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Show Aman's World. 55 Specially Prepared lor Our Feminine Headers. ' ; : A Song For the New Year. HARRIET M. SKIDMORE. The old year lieth out of sisht, Deep buried 'neath the winter snow, "Where, through the long, dark Arctic nig-hts, "VVierd banners of the Northern Lights Above him stream with lurid glow. So let tis leave him to his re?t. And hail the New Year, blithe and free. Who comes in royal raiment dressed. And fain would be a welcome guest And sharer in our festal glte. - Then hail the King, as from the East He comes with Day's Auroral Star. Ring out the thime, and spread the feast, And bid the greatest with the least Unite their welcomes, near and lar. Behold! He flinseth everywhere His bounty bright in gleaming showers His jewel-moments, rich and rare. That twine themselves in ohaplc-ts fair To form the rainbow-tinted hours. Oh, may we set those priceless gems In golden deed, and word, and thought! That ange! hands may fashion them Into a glorious diadem. A crown of light, divinely wrought. Then, while on pinions softly swift The last swift year of Time'shall flee, Our radiant brows we may uplift, Encrowned with each bright A'ew Year's gift. To shine through glad Elernity. From Roadside Flowers. ! Types of Beauty. (Chicago Tribune.) I In all times the first thing demanded of a woman has been that she be beautiful. beau-tiful. "There are only two things in this world truly worthy of admiration and j adoration," said Veron. "the man of genius and a beautiful woman." The evolution of civil progress has led us little by little to exalt other virtues of the daughters of Eve, but so long; as men will populate our planet, beauty will be the primary feminine attraction. attrac-tion. Every race has had a general conception con-ception of beauty which embraces all women, and a special conception which relates only to the women of its species. spe-cies. Each race has its own divers types, while all humanity has its general gen-eral criterion for womanly loveliness. However the esthetic tastes of divers peoples may vary about women, they are all of one accord in looking for th two essential things which form the real skeleton of her beauty: Youthfulness, with health. Apparent and cer.tain femininity. Excessive slimness and excessive corpulence cor-pulence are homely, not only because they violate the fundamental laws of biology and of symmetry, but also because be-cause they are two pathological conditions. con-ditions. When an elderly woman appears ap-pears beautiful it is because she' has preserved some attribute of youth that . casts an illusionover us; the freshness of her skin, the roundness of her figure, fig-ure, and the vivacity of her eye. Besides Be-sides health, woman must have characteristically char-acteristically feminine outlines. I have studied the Venuses of nearly all the museums of Europe, and the one I prefer, pre-fer, in spite of the defects of time, is the Venus of Medici, my Venus of predilection. pre-dilection. Her figure presents such flexibility and -such a harmony of curves, such perfection of form, that it gives me the impression that nothing can surpass it, and that a more beautiful beau-tiful creature never left the hands either of nature or of genius. The most salient of the minor beauties beau-ties of woman are: Long, thick hair, curling or straight; black, blond or brown. Dimples on the cheeks, either permanent perma-nent or appearing with the smile. . A dimple on the chin. Dimples on the back of the palms. Ruddy lips. Azure and filiform veins, transparent beneath the skin of the neck and cheek. Between the blond type and the brunette bru-nette type there is a long chain of varying colorings, which unite the opposite op-posite poles of feminine beauty. In any of them beauty can manifest its triumphs, and certain women of the chestnut type are splendid creatures. A blue eye always presents a cold and Ferene expression, which is given warmth by the gilded tresses, which invite caresses, but if this cold eye appears beneath a dark head of hair it assumes a sinister aspect. On the contrary, when hair of gold frames the windows of the soul and the latter are dark and velvety, the profound voluptuousness volup-tuousness of the brunette is added to the gentler love lines of the blond. Th fundamental lines of feminine beauty combined with the secondary features constitute divers types which .satisfy the esthetic sense each in their own way. I have noted several principal types: The classical beauty is the triumph of Fymmetry: it is the harmony of lines curves. I have termed it classic as a synonym of antiquity: it might equally well be culled Greek, because no people hate comprehended this form better than the Greeks. The works of Greek painters and sculptors are a witness that no one in history has even known how to represent more beautiful i or more perfect forms. This