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Show MIX IT 'FACE is her fortune if homely " P Many Pursuits Woman Demonstrates dhe Com-l jp mercial Value of a Snub Nose, Crossed Eyes or al .! y ; Stringy - Neck. fCopjnstt. 1911. hr ihn Nw Tork Btnld Co. All rlsSl rrvrrod ) TITESR ar the days of beauty parlors, face massage, "transformations," puffs, curls, courses of feature flaying, flesh food, acquired figures, paraffin In your cheeks, operations on your double chin and the thousand and one aids to beauty. Man pads his shoulders and manicures In the persevering per-severing attempt to emulate Apollo. Woman's pursuit pur-suit of beauty began with time ond will end only with eternity. North and South and East and ,West of this broad country aro equally, intent upon the same unalterable un-alterable object pink checks and a "shape." The publication. boweTcr, In a New York paper re-centJy re-centJy would seem to suggest another point of view. It ran: t "Wanted An experienced girl for general housework; roust be homely; no pretty girls need apply." This advertisement at first seemed a Joke. A per- 600 of imagination Immediately pictured legions, retmcntn, multitudinous sections, battalions, groups, the office. The boys are always pecking over lho glass windows at her. Any clerk who can rake up a possible question to ask her will ask It. If she goes out Into one of the passages somebody's sure to stop ber to speak to her. "No," concluded this man, shaking his bead, "from a business point of view your pretty girl is a failure. She's a bad speller, a time waster and a disorganizes Now, your homely girl," he went on, "Is right down onto her Job. She knows that If she doesn't nurse that nothing will save her. She can't think of her face, because that's fierce. She can't think of her share, because be-cause she hasn't pot nny. She does think of her spelling, spell-ing, because that's her only hope. So usnally your homely girl's a pretty good stenographer." Indeed, It is surprising If you are collecting facts upon the utility of the decorative feminine how brightly bright-ly the flat and angular young person shows up In comparison com-parison with her sister of the bright Idea look and peachblow cheeks. There Might Be Danger of a Person of So Handsome Appearance To Be a Little Coquettish masses and bunches of concentrated homeliness In skirts a riding and proclaiming from behind uneveu tenth and twisted months, "Gee! somebody appreciates appre-ciates us at last." Tho same Imaginative person would sco squat women smiling and thin women grinning and angular women chortling in the overbearing over-bearing Joy -of being in demand at last. That Is. however, only what tho imaginative person would do. The practical one would go round to tho employ-moot employ-moot agencies and to large employers of female labor fVorn Out by Late Dances. "The pretty office help," said another business man recently from as far West as Seattle, "Is nice all right, but you can't keep it. I've seen 'em come and go, and 1 know the signs. They they won't do. As wives they're probably everything that could be claimed for them, but as office help" Ho shrugged his shoulders Impotently. ,. VIu the first place, they arc half dead most of tho . f r ' ' "Nothing light or frivolous?" remarked the writer, "i;.actly," replied Madame. "Indeed, it is in tb educational," said she, "that wo find the greatest tendency ten-dency to employ only persons who arc homely. Wo notice it particularly In the case of governesses. It h very seldom that I have found a client who will accept a really handsome governess If it Is at all possible ta get a plain one. I don't know whether they consider them serious competitors," said Madame, who was not without a touch of humor, "that the master of tho house might be attracted, you know." "Don't you think it likely ?" asked tho writer. "No. I don't," replied the manager, "but I think they would be likely to attract attention when out with the children outside, yon understand. I suppose that the mothers think that there might be some danger of a person of so handsome an appearance being a little MnirttMi. And the little ones arc so easily Imitative, you know. Yes. It is very'true. I suppose tho mothers think that, on the whole, a plainer governess would be a letter example for the little ones." Mad.'iuc's registry office deals only with what is termed "the his.-ht class of help." Her business connections con-nections arc only with the very wealthy and for the upper grades of domestic employes. Further along the road is nn establishment of another kind. It caters very largely to the hotel trade, and when visitors reach its anteroom through the medium of its rather dark stairs the broad atca of the cry for homely help nt once becomes manifest. !'r it is found that In hotels also, large and small ami iirt tins nrid medium alike, is a tendency to choose iiio free klcd sister rather than tho fair to attend to the healthy offices of sweeping and dusting ami making Innumerable beds. 1 1111 M, -- ijj jj The Boys Are Always Fccking Over the CUss Windows aHer girl Is because of Monsieur, her husband. She doesn't wish to suffer by the comparison, you understand? In fact, It Is really remarkable when you think of the number of women, who deliberately employ only household house-hold help on account of the what you call setting It provides for themselves. And this Is not only upon her husband's account, but also upon account of her friends. No woman likes to appear less personally attractive at-tractive than her servant. Want Homely Servants. "So homely servants are really In great demand. One lady who Is a ciieut of mine." continued Madame, "is most particular obout the engagement of homelv help, though not for the reasons I have given," she said laughing, "for she Is .herself a very beautiful woman and need not fear competition. Her gowns;" ami then the registry office manager shrusged as i" to ask what chance even the most beautiful person from Scaudinavii had when stacked up against the gowns of Madame, her patroness. "Well." said Madame, continuing, "this lady has a theory that tho domestic servant who Is beautiful or pretty finds it so easy to get placed that .