South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-04-10
THE AMERICAN BEAUTY


A Chicago newspaper. modestly announcing its
world wide greatness has picked a film actress as
the great American Beauty. and gives to her the
apple which Paris once handed Helen OF Troy.
Aside from the fact that a new war will now be
started INDUCED in by press agents for all other
actresses Of film and stage. the selection is most
interesting.
What is your idea Of beauty? What are the char
acteristics which you demand TO satisfy your own
ideal?
Does beauty require youth as its most funda-
mental appeal? If that were true then all the
women of the world would face the dire calamity
Of losing claims they have passed the years
of early womanhood
Is regularity Of feature the decisive factor? Then
countless millions of men must surrender to the
thought that they are condemned to pour out their
souls to ugliness and center their dreams upon
the unbeautiful
Does bright wi and the intelligent mind count
for anything in your decision? Then those of re-
firing modesty must abandon all their claims and
the Flooding girl relinquish any hope OF being ad-
mired If beauty be the magnet.
1t all depends upon the definition which you give
to beauty. If you are a disciple of Socrates you
viii believe founded in morality and use
fulness. That old Greek philosopher would have
wasted little time at Hollywood in his search
Old Plato had C different thought and reduced it
TO terms of form and symmetry. With him
perfectly shaped Venus with the mind of an imbecile
might Justly be chosen the queen of all beauties
Cicero great orator of the Romans construed it as
matter Of dignity charm or grace. He was a
dignihed senator of the early days. which may ac-
count for his definition.
Potinus found beauty matter of domination and
believed TO be the characteristic which gives the
lower form Of life to the control Of the superior
His ideals might led him search for the
greatest of beauties, to worship at the shrine of
some bespeetaoled school teacher in the late years
Of her life
Later philosophers have endeavored to classify
this intangible thing called beauty and have de-
bated for centuries as TO whether it is really due
to the thing called beautiful, be It a flower. pic
ture or a woman. or rests for its appeal upon the
picture in the human mind. purely subjective
quality.
As matter of truth. be it recorded If this seec-
ton had been left to the of America it is quite
likely that this lady who holds the proud title
would have been third. not first
There would have been placed above her two
others-one. the woman who is worshipped and re-
vered under the sainted name Of mother the other,
that later life companion.
A vast majority Of men would place the mother
first. and surely second. They would bring before
their minds if asked to select the most beautiful
woman in America. the who rocked them in her
arms as babies. whose face may be lined with the
touch of tire and hair whtened, but 10 them the
embodiment and the symbol of all that is beautiful
in the universe, To- say nothing Of America.
Countless millions of others would place above
this modern Helen that other woman who touched
their lives and their hearts with her love and
changed it from a vagrant. wandering, purposeless
thins into the greatest of adventures.
To them no face upon a film can sound the wells
Of which that other has filed with her in
spration and her sympathy. To them. that face
Will stand enehrlned in its own special niche.
Beauty is a thing OF soul not matter Of face
and form 1t is matter of life. not Of sculptured
symmetry II Is the inspiring force OF a character.
not the mere accident of face and coloring.
So other women need not be envious for they
he that in the only contest that counts.
where the judgment IS its own reward they will
always be first CT second paired and that this
maid with model measurements can never hope to be
more than the poorest third
-O
They want army division made up OF women.
Wen women have always been good at charging
things.
Harding stn hopes to go TO Alaska Why doesn't