type might be called sculptural, because sculpture better than painting can represent rep-resent the fundamental elemtnts of human hu-man beauty. A painting gives only the surface; a statue gives the three dimensions di-mensions of the body that it represents. repre-sents. The classic beauty, formed above all by a perfect harmony of lines, withstands all perspectives. The woman wo-man who possesses it is beautiful from every view-point. No race more than the Anglo-Saxon presents so many specimens of (-lassie beauty. It is also found in Italy upon the neighboring hills of Rome, at Venice, and at Palermo. Paler-mo. Raphael has certainly been the best interpreter of classic beauty. The sensuous type of beauty is constituted con-stituted by a predominance of the sensuous sens-uous lines and by the saiilie of the lips. Curving lines and exuberant adiposity complete the type. It is a type much appreciated by the people of Asia and Africa. Correggio and Rubens often depicted this type, although by different differ-ent methods. We find good examples in Holland and Spain, also in Italy, besides be-sides the Orient. The beauty of gracefulness is characterized char-acterized more by the expression of the features than by their symmetry. It is designed less by the skeleton than by the surface. While classic beauty, the archtype of all forms of beauty, re- ! sponds to the highest human ideality, this inspires admiration by its graceful quality, which satisfies our pride and excites our tenderness. Often the graceful type violates laws of symmetry, symmet-ry, but the secondary beauties, and, above all. the. elegance of the movements move-ments puts it on an equal with the classic beauty which we often admire without being fascinated. I said that prace satisfies our pride; it's grace that exercises beauty's powerful influence. Absolute beauty exerts tyranny, which places all other forms below itself. In the beauty of grace there is a desire to please, and exquisite form of perfect coquetry. Grace is often the effect of art coming to correct the faults of nature. Beyond a question the women of France are the most graceful of the Occident. Classic beauty, sensuous beauty, and the beauty of grace are certainly the three fundfi mental and elementary forms of feminine beauty. Besides these types there are hundreds hun-dreds of others; but they are complex forms of these, into which, besides esthetic es-thetic elements, properly speaking, there enter other beauties of a psvehic order. To describe them all would be the work of a lifetime, or of manv life- jjras. because no man, even though -" . "" ' ' "m .. - " " .. he-be an artist,-Is able to-comprehend all esthetic forms, the organism of each being adapted to appreciate certain things. Michael Angelo comprehended certain forms which Raphael repelled with horror. And without being either a Raphael or a Michael Angelo, each of us is Raphaelesque or Michael Angel- esque ; Among the secondary and complex forms of, womanly beauty I will mention men-tion but two the sentimental and the capricious types, in the , sentimental type the forces of thought and affection affec-tion predominate more than the lines and curves, and in the woman who has it we find less satisfaction for our esthetic feelings than of others of a superior and different type. In exaggerating ex-aggerating the muscular feebleness of woman so as to give her an invalid aspect, in exaggerating the mobility of her features to a point of neuroism, we find certain delicate and most fascinating fas-cinating types, which are especially pleasing to this nervous age. It is most probable that the Greeks and the Romans had no sentimental beauties, or at least that they were but slightly admired. The Greeks were too robust and the Romans too strong to be able to admire in their women anything that would appear defective or unsound. un-sound. The great fascination exerted by sen timental beauty is due to two principal princi-pal elements: To the admiration which everything fragile excites as something precious, and to the compassion which a creature apparently in suffering or accustomed to pain inspires. This form of beauty is absolutely wanting in inferior in-ferior orders of people, whose rude and savage life destroys in their first years all frail and delicate creatures, who, thanks to the charity of civilized peoples, peo-ples, can resist and prove victorious in the struggle for existence. : The capricious or piquant beauty is difficult to define, but each person in his own mind has a confused idea of it. In this type there is no need for perfect' symmetry in the lines, but, on the contrary, a certain light asymmetry asym-metry with incongruities and impertinences imperti-nences which seem to defy thel most elemental laws of esthetics, captivate the eye, amuse and pleas us. The interest in-terest attaching to this beauty carries us to the loftier fields