Show cupid has deteriorated J in these modern days cupid has deteriorated once he was a god biow he Is a cute little valentine ornament or a prince of barchers lar chers to day he Is a target for anybody who feels like firing a rhyme bat him the only pre eminence which ahe has saved from the wreck ot the arich prospects of his auth is binum jfred publicity royalty s picture is published less frequently than his in tie greek anthology there is a fragment of a delightful little poem supposed to be by plato which pre a really beautiful picture of the god of love as he lies asleep among the roses with the brown bees set aling on his smiling lips to leave their honey there and thus walter pater who of all moderns Is most greek in spirit describes love as the youth appears to his girl wife psyche when she sees ahlm by the fateful lamp whose flame at very sight of him kindles more gladly she sees the locks of that golden head pleasant with the unction of the gods shed down in graceful entangle ment behind and before about the ruddy cheeks and white throat the pinions of the winged god yet fresh with the dew are spotless upon his shoulders the delicate plumage dav ering over them as they lie at rest smooth he was and touched with light worthy of venus his mother at the foot of the couch lay his bow and arrows the instruments of his power propitious to men contrast with these exquisite vis ions which adorn the beautiful words that portray them the cupid whom we know today to day a rachitic infant who looks as if he had been brought up on a paten baby food which was not good for his constitution on his back are wings that are in variably either too big for him or too little of all precocious infants he most needs medical attention and a mother s guiding tenderness he smokes plays golf toboggans in fact does everything that is sporty up to date and in season except wear ing furs in winter sometimes he appears playing horse driven by a beauteous damsel in a ball gown who does not seem 0 be in the least embarrassed by his in tenuous disregard of the conventions which prescribe full dress for even ing wear certainly this is not the gleaming god of the shining bow and quiver he who used to weigh down the eyelashes of maidens with tears fair as dewdrops on the fringes of a flower he who touched the soul of man with a fire immortal which burned to bless or burned to ruin this is not the poet god who see ing a milk white flower growing up on the plain lovely as gentleness but so unpretentious that people passed its beauty by unheeding shot into its heart a bolt of gold that turned its pallor purple with love s wounds so that ever after maiden stooped to it calling it by the sweet name love in idleness what would venus say it she could see her dar ing now of course ac cording to mortal standards she was especially motherly but she had ambitions for her son and she had also a frank habit of speaking her mind and it she did not give cupid pocket money so that in con sequence he has always had a reau tation for being out at the elbows it was certainly no fault of hers con si dering his taste in dress I 1 think that she would say 16 him something like this aty son it Is time you went into training to reduce your weight and for goodness sake go away on a vacation and get a new expression I 1 find that some one has been saying about you we know too much of love ere we love we can trace nothing new unexpected or strange in his face when we see it at last the same little cupid with the same dimpled cheek and the smile almost stupid we have seen in our pictures and stuck on our shelves and copied a hundred times over our selves and while you are away my dear I 1 will run a matrimonial bureau tor you dorothy fellmore |