OCR Text |
Show HI i 1 - Why the Famous French Connoisseur Thinks , 1 j lp, Her Not Only the Loveliest but the Most - jCLg - 3 'Bf Lovable of Women, and the One Whose j f ' , how on earth he'll ever J fc' . a" f ' be able to square him- ; 1 friends after this sweep- f J .iyr ' '-- ' -V ing declaration in favor J AB ' 1 Mis? Siflfrid fine and soft, for kMbHR 9 Holmquist, j & S coarse hair of any n&M the Swedish . shade denotes low "WWS oB motion pic- ' V birth and a lack . PJro ture actress ' V fineness, BMvKlSw 1 and one of v 1 rough skin do. CvMHv iSS j the numer- j " V , . "They toll you J$ H'M ous beauties j 1 V ' 0 ;' ? j ff SiS that the blonde- J of whom it S ;J , ' SjHflHHp-' i-' ' ' --X.,., . n-.r.l. j!Sp''!!?IwBB mav be said i lU i ' r mM4& . 'M quick contract and lfSjEaSs. . & IHB that Henri f ; I Letellier raj 'learned about . f blondies from her" TN that great center of world pleasure i where the rich and the fashionable of many lands meet to spend money for the things one really doe3 not need the blonde has won a new victory in tho vigorous battle for supremacy that has been raging for generations. For the leading beauty expert of Paris has crowned the blonde queen of all beauties. beau-ties. Henri Letellier, noted as one of Europe's Eu-rope's most discriminating connoisseurs of beauty, takes stock of the procession of beauty that has passed through the gateway of international fashion during hia time and unhesitatingly awards the crown to the woman with the eye3 of blue and the hair of gold. "But the hold of the blonde is not ner- Imanent," urges a questioner. "Nothing is permanent not even the stars," replies the seer of pulchritude, and he passes lightly over the objections that come from those who have studied the question of type to accept with finality final-ity what he himself has found in the lap of the gods of attraction. Letellier is ono of the world's most striking figures. He is rated as the richest rich-est man in all France. While he owns the "Journal," one of tho popular French newspapers, and is a large stockholder stock-holder in one of the big chocolate companies com-panies of the land, it is from gambling that his greatest wealth has come. In partnership with a man who started as a waiter in Maxim's famous restaurant, he owns the most valuable gaming concessions con-cessions on tho continent They extend from Deauville to Austria, Since gambling is an institution on the continent and tho casino is as much a part of every leading seashore resort as the beach, his great source of wealth Is within the law. The notables of world finance and society are his patrons. From the viewpoint of mere money he is able to write his own ticket for anything any-thing he wants. And since money makes the marc go on the continent, he has underwritten un-derwritten his numerous affairs of the heart with a reckless and a winning hand. To win his favor means the winning win-ning of jewels, of the power to command gowns, the right to have "charged" anything any-thing a store alFords in short, affluence. We of staid America little understand that situation. The woman who receives such favors in this country is out of the social picture. In Paris she forms its center. cen-ter. She gets deference from hotels, shops and restaurants of a high-priced character that her sister of the perfectly perfect-ly proper atmosphere does not and can not command. Which qualifies Lctollior as an expei't, since he ha3 both the inclination to enjoy en-joy the society of the fair and the means to make tho route to their possession simple. Once upon a time Letellier enjoyed the rc'iQ of husband for two days. Ho married mar-ried the winsome "Peggy" Gillespie on her deathbed, two das before the "white plague" ended her career of pleasure and of fashion. There, too, he exemplified his belief in the charm of the blonde, for "Peggy, " christened Margaret Mar-garet in her American home town of Punxsatawney, Pa., was as radiant a blonde beauty as ever crossed the water When she dawned on Paris she was a charming creature. Her fair complexion, complex-ion, blue eyes and golden hair gave her instant note, to which she armed the acquired ac-quired art of dressing in a style that was even in advance of the fancies of the noted designers whoso gowns are copied all over the world. She it was who first wore a Directoire gown. Her whole life was marked by elegance, by luxury and dash. And for a second proof of his devotion to the blonde Letellier chose Cecile Sorel, of the Comedie Francalse, the celebrated comedienne and beauty who long held the reputation of being the best-dressed woman in France. Her apartment in the Avenue de i'Opera was taid to have cost millions of franc-;. Her gowns were always stunning and she was watched with caro by that part of the French capital which would fain know what the barometer of style last recorded. Letellier followed his fancy forblonde friends next to Sigrid Holmquist, who brought her molasses candy halo from her native Sweden to shine in the French motion pictures. She appeared in Fanny Hurst's "Just Around the Corner" and the famous plunger followed her with flowers and attentions for quite a time. Peggy Joyce intervened to attract his attention. The stories of the alleged offers of-fers of marriage she had from Letellier are too recent to need repetition. She, too, belongs to the blonde sisterhood. But Peggy has lately denied that she has any idea of marrying the French millionaire connoisseur of beauty. Of the numerous other blondes that found Henri in their train none was more striking than Jacqueline Campbell. This aetrcM from the Casino de Paris v.