The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-06-27
By DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

To Camouflage Unattractiveness.-f.
r have received a letter from a girl
in which she writes:
II am twenty years old. I am not
pretty. 1 am not clever. I haze no
talents. Is it possible for girl who
is just utterly ordinary and common
place, to make herself attractive and
adinired-to acquire what is called
charm"
Yes. It is nothing but stupidity and
laziness that makes a woman acquiesce
in being as ugly and dull as she was
born. 1t may be true. as the Bible
says, that no man can, by taking
thought, add q cubit to his stature.
These limitations do not apply to
woman.
By taking thought. pains and treu-
BILE, woman can add to, or take
from, her height and her weight, and
superimpose upon the original struc-
ture of her mentality SO many frills
and graces that she can turn out such
masterpiece of a fascinator as ma
ture only creates in her most exuber-
ant moods.
In investigating how this miracle is
accomplished. let US begin with
beauty. Good looks are, of course, a
woman's one best bet. The first thing
that we notice about a woman is her
appearance. The first question that a
man ever asks about a woman is
whether she is beautiful or not
This makes IL imperative that every
woman, and especially every girl, shall
be beautiful whether she is or not.
Fortunately this is not an impossible
task, for few of us are analytical or
have an eye for detail, and so when
we speak of a woman being pretty, we
| merely mean that she presents an at
traetive appearance to the eye.
Many a woman whom we regard as
beautiful has not really a trace of
beauty or q single good feature. She
il merely a womanNwho knows how
| to comb her hair, who has taken the
trouble to acquire the fine art of
makeup, and who is always dressed
! in tasteful clothes. Take that same
woman and screw her hair up in Z
knot like a walnut. wipe the delicate
blush of rouge off of her cheeks and
| dress her up in a slouehy, i'll fitting
gown Of the wrong shape and color
and you would have a woman ugly
| enough to stop the clock.
The homelier the girl, the more
trouble she must take with her dress
| ing. If she is smart looking as to
frocks and hats she will be admired,
ana the majority of people will never
| know that they are admiring her COS
tune instead of herself
Nor need any girl despair because
she is not clever or talented. So far
| as popularity goes 1t is a million times
better for woman to be one who
burns incense before other peopte's
genius than to be genius herself.
Especially is this true as regards men
| who feel that they have hereditary
right to the center of the sta ge and
the spotlight, and who resent any fe-
male ousting them out Of it.
| A clever woman, unless she is su-
pernaturally clever enough to hide
her c1everness, is never a belle, and
you can generally gauge the brilliancy
OF man by the baby holiness of the
wife that he picks out. Also the day
! of parlor tricks and the talented anna
teur who recited Little Ma-a-a-bel
With Her Fa-a-a-ce Against the Win
dow Pa-a-ane" in a cracked Ice voice
is gone along with the Spanish inaui-
sitien and other medieval tortures
The photograph has superseded the
gifted young lady with the near-eon-
tralto voice who warbled "Dearie, =
SO if a girl has what we used to
call talents, there is nowhere for her
to exhibit them nowadays. anyway.