of thought and sentiment; it is to this order of emotions emo-tions that those excited by. capricious beauty belong. The want of symmetry and harmony in the capricious type of beauty must be slight under pain of passing from beauty to homeliness. Nothing so- contributes to . the piquancy of the capricious type as. the j tip of the nose being slightly retrousse. There may be, besides, a contrast in J the colorings of the eye and the hair blond hair and black eyes, black hair and blue eyes. There are also choice peculiarities, like dimples in the cheeks or chin. The ancients said they were imprints of the fingers of love. Even the savages are not insensible to the charms of this variety of beauty. The dimples on the hand belong to another an-other category, but they always express ex-press a harmonious division of the adipose adi-pose matter of the body over its surface. sur-face. One sub-variety of the capricious style of beauty is the shadowy, latent, or niaaen type, were Deauty does not strike us at first sight, but is discovered discov-ered progressively by observation. The admiration is excited slowly and it persists. To our esthetic pleasure is added the satisfaction to .our pride on making the discovery of an unknown un-known beauty. , All varieties of beauty are not to be found in a single individual, although sometimes this" miracle is accomplished one woman join to classic beauty a sensuous beauty, the beauty of grace, and the sentimental beauty, even the capricious beauty, but with the latter it is through the art of coquetry, which transforms her figure and represents alternately every form of feminine beauty. Some women are so terribly beautiful beauti-ful that they have ten physiognomies in a day. Whoever loves them and possesses them may be said to have 100 women In one. Such beauties are as rare as geniuses. The Isle of Long Ago. BY BENJAMIN F. TAYLOR. Oh. a wonderful stream is the River Time As it flows through the realm of years. With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme. And a broader sweep and surge sublime As it blends with the ocean of years. How the winters are" drifting like flakes of snow And the summers like buds between; And the year in the sheaf so they come and go On the river's breast with its ebb and flow, As they glide in the shadow and sheen. There's a magical isle up the River of Time Where the softest of airs are playing: There's a cloudless sky and a tropical clime, - ' And a voice as sweet as a vesper chime. And the June with the roses are staying. And the name of this isle is the Long Ago, And we bury our treasures there: There are brows of beamy and bosoms of snow-There snow-There are heaps of dust, but we loved them so! There are trinkets and tresses of hair. There are fragments of fong that nobody sings. And a part of an infant's prayer; There's a harp unswept and a lute without with-out strirgs. And the garments she uted to wear. There are hands that are waved when the fairy shore Bv the mirage is lifted in air; And we sometimes hear through the turbulent tur-bulent roar Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before When the wind down the river is fair.. Oh, remembered for aye be the blessed Isle All the days of our life till night. And when evening comes. with its beautiful beauti-ful smile And our eyes are closing In slumber awhile May that "Greenwood" of soul be in sight. A Disappearing Type. (From the Independent.) The typ? of woman we used to see, who kept the street c:ir waiting while she repeated re-peated her affectionate adieus, who took up four seats in the railroad car and occupied occu-pied the dressing room for an hour as tne train was reaching its terminus, who refused re-fused contemptuously to stand in line before a ticket office and wait her turn, who considered herself trsultee' by every man who spoke to herind who screamed, fainted and otherwise made a nuisance of herself whenever there was any excitement excite-ment in the crowd, has either died off or has reformed so much as to be no longer so conspicuous and obnoxious. Not Lost. Not lost, not severed; only hid from view. The tide which binds me, O my friends, to you; The prayer I raise to aid your wished repose Flows back, through you, to soothe and bless my woes, While you whose lot is with the saints in peace v From lurking dangers win me sweet release. re-lease. Not lost, not severed flow my happy tea rs! Thrice happy loss which Heaven itself dears! O full exchange for earth's imperfect jov! O fairest gold for earth's, at best, alloy! A little sooner touching life's green shore Your prayers speed by frail bark the breakers o'er. Elilza Allen Starr. The Courtesy of Dress. She was a little, bent old woman iri an old ladies' home. One day a young girl pn her way to a round , of teas, stopped to make her a call. The girl had been, there many times beforehand had always been warmly welcomed, but this