- j-. r. . 1 f..r hr jewel.-, and V; 4 particularly for a string of magnificent "Sc.: pearls that was rumored s v-to v-to be the gift of the King of Chance. One day she met a rival actress and they fought a thrilling battle in which the pearls were torn A loose from their moorings about her shapely neck. fvf' The cause of the quarrel was not made public, al- gj . j gj though both women went '?' before the commissaire. ; , It was privately stated that they were rivals for f. the attentions of the man ffi whose word on beauty is hvj. held to be the last. V ""u oiiuwiiiK iiiuie- coin-pMely coin-pMely the pr. di'r-etion of Letellier for tho blonde, ; .. v , , f..r ;; !-:.:.;- f . about Mile. Mistinguett ' She is the dainty miss 1 ' ''' ' who was picked some ten ffjCW-years ffjCW-years ago by the critic Catulle Mendes as having BiiiJE1 tho most beiutiful legs in li France. She was heralded widely as the girl with w the $1,000,000 legs, which W ornaments she is said to have bathed daily in champagne. cham-pagne. Now, then, having seen that Letellier, the beauty V expert of France, has taken his own prescription in the" case of s& blondes, consider his ideas. "I have read of the troubles of your blondes," he said, "and of tho BO-called scientific explanations that have been made of their failures in America. I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of the stories and to think that most blondes are so successful in holding their own that they have never come to pub- lie attention. You know, after all, it is the exception, and not the rule, when one hears of a breaking of ties between m-n and women. "The woman who has held the strongest strong-est charm in Europe and I am speak- ing of the type, and not of individuals i- the possessor of that peculiar shade t of hair that might be called light biown. t Sometimes it gets the designation of j golden. It is almost invariably accom- t panied by blue eyes, with sometimes a t WSBf v ' v ' ' ' I - -4 - '''.. , X. decile Sorel, one of the many blondes to whom IHenri Letellier has paid court in his long and earnest quest of womanhood's highest type of beauty cry charming gray or violet shade. "There is no possible question about he fact that it charms more quickly than he brunette type. There is something -outhful, maybe babyi.-h, in the blonde if the sort I mention that the darker ypes will not show. I am assuming, of JrojHBH a quick victory does ViiaHK not last That i? a fallacy. There is a 1 tt.in steadiness ' t '-AA-'--ij ancj 0yaity about the blonde that her darker fc sister does not possess. She , is warm and loving without ? being designing. She is v more apt to stay put, f&lv as you say in America. and you will find far ' fe.ver cases of infidel- ity on tho port of the blondes than you . will with the brunettes. '-SftyfT poinr oi ine ainis- 4rW'i 1 'on- v. hither of -Hk f the heart or 'W: otherwise, liko a 's0& bookkeeper i'.; counting the h "She will s t a k o everything on her own choice. She will be content with af-fection af-fection and regard where a ' -j more designing woman J? would demand material returns. Sho will live in poverty that would r irk a brunette and 6he is rather certain to have less of the suspicious jealousy that marks her darker sister. "When she trusts it is a real trust, and when sho gets angry it is for some direct, 'specific cause that is immediately before her. You know what is in her mind and why she is on the warpath. In the opposite op-posite type you may have to gues3 at the motive, and then be wrong. A brunette may quarrel with you about one thing when Uk cause lies in a radically diffe rent r-ent direction. "Never that way with the blonde. You know at once that you failed to do some Jacqueline ; 9 Campbell, ; M the bloncJes Jsw ' who have .fjlF"Wi made M. Aj. Lecellier pronounce them the most chariniHH of women particular thin, or dirl -omo one tbfflm5 that offended. Her tire is direct "In the ma mper the bllJ has al! . " the it, too She b8"WJ ever goes off at a tangent end becornij , argumentative. Her opinions are P'Jlh bo formed by a slower and moro W erate route than those of any other Wjft I never remember hearing a blond plode over any trivial matter, althonj I have heard brunettes in noisy seen over the merest trifles sometime! oversight of a mere servart in a ""p of no importance whatever. W "And then, again, the blonde HtJ home picture better. I don't care vou go, the man doesn't live who :h not have at the back of his mlDS.i picture of a woman in a hpme JJJ doing the little, dmplc things that hfe worth while. He may want todlJJ with a Hashing beauty, dine v"th W or drink with a d ire-devil, but he"J gets back, mentally at least, to we tion of a woman in a simple fr0CVj is engaged in doing nothing more cate thall p,acing Rome flowers in or sewing th edge of a han'M -That is where the blonde comei u-w her own. She fits into the niche Ji i if she wa: W atmosphere n that of a real m.nation in the room. LtedM, Rct the impression oi T in q miiiion y'r9lron fK,i, Monde, in intimate surrounding ing over a tea set. . . "And you would have to t 'J (i' ;"nl 1CSSine .handed i , l in her mind when .he hand" the sugar." f (H t So there is the estimate ot World's chief eonno.s seur oi every woman with hair of the heartfelt .om.ctwn oI has left no pathway leading to t of beauty unexplored. |