South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-06-23
Ugly Duckling Must
Make Most of Her
Consolation Prize
Plain Woman Need Not Lack
Attention from Men If She
Makes Most of Her Talents.
BY Dorothy Dix.


homely girl writes me a letter in
which she despairingly asks:
Us beauty that only asset that
counts in a woman? Am l doomed
never to be sought after or loved by
man because nature did not give me
peaches and cream complexion, and
lustrous hair. and large ox-like eyes?
Is there no hope for the ugly girl?"
OF course it would be very easy to
tell this ugly duckling that TO be
swan isn't such a glorious thing as
she imagines. and that pretty is as
pretty does. and that - is better to
have a lovely character than il is 10
have a WillOwy figure, and that beauty
is only skin deep, etc, etc, and again
etc.
These tme-worn platitudes are.
however, mendaciOus. Beauty may be
but skin deep, but il is all of US that
shows, and no matter what is said to
the contrary. good looks are woman's
one best asset. the thing that gains
for her attention, and consideration,
and all of the perquisites Of life with
out her ever having 10 lift a finger in
her own behalf.
The pretty girl gets the partners at
the dance, the invitations 10 places of
.
homely girl apply for the same posi-
ton, and the pretty one gets it. A
dozen men will spring TO their feet TO
give their places in a crowded street
car TO a living picture. while the
chrome can hang herself on to a strap.
a pretty wife is treated as a parlor
ornament, while a plain-featured one
is expected to find her proper place
in the kitchen.
I Must Make Most Of Cancellation Prize
There is no use in arguing about
the value of good looks TO a woman,
but because a girl has missed getting
the capital prize I'm the feminine lot
terry is no reason why she should go
into social bankruptcy. The thing for
her TO do is to make the most of her
consolation prize.
While it is true that the homely
girl starts into the race of life with a
heavy handicap, and the beauty has
long start of her. it is not impossible
Z for little Plain Face To Overtake her
and win out.
To begin with. the beauty has often
but one charm-her looks. Nature
isn't as unjust as she seems, and when
she lavishes an extra amount of cut
side adornment on a woman's head.
she generally skimps on the inside
! furnishings.
There are a few exceptions to this
rule, but they are very few. If you
will think over all of the Venuses you
have ever met you will recall that
most of them were dull as dishwater,
and the most boring OF companions.
Here is the hOmely girls oppOrtu-
nifty. Realizing that no man will con-
slider her a piece OF bric-a-brac which
he can spend an evening in admir-
ingly contemplating. 1t is up TO her TO
read. and study. ard observe until she
acquires a line of conversation that
make people forget whether her eyes
/ look like burnt holes in a blanket or
viOlets drenched in dew. The ugliest
man in England, a man of grotesque
I face and figure, was the most noted
/ lady-killer of his time and ii was his
/ boast that If you would give him Is
minutes start of the handsomest men
\ in the world he could cut him out with
| any woman.
Must Interest Man TO Hold His Love.
| The same thing is true OF women.
! 4 pretty face may catch a mans eye
and snare his fancy for a time, but the
/ woman who can keep a man inter-
! ested and amused is the one that can
hold him, and of whom he never tires.
| The second advantage the hOmely
/ girl has over her pretty sister is in
! the matter of vanity. The whole cir
/ cumstances of a beauty's life tend to
make her self-conceited and selfish
| She feels that adulation is her right,
/ and that she should have the best of
! everything and everybody should be
/ subservient 10 her whims.
Men hold pretty much the same
I views concerning their own preroga-
tives that the beauty does about hers,
/ and so when the two meet there is
apt TO be a clash. That's where the
ugly girl has her innings again.
She is willing to study a man and
try 10 please him, instead of having
him break his neck trying 10 propi-
/ tiate her. She's anxious TO burn in
cense before the man instead of eX-
pecting him 10 get busy with his joss
I sticks at her feet. She's ready to hurl
bouquets at the man instead OF
haughtily deigning TO accept a few
tributes from him. And this explains
why ravishing beauties so seldom
! make good marriages, while so many
plain looking women capture matrl-
monial prizes.
Plain Woman Improves.
Still another advantage that the
homely woman has over the beauty
is that as the beauty grows older she
fades. while as the plain woman grows
older. she nearly always gets better
looking. so that often two women, one
\ OF whom was pretty and the other ugly
at 20. have changed places at 40.
The middle-aged beauty whose hair
has lost its luster. her cheeks their
roses, her eyes their brightness, her
form its 1.-the grace. is a plteous
wreck of her former self. but the
homely woman who never had any
beauty except that OF the mind and
soul is at the very height of her
charm. and her intelligence and SYM
pathv make her even physically at
tractive.
! Therefore let the homely girl not
mourn as one without hope, but set
herself TO work 20 cultivate her mind
telligence and companiOnablenes are
I nrettv good substitutes for beauty.
and that when an ugly woman is fas-
cinating she is the most fascinating
d