-he Incomes In-comes unduly independent. She is ready to throw up her Job upon die least occasion. S Madame makes it a rule to see only the homeliest of the girls. 'They cook better,' she says; 'they houvekeep better, they act better "I have another client." the manager went on. "who usually leaves the choice of girls to me. Sin. has, however, one hard and fast rule" "That they shall be unornatc. too?" asked tho writer. "That they shall be plain, very plain." said Madame; "a little over the bonier of plain, to bo oob, uiu Mucouviii, zista nomciiness a commercia raluo? Also, Are cross-eyed maldeDS desirable as help? &nd. Has tho elliptical girl got a show in th labor market? Aud, bavins bo interrogated, you will find that the Invariablo answer la 'Tes." There aro lots of in-t-taocca where beauty is Invariably beaten to the Job, when freckles may. defy the massage parlor grade of rompleJdon. Even in Wstory and folk-Ioro this thing has obtained. ob-tained. Bbra Beard iras a successful wooer, notwithstanding, notwith-standing, or perhaps because of, bis "brush." Even P.eatity lorefl her Beast, and, to come down to more substantial tlmca, who can deny the triumphant homeliness of "Aaron Burr? hideous, but transcendent transcend-ent when tho feminine heart was concerned. However, these Instances are primarily of the oeart, wblcli doesn't count, nnyhow, these days. How about tho commercial demand for the undccoratlve? It 13 even very great, tho agents say. It is constantly con-stantly growing, although in certain peculiar lines of trade it shows a tendency to diminish. Where is now the call for bearded ladles for the fattest women in the world? Where are the dog faced men and the per-lons per-lons with only one eye in the middle of their forehead ? Goncfllkc the 6nows of yesteryear. The great public flghs after them no more. A row lingerers, dylug hard, still straggle into nubers Mueum. New York, and an occasional museum in Boston or the Middle West, but their sun Is set, their arctic night has al- ready mantled down; they aro on the ropesand they can't "come back." Tho Luna Tarks aDd the Dreamlands Dream-lands have been too much for them. iWHerc Beauty Loses, These, however, are poor instances. Where is the army of the plain and the unvarnished of whom the registry agents have spoken? Why do they "beat beauty to It," and who seek them out iu all their unlovely un-lovely essentials? The stenographer of one of the busiest managers of a large manufacturing concern in Chicago supplies at least a partial answer to these queries. She is sallow and sandy, freckled ai:d spectacled. Each eye Is watery and shows a tendency to peer In through the windows of the other's soul. She's got a streaky neck and a stringy figure. She has bony knuckles. She goes in where she should go out, and out where she should go in. But Bhe has held her job for a good many years at an ever increasing salary. Her employer regards her as tho apple of his eye. Tou couldnt loosen his hold of her with a clasp knife. For a Ion- time his attiludo was a mystery to his friends, who were all enabled to become humorists through the inspiration of his stenographer. Then he proceeded to explain: "You see," ho said, "I'm In business for business and I hire my stenographer for exactly the same reasons as I hire my foremau-because I figure them both out to be thoroughly efficient. When I was younger I hired many pretty girls because I like to have -'em around. But lisieu to this:-I've never round a pretty girl who was really efficient in a busi-toss busi-toss office. They think a good deal upon the subject of themselves and only a little bit on the work. They are probably figuring out how they're looking when they're doing everything. 'Every visitor who comes into the office, too Is coutmuany rubbering and gives that stenographer a . tter idea' of herself than ever. She's always poll-ing poll-ing down her shirtwaist or fooling about her hair or rubbing chamoU skin on her nose or taking a look at herself in her mllc hand mirror. She counts a good deal upon her good looks to hold her job-and very often she counts right. "You'll take bad punctuation from pretty glrl I WbCU JOU U,(1 ver "ami It from a plain one " I "And not on.y that." h, OM; .. ' I wastes her own time, Mu that of everyb-.ly else i'n time, he explained. "They get asked out so much, you know. They're always going to dances and they get back about three or four o'clock In the morning. They come to the office pretty, but limp. When they're not getting ready to take a good night's rest on account of the sleep they lost the night before they're getting ready for some