BEAUTY'S REIGN ENDED.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 80, 28 December 1907, Page 11

BEAUTY'S REIGN ENDED.

In a recent number of "Figaro," ,M; Marcel, Prerost -presents: to .us .the startling-, re- 1 ' relation that-tlio day of boaiity'is at: an ..end.: "Lo- Krach do. la Beauto". ho heads his article, ...which' may, perhaps, bo rendered, tho banlcruptcy of beauty.; .Thcro is a certain' commercial-air about his assessment of- its valuo,. which justifies tho base word. It; is' as:if'Venus had gono to hor.bankers.for an" overdraft,.'to .bo told ' that ■ hor - collateral was of no; value. Should ono attempt nowadays, he says, in a salon of,any pretensions, to stbrt-a discussion as,to: who might be the most' beauti* ful woman in Paris, not tho. smallest iri'i terest would ,bo aroused. But suggest that Madamo ■ X is tho most elegant, and eyerv--ono will tako part. ■ Twenty-eager dispute ants will'bo'rea#'to. break a-lanca with:you on Wialf of rival claimants. In Paris a.

woman beautiful without- elogßiice, in the French: senso of the word,- commands no position. 'If she bo elegant,. as well as beautiful, sho counts exactly according to the degree- of lier eleganco. A Parisian lady to whom you might say:- "Madame, never havo I known beauty equal to yours, but you will never'learn how to dress or fix your Lair . . would give you a stony dismissal and cold-shoulder you afterwards. In fact, .says M.- I'revost, even to ■- say that- Madame X is beautiful has como to sound-a little crude, a phraso that perhaps should' hardly bo repeated to herself unless with tho intention of annoying her.- It might set .>her wondering Whether. she were ■ not "putting on flesh. To describe her in words as "a' beautiful woman"' would call up to'her'the vision'of a figuro somewhat 1 massive, oiio whom it would need some in - genuity to.rdress'well; For foreigners not jOxact.l.y 'apprcciativq :of- the exact phrases of fashion, it is well to note that the words'"beau" and "hello" aro on the way : to%cqtiire the inverted seriso that-"worthy'' has come to have in English. :-. ; • ■lAVhilo Mi. Provost writes primarily, of ..the society - which ho/knows best, tho salons of. Paris, ; 'ho imagines the tendency to .be a general'ono] in human nature. In-London, .-tho' photographers and tho. magazines still e\'poso- ; tho. photographs of a few" highlyplaced' and- well-known women, professional "beauties,! but no ono' would now ;pay tho compliment which'■ was' paid to Madame He-.-oairiiejr, who when she crossed tho- channel foiind'the cockney's ready to drag' her .carriage'.through tho streets. The inroad of Kentucky belles, the discussion : in some of tho iwostorri papers in America as to the most .-beautiful woman in their States and cjties, ' leads' him to suppose that in the newer countries there remains some general and popular appreciation.' But the same indilferonce,' he believes, will overwhelm them all; and beauty will come to bo as much a [private possession as a good palate or a tasto' for bronzes, something which may . bo Jan attraction for .individuals, . but not a source of pleasure to bo avowedly shared in common. , , - The prime cause, of this ' bankruptcy, of beauty ho'estimates to bo the revolt- of: women: against tho admission of - a privilege of any kind. It is moro deop-seated than defensible'on high grounds. It is due: to. the same passion for equality which French-, men invented at. tho Revolution, and it is ,becoming tho .most- prominent characteristic of all -democracies. . Tho' splendid beauty of . a;;'Wqman's;faco -is' privilege of the most magnificent: kind, exercised without effort, /an'd ■■without.wiil.: l . , The mass- of ..women, 'thoso who aro,neither beautiful nor >plain, could not tolerate a superiority so .humiliating. By dint of endless toil in -controlling the senses and mmds of men, by a hundred artifices ; ot: the toilet, of dyes,' of scents, by. .the; adf.oit,and .systomatic-'obliteration .'of the .feminine type, they have come, to-

confuse such: inadequate notions of .beauty, as we poor men. onco • possessed! So that .to-day. m Paris, whore this feminino move-ment-has been most persistently carried on, .perhaps owing to the help,of tho brightest, .professional. skill v .there: remain: neither old. women, among those, that is to ;say, who -havo enough 'money and leisure. But .''beauties" on the-other uand have disappeared. . A more noble motive,may be helping the : movement.'" Women, may rightly shrink; from ■idealising-the type,!which is!the sourco only of spectacular pleasure. ; They havo .a right *to. attempt first- to - have.influenoe .over - the .'imnd..and to. charm. Good-folks may. say '".that 'a .woman should both charm and-please ■tho ;6ye. . ■",V'es,,.my'goqd people,"! says.,'M. Provost, "but life" is too short .for such..complex oji'ortsy ..-A'..'woman,. who!, makes ...a cult: of her "own beauty has' bimV arid oppqr- 1 - .tunity. to think of. little elsethere was. Madamo de- Castiglione, who worshipped 'herself, in . tho mystic -sense of tho word, ; and' spent',tho/b.est 'part of her- lifo-in .contemplating ' her-features. and" the lines of hor- figure.' - . ■ The history Of:. women icelebrated for their' 'beauty proves to ,us .that.vthisV-.beauty'- constrained 'theim i to a slavery,' compared .to which- the demands, oh,-a'woman, who leads, tho - world of modern ; elegance, . aro, ' : negligible ' burdens'.. '..The '•pinnaclo of-\fema-le beauty is- doomed ■ to bo perpetually:: on" show, while! ;.the •, elegant women, who abound in. Paris', carry "on -an- : intellectual and' purposeful. life.'' -. .'This, delicate analysis of, Parisian tenden-. cies cannot textually 'bo transferred . in its application' to London, where 'thor<S',are : fewer shepherds of, taste. ; Society, in spite ;'of .Father.-Vaughan', should not ith'ere lie" spell'-!with %a ' big S ; it• is .too' much broken "up,in 'coteries, .shading! off into ono another,' ; but characterised by fundamental differences in': pursuit ;of : pleasures :o,r 'in efforts'.to ;as!sert influenoo. 'let'ono- may-stat-o with' : sonie confidence thatVin:- most ; 'oiroles t'rte : ' power of pleasing in either, ses ,ia- a much more complex;, task than it, appears to be-in tho .novels-.of:-Jarto' Austen. l •' '

ing of'the capacity-, of her own nature for responding to > passionate attachment., she may accept the-offer of someone whom she redely likes in' an everyday/and ordinary way. Could anything be more absolutely destructive of fine sensibilities than tho experience of such a girl when, married to a man; for whom she has no feeling beyond a friendly comradeship, she meets the individual who has all the qualities" necessary to fulfil every need of; her nature? So insidiously does such a love as this approach that the young woman wonders why she feels so happy, and only discovers the real cause when, in a moment of self-revelation, she-thinks ■ " What made the'ball so Sne ? Kobiu was there! . . ' What made th' assembly shine? -" ltobin "Adair.". After all her radiant- happiness; comes the misery of .knowing,that she has spoiled her life, and she wonders why some'friend who knew .more of life than' she'herself had not be,on kind "enough to-warn her about these shoals and quicksands.

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