THE PENALTY OF BEAUTY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 115, 13 May 1912, Page 6

THE PENALTY OF BEAUTY.

Mr Andrew Carnegie has a reputation as an ironmaster and lord of finance, and now he lias climbed to a new pinnacle-of fame as a judge of beauty. Lately he was at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and while chatting with a newspaper representative, he said: ''By the way/1 have found t.b.o prettiest girl in the world. Hero is her photograph. Do you know, Virginia Lee would make a good wife for some nice young man." "Are yoii married Mr Reporter?" he asked. "If I were not a Benedick myself," said the laird; "I would board the first traiia to Pittsburg." The story behind the millionaire's compliment is a simple- one. Mr Lee met Mr Carnegie afc Hot Springs, and thanked him for the excellent opportunity which the Margaret Morrison Technical .Schools had offered his daughter in the way of education. Then Mr Carnegie asked for a copy of Miss Lee's photbgraph. : Soon after his passing comment to the-reporter, the journals were publishing the portrait. In word as well as in .picture, they., have, described-licr. She has a wondjar fui wealth of brown hair, perfect features of the. classice beauty type, ,and eyes Jikq' violets of .the deepest blue. But Miss Lee is not enjoying it at ali. Crowds pursue her, follow her when, sho goes to work in - the morning, escort her at luncheon, and trail after her as she goes home in the evening. Photgraphers dog her footsteps, music-hall managers are deluging her with offers, artists want to paint her picture, and every post brings numerous proposals of marriage. If sho attends the theatre she overshadows the performance, and no matter where- she goes, the crowd ones: "