time her small hostess greeted her with especial delight. It was explained ex-plained when the girl rose to leave. - "Have you got to go, deary??" the old woman asked. "Well, there, I hadn't ought to try to keep you. J guess you don't know how I've enjoyed it. I do so like to have folks to dress up when they come to see me!" "I had never thought of it before," the girl said, telling of the incident, "but I have never forgotten it since. Some of those ladies used to be wealthy. Somehow, as. I thought of it. I ii seeraea simple courtesy to aress as if I were calling at their old-time homes a way of saying that one recognized rec-ognized the lady, not her changed circumstances. cir-cumstances. As for the other ones, those who nevei .were ladies, it ives them such unspeakable delight to see pretty clothes, and talk them over afterward, that I wouldn't deprive them of that pleasure for a great deal. Since that I have been more particular about 'dressing up' when I go to the home than I am when I go to a reception." recep-tion." . ' Courtesy of dress -is not confined to courts. Every girl has many opportunities oppor-tunities to show, in this way as in others, courage and tact and unselfishness. unselfish-ness. Two incidents, sharply contrast- j ed, reveaj the manner in which two such opportunities were met. A girl detained by business for a day or two in a small town happened to meet an old schoolmate, who invited j her to spend the evening with her. There were to be just a few friends, informally, in-formally, she said, in answer to the other girl's reply that she had no evening even-ing dress with her, and nobody was going to "dress up." So, happy at the thought of a pleasant evening where she had expected a lonely one, the girl went. What was her dismay, upon reaching the house, to find everybody in evening dress, including her hostess, who merely laughed at her guest's glance of surprise. "I know I said I wouldn't," she apologized, apol-ogized, "but I didn't think you would care if I changed my mind." The other incident was pleasanter. A wealthy young girl visiting a friend who had no money for luxuries, surprised sur-prised her hostess by the simple way in which she dressed. The last night, ! when the two were together while the guest packed her trunk, the other girl understood it. The beautiful dresses that she had expected, and secretly dreaded, to see were there, but her friend had not even taken them from their wrappings. She had quietly worn, during her whole visit, the three or four gowns that offered the least contrast con-trast to her hostess' plain wardrobe. The Way to Be Happy. Wouldst thou be wretched? 'Tis an easy way; Think but of self, and self alone all day; Think of thy pain, thy grief, thy loss. thy care-All care-All that thou hast to do or feelVor bear; Think of thy pleasure, of thy good, thy gain-Think gain-Think only of thyself 'twill not be vain. Wouldst thou be happy? Take an easy way; Think of those 'round thee live for them all day; Think of their pain, their grief, their loss, their care All that they have to do or feel or bear; Think of their pleasure, of their good, their gain; Think of those 'round thee 'twill not be vain. Practical Gratitude. Mr. J. Ogden Armour, whose little daughter was recently saved from a life of suffering by an operation, will express his gratitude in a form at once practical and beautiful. The little girl was treated for congenital dislocation of the hip by the German surgeon, Dr. Lorenz. Mr. Armour has now announced an-nounced his intention of building and endowing at an expense of $3,000,000, an institution where the children of the poor can be treated for the same deformity de-formity without charge. "My daughter daugh-ter has practically been given back to me," he says, "and my wife and I are grateful. Other parents are joyless because be-cause their children are afflicted with the same trouble. I. want to make them happy, too." Secret Griefs. Trouble comes in many forms. It may be a bitter disappointment which falls upon a young life when love has not been true, or when character has proved unworthy, turning the fair blossoms blos-soms of hope to dead leaves under the feet. There are lives that bear the pain and hidden memorials of such a grief through long years, making them sad at heart even when walking in sweetest sunshine. Or it may be the failure of some other hope, as when one has followed a bright dream of ambition for days and years, finding it only a dream. Or it may be the keener, more bitter grief which comes to one when a friend is untrue or disgraces himself. The anguish an-guish which love endures for others' sins is among the saddest of earth's sorrows. If we knew the inner life of many of the people we meet, we would be very gentle with them and would excuse ex-cuse the things in them that seem strange or eccentric to us. They are carrying burdens of secret grief. |