The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-07-23
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
WORLDS Highest Paid Woman Writsr.

Woman's Most Attractive Age.
A correspondent wants to know at J
what age a woman reaches the zenith
of her charms.
That depends on the woman.
There is one glory OF the stars. and
another glory of the moon. There
are some women who are at their best
at seventeen, and others who are ire
sistibIe at seventy. Each woman Is
law unto herself, and has her own
particular, individual season Tor
blooming.
Undoubtedly the most attractive
age for the great mass of womankind
| is from eighteen to twenty-five. frac-
| tically all young animals. including
the human animal. are beautiful and
cunning, and petable lambs, ptGlets.
kittens. puppies, girls. they are an
| lovely and adorable when they are
little, no matter what they may grow
up into being.
A young girl nearly always has this
physical beauty and attractiveEess-
| this beauty ''du liable" as the
French say. This beauty of bright
and shining hair. of sparkling eyes.
of rosy cheeks. of a slim young fig
ure, and springing and elastic step.
There are many plain and unattract-
i've middle-aged women, and hordes
| of ugly and repulsive old women. but
| you rarely see a young girl who is
| downright homely, or who lacks
certain charm.
Nature gives her that one hour of
attractiveness in which to catch a
husband. Which Is the reason that so
many mothers try to marry their
daughters off young. They know that
many a ravishing bud unfolds into a
very commonplace rose.
Especially is the girl who has no
great mentality more attractive be-
tween eighteen and twenty-five than
she ever is again. There is no way
of gauging the intelligence of q debu-
tante. We neither expect nor desire
a young girl to have profound views
Ian abstruse subjects, nor to be deeply
learned. Nor do we want her to be
worldly wise, and cautious and suspi-
| cious.
We want sweet-and-twenty to be
full of bubbling enthusiasm. to see the
world thru a rose colored mist, to be
innocent, childlike and confiding. We
want 1t to gurgle and bubble with de-
light, to chatter and laugh, dance and
play and make the house bright and
gay with its nonsense. 1t doesn't take
any especial brains to measure up to
our requirements for alluring girlhood
and so between eighteen and twenty
two the girl whose head is packed
with gray matter and the girl whose
cranial adornments are all on the out
side of her skull, are on a par SO far
as attractiveness goes.
We do not differentiate between
their mentality. We take the silly
girls easy laughter, which is nothing
but the exuberance of youth. for q
sense of humor. and an appreciation
of our Wit. We mistake her bright
and shining eyes. which really mean
nothing but the possession of a per-
feet digestion and an unimpaired liver
for an indication of intelligence. Her
naive prattle, her baby stare. her art
less ignorance do not shock us. They
fascinate US. They are as amusing as
rolling a ball for a kitten. Secretly
we regard them as cunning little tricks
that she will abandon when she grows
up.
| Many a man marries a very young
girl on this platform. only to find out
that the ignorance that was enchant.
ing al eighteen is downright imbeciIity
at thirty-eight, that the babble thai
amused him when uttered by a child
bores him stiff when it issues from the
mouth of mature woman, and tr
realize that of all fugitive charm,
none is so evanescent as the charm OF
youth.