Show A POET AND THE LADIES Bjorn bjornton soa tho he corwe Bjorn elan poet novelist and popular agitator i pretty well known on the other side me of the atlantic in 10 the winter or of he spent a lew few months in this COV Lotry studying etu dying american condl and otherwise on his bli return to the old home the imbres sion ion became pretty general that he was waa disappointed hla his friends said eald he did not find this republic the pattern for a commonwealth which he had expected others intimated that his hia chagrin was mostly due to the fact that bat his presence pre Benoe in our country did not occasion oco aalon such eions as he thought himself entitled to be this as a it may while in this country he certainly gave expression to senti benti menta ment which have a strong savor of spite pile to quote one instance ina tano in january 1881 bjornson Bjor naon came to now new york in a conversation with hjalmar boye son en the question of newyork new york ladies ame up and add boyesen insisted that the average personal beauty Js is higher in that city than in boston for instance this gave bjornson Bj the key note to the following baraD baradgie bar angne gue beautiful well now what constitutes beauty they have hav havekott soft ecott skin well ared atred for per persons good clothes bilut but the soul the soul my boy that gazes out of this transparent covering ia 19 vain flimsy self conscious and filled with a thousand thousand petty trivoli ties mere regularity of fea features turen counts for little with me if there is no nobility of soul th that at sh immers through the american women I 1 have met have with few exceptions been of this type they demand much of life but they have no idea that life has something to co demand of them they are clever with a sort of flimsy superficial cleverness and they know how to assert themselves and get the most out of their husbands and fathers but they have been woefully spoiled they never can got get away from their own dear little pretty selves they can cannot not lose tb themselves em selves in a great thought a great idea and learn the blessedness of living lor for something better than vanity and flirtation and social tittle tattle hialmar hjorth hiorth boyesen in the cosmopolitan there is ie no need for us to ris nee e up op in defense of american Amer ioan women I 1 in n ovary every re respect they compare favorably with the better halt hall of any nation on the earth and this fact is so universally recognized that a few unfavorable bi a remarks by an enthusiast do not count for much but in connection with this criticism of american womanhood it is interests inte interesting resti ug to recall a story that is widely circulated in norway and which concerns Bjorn soul views somewhat it is said that the poe poet t years ago when thinking of entering the sacred state of matrimony hesitated between two ecung ladies one was beautiful the envied possessor of a soft skip skin regular features etc but without that soul of bich abich he be speaks in the sentences quoted above the other was comparatively ively homely but endowed with a bright intellect that sparkled through her otherwise not remarkable eyes for some time he considered the important question as to which one to offer his lovesick love sick heart finally he made up his bis mind so the stry etry goes with this remark prosaic enough for a poet 1 I guer guera a I 1 will take the flesh I 1 have got spirit enouch myself |