The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-08-27
ev NtxoLA GREELEY.sMlTA.
Copyright, 1917. by the Press Publish,
ing GO. crhc New York Evening
WORLDLY

ing co. crhc New York Evening
World)
In Gertrude Atherton's new book,
| 1.-THE Living Present" there - a chap
ter on the middle aged woman which
contains a casual reference to that
second blooming which comes to every
woman who has had the wisdom to
keep her vanity alive"
1t has been Il long time since any
thing so sane was said to women.
OF all the gifts of fortune to wom-
an. beauty, brilliancy, amiability. van
ity is the most to be valued, for vanity
alone can preserve and increase the
others.
Vanity. by the way. has come up in
the world, now that the pail of puri-
, tanism which Oversprcads America is
beginning to lift about the cdges-that
is. the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. To-
day children are told that no longer
to be vain is only slightly less repre-
vl,aRsihle ltla u q be, Wieke n,
1t was the pleasing custom of our
frigid forbears to discourage the say
ing Of pleasant personal things. \
little girl was never to be told that
Siic WAS pretty. TlNolo IltoSSuId-
ton with hair or complexion or other
attributes of flesh made to be morti
fled was sternly discouraged. A hats
purpose was solely to protect IA woman
from the incleme ncies of weather. Car
nents We're TO cover sinful bodies. The
possession of beauty was almost a
conviction of sin. And for a woman
so cursed to admit the blight was to
double the crime. Even today in con-
sentative circles her aesthetic sense
and her critical faculty are supposed
to suffer instant paralysis when she
looks at her own face in the glass.
Yet to possess beauty one must de-
sire it, The woman who has said TO
herself, Il am beautiful" is nearer by
so much to beauty. And ii she keeps
on saying it into the fifties and sixties.
and at the sam" time does her best To
make it true. she will remain So
For the beauty dies. but she never
surrenders. And in the face of her
superb defiance Time. like a gallant
Old gentleman. makes way for her
Wise women pay no attention to time.
There is no such thing really. '''rimo
is just an abstraction like the infinite
or the UNIVERSE ! remarked last week
to a magnate of finance.
I'D like to hear you say there is no
such thing as time to Il business man
with n note to meet" he replied. good
humorcdly. Time doesn't seem bit
like an abstraction to him"
But why should beauty take its laws
from business? Beauty is poetry mad,
flesh and poetry is the highest form
of human EXPIRE ssion. TO be n great
beauty is one way of being a great
poet.
Vanity is tho presorvativc of beauty
1t is the desire to square public opin-
ion with their own that makes great
men and women.
The woman who has lost her vanity
her pride in the lines of her figure, in
the bloom OF her face, has lost the
motor power of her life. unless she is
a strong. impcrsonal. truly great an.
appalling person who holds herscl
"above" such things. AS matter o.
fact it is impossible to be above beaut,
but it requires no effort at all to b'
, below 1t.
. In a country house recently cam'
, upon a fellow guest. a very beautiful
woman. as she was combing her hair
, Her husband had sailed for France i,
=, command of one of the base units AM
>. she had not ceased to weep since sh
: received his farewell letter from
transport.
As she arranged her long chestnu
hair noticed that her face was turne
away from the small mirror of he
y dressing table.
Don't you want to come over in IN
> room where there is a pier glass
5 suggested, hoping to cheer her up.
NO" she answered liuuidly, he
- voice and her eyes trimming togethe
IT Il shan't bother to look at all. What
&c the use?"
e. THE use of keeping yourself alive
$, answered. "of continuing to look lik
l! a woman worth dying for Do yo
know | intend to have a mirror set
the top Of my coffin and to have
t. powder puff within easy reach so