Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1904 — Beauty and the Beast. [ARTICLE]

Beauty and the Beast.

There was as much truth as boasting In the statement of John Wilkes, the famous London alderman, "Ugly aa I am, if I can have but a quarter of an hour’s start I will get the better of any man, however good looking, in the graces of any woman.” Of Wilkes’ abnormal ugliness there was never any question. “The children In the street ran away affrighted at the sight of him.” And yet his powers of fascination were so great that women of beauty and fashion vied with each other for his notice, while handsome men of all courtly graces were neglected. It was said that there were few beauties of the day whose hand Wilkes might not have confidently hoped to win. He married one of the richest and loveliest women of his time. "Beauty aud the beast, they call us,” Wilkes once said to a friend, “and I cannot honestly find fault with the description.”