl she was known as tho beautiful angel"
 That thsre Is powasful fascination for some women in eNefsme ugliness Is proved by innumerable cases in which women who have been richly lowered with physical charms have fallen mad ly in love wfth men of almost repulsive al pearance.
 A London paper records remark able case of this kind in 1877, when Lady Mary x. married MT. Mudford, a London attorney.
 Lady Mary was girl of peerless charms, the most beautiful of all the court ladies and the favorite toast of the world of aristocrats. She might for her birth and fortune were almost equal to her beauty-have chosen her husband from among dukes, and even more than one royal prince sought her hand in vain.
 To the cOnsternation of society, she married MT. Mudford, not only "a pet tifogging attorney" but a man of al- most unnatural ugliness of face and with deformed hand and foot. Sin gular, too. as it may appear. her mar ried life was one of unclOuded happi- ness, and to her dying day, nearly forty years later, she never seemed to have a moments regret for her choice of a husband.
 Still more remarkable was the story told of most beautiful heiress with an attachment for one of the freaks of a travelling show, and she per sisted in marrying him in spite of all the efforts of her friends and relations. This singular object of her affections masQueraded under the title of 'the man monkey, or the ugliest man in the world" and he had an excellent claim to the etitle.-Exchange.