Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1883 — HOW BEAUTY IS LOST. [ARTICLE]

HOW BEAUTY IS LOST.

The Effect of Toughing mmd Crying in Wonen* [Prom * London Letter.] The approach of age shorn itself first about the eyes. Lines come, faintly at first, then deeper and deeper, n util the incipient crows’ feet are indicated, developed, revealed. The woman who, looking in her .glass, perceives these fatal lines diverging from the outer corners of her eyes, knows that she has reached an era in her life. . She recognizes it with a sigh, if she be a vain, a lovely, or a worldly woman; with a smile, perhaps, if she has children in whom she can live her own youth over again. But it can never be a gay smile. None of us, men or women, like to feel youth—that precious possession—slipping away from us. But we should never be on the lookout for crow’s feet or gray hairs. Looking for them is sure to bring them, fears form a part of the language of the eye, which is eloquent enough when sparingly used ,*and which should be sparingly used for other reasons than that of adding to their mute eloquence. Tears are a disfiguring expression of emotion, and those who get into the habit of weeping over every small vexation do much toward acquiring a care-worn, miserable expression, and are sure to look old before their time. Excessive weeping has been known not only to injure, but actually to destroy the sight. Few women look pretty, or even interesting, in tears, though it has long been a pleasant .fiction in poetry and romance to suppose that they do. Many women, some men, and most children make most disfiguring and distorting grimaces while crying, and a lady who thinks she can work upon a man’s feeling by a liberal display of tears should carefully study a becoming mode of producing them before her looking glass. Grimaces soften no hearts, and tears accompanied by the usual distortion have a hardening effect, if not a visible one. In a prettilywritten book, now probably out of print, purporting to be the story of the life of one of Milton’s wives, the author makes that poet say of his wifes* eyes after crying that they resembled “the sun’s clear shining after rain”—a very pretty natural object indeed, but during the rain itself the observer is not inclined to be complimentary.

Grimaces of a somewhat-similar order are frequently made during the action of laughter. Care should always be taken with the children to prevent their falling into this habit. It frequently reaches such a pitch as to render the laughter positively unsightly. The face is disordered and out of drawing. The eyes disappear and the lips are drawn up, revealing half an inch of pale pink gum. This peculiarity sometimes runs in families, partly from unoonscious imitation. I know one family whose grimaces during laughter are most ludicrously alike. When they are all assembled at the dinner-table, and a joke goes around, there is not a single eye left in the family. Much, if not all, of this could be prevented by due care in childhood. The laugh can be cultivated quite as much as the voice. Actressess take lessons in laughing with occasionally very charming results. Ido not, however, advise that such teaching should begin ih early childhood, lest it might destroy spontaneity and produce an effect of artificiality; but I very strongly recommend mothers to check a disposition to make grimaces during their children’s indulgence of mirth.