other sort of a blowout," blow-out," ' nc was "slangy," though expressive; but his com-pan com-pan Ion to whom he told these experiences adopted a tone of light satire. "Ah, that pretty help," he said. "You can always tell 'em. They go through a regular evolution. I haven't found so much trouble In tho way you speak of. I find they work pretty much as anybody else does, but but you can't keep 'em. Here's the his-tory his-tory of tho pretty JitUe stenographer as I've found her. She comes to the office fresh and neat she's fine. She stays like that, maybe, for about six-months. six-months. Then one day she comes in with a bunch of roses iu her. waist, looking flushed and preoccupied. preoccu-pied. Her eyes are looking kind of bright and you catch her watching the clock a lot. "The next stage comes with candies and telephone calls every day candles in boxes, with pink and blue ribbons on 'cm and paper inside them which looks like the latest thing in Fifth avenue lingerie establishments. establish-ments. That lasts for about two or three months, and then one day one day she comes in with the I've- 'Am XM - lliW in H'Fi ,J, No Woman Likes to Appear Less Personally Attractive Than J" , Her Servant Clean, Tidy Girls. "The call is for clean, tidy girls," the manager of this jibiia. said, "rather than pretty ones, a girl of very serious manner and expression Is the one that i Is wanted for tins class of work. Houses must bo very careful of their tone, you know, and a bright and smiling eye Is n positive handicap. With no many guests" Out of the registry offices the Investigator of the durable, the undccoratlve, pursues his way. He enters en-ters a modern office building, with its marble vestibule vesti-bule and gilded elevator shaft. At the tenth floor n number of women get on. They are dressed in sober black, 'i hey are the army of office cleaners, who di,: nml sweep and set Iu order ngalnst tho beginning of another day. They are long and short, narrow and broad, stout and concave; but beneath each varying rjuality each yet possesses one common attribute the common quality of a harrowing, desolating deso-lating plainness. Sin, in fact, who Is reputed to be a monster of most frightful mien, would have to hustle to get it on the average office charwoman because she also is chosen on aceouut of her ruggedly undecorative quail-ties. quail-ties. Hero again the mauugcriul heart is adamant agaiust the claims of beauty. For Jt may be said unreservedly un-reservedly that no pink checks or blue eyes or delight, ful curves stand the shadow of a chance for a job it any representative office building lu auy large city in these United States. A good stout frame and a fac that Is a cross between a jureollc Hallowe'en cele-brant cele-brant and a wooden idol in the Hebrides Is the require inent there. For all of which reasons, therefore, tho plainer ls-ter ls-ter can really cheer up. it is possible to look upon crooked noses with joy and twisted lips with elation and on eyes that converge with triumph, it Is possl ble to regard a seventy-nine inch waist with satisfaction satisfac-tion and a dead level front line with positive contentment. content-ment. For beauty is not all. as we have been led to believe. It.has the defects of Its virtues, and home'.l-ress home'.l-ress the virtue of lu defects, l or It, too, can lak, its turn at the bat. Let It cheer up. eaten-the-canary-oh-I'm-sobappy sort of look In her eyes, and that's the time you can look out for a new stenographer. She only appears perfunctorily for tho sake of her trousseau after that. That is the road to ruin with the pretty stenographer as I've found her. No, no; I'm a modest man. I'll take mine freckled and flat in the future.' These instances will do to indicate roughly some of the reasons why bumps and angles are unpopular In business. Hut the managers in registry offices will tell you in confidence many things about the unexpected popularity of the young wo.n.u, with a snub nose and who is built on the lines of a barrel-in the more domestic do-mestic lines of activity. They will speak more dl- rectly upon the commercial advantages of being ugly and the employers who search out homeliness and bear it oil in triumph. There's the typo of woman emplover who Insists i upon a homely maid. "I want a good, strong, houest looking girl," she'll say. Thcu she will whisper to Madame. "Ub, dear me, no. I don't want that one She's got altogether too much style. I Just waut a good, sttong girl a good, stout, strong locking girl. I don't care about appearance." ap-pearance." c "Of course, she doesn't tell her reason for that." snys Madame, the i nana lvt, who speaks with a slightly foreign for-eign accent, "but her real preference for this strong perfectly exact. She Is the proprietress of a holies' boarding fchool, and It puzzled m tor some time to know why she insisted upon that particular class of help-tbough I did not ask. because, you understand, we must be diplomatic in this business. One day." however, after she had been dealing through me for two or three years. I did so. Now. I don't really know that I thoroughly agree with her reasons." remarked the manager, "but it was rather amusing. ThLs lady had the belief that It would be better for the atmosphere of the establishment, you know, that the help employed should not convey the impression of being too coquotf Jsh. She thought It gave a serious touch i) i,cr establishment." |