Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1912-07-18

BEAUTY
By THOMAS DENTON


"Of course not You're too much of
a gentleman to say 1t. but you know
as well as | that nose Of hers would
spoil a Venus. have some conf
dences to give you. old man. I'm 60
ing to unburden myself to you as |
would to no other man living
"You know what m admirer Of the
beautiful have always been. espe-
cially In woman. My idea for n wife
was n beauty My first love was Ida
Reynolds. iou remember Ida beau.
tiful girl; fair skin, Titan hair. soft
brown eyes But her browning beauty
was her pearly teeth. Just the kind
of beauty | always adored-aristocrat-
ic, you know Well. made up to Ida
and got on very well with her. The
fact is my father, being rich. could
get most any Of the girls didn't
care so much whether they loved me
disinterestedly. What ] wanted was
beauty. As was saying. made up
to Ida. We were both young. nine
teen, Ida seventeen.
Zone day a lot of us boys and girls
were playing blindman's buff. Ida
was IT and had her eyes bandaged.
One of the fellows laughed right In
front Of her then darted backward.
He fortunately missed n door stand
ing wide open, but Ida struck it. She
received terrible blow. and lot of
her front teeth were knocked clean
out. She had to have false set put
in. and that spoiled her beauty for
me. My girls teeth must be her own
pure white pearls. l sided out OF
that affair at once.
"Then Winlfred Tearle caught my
fancy She was dark complexIoned and
dark haired. but there was n peach In
her cheek, and when she wore that
braided cable hanging down her back
nearly to her heels II was enough to
make a mans mouth water. admired
ting ready to pop the question when she
fell III. like Simon Peters wlfe's sister.
of fever, and all her hair came out.
81 suppose should have waited for
It to grow In again. but every one said
It would neither be- 80 long nor so thick
And you know what boy not yet
twenty is You can't rely on one of
Fem for thirty days. 1t seemed to me
that without that splendid mass of hair
Winlfred wouldn't be Winifred at all;
she'd be somebody else. The case was
not one requiring constancy. SO
switched off
"Genevieve Tuttle was my next love
She was beautiful blond. but fem
inine beauty doesn't alone consist In
curves of the body. pair OF blue eyes,
massive hair or pearly teeth. A voice
may be part Of It as well as any ma
terial feature Genevieve had the rich.
est voice l ever heard come out OF
woman's throat didn't have an easy
time with her, for the girls had got
on to my ideas OF beauty and how I'd
gone back on several Of 'em because
they'd lost their best feature and all
that, but my prospects won. and Gene
We've was Just ready to accept a pro
posal when she got lump In her
throat The doctors had to cut It out,
and when the wound healed she talked
like parrot.
ri succeeded In shaking her, but you'd
better believe | was given to under
stand by my friends that that was the
last shake could give any girl. If
did It again | would bc cut man. I'm
very sensitive and couldn't stand that
on any account. Knowing that | had
but one more chance, ! made up my
mind that when got another girl I'd
put her in Il cage where nothing could
happen to her till after the wedding
If she lost her beauty then couldn't
help 1t.
but the consumed luck that was
waiting for me changed the general
plan. Instead OF my setting up to a
girl, and she losing her teeth or her
hair or her voice. did the damage
myself. and before l had any acquaint
ance with the girl. was standing in
one of these sardine boxes they call
trolley cars, holding on TO n strap with
an umbrella under my arm. carried
IL uOTlLOulHIly luStcuu OF neT1cNulcu-
lar. The car stopped. then started
with series of jerks The jerks were
accompanied by shrieks, | turned to
find that | and the jerks together had
been driving the point OF my umbrel
la stick right against girls nose.
How 1t did bleedl 1 got her out of
a car and into drug store, where aft
er time the bleeding was stopped:
then drove her home
"Of course called the next day to
ask about her, but didn't sec her
] was told that the damage was very
serious. called regularly, for was
all broken up over the matter and was
cast down into the depths of despair
at being told that had broken the
poor girls nose and from having been
a very pretty girl she would now for
ever be very homely one,
81 threw up the sponge. 1t was ap.
parent TO me that fate had determined
that should marry homely woman,
and l determined to atone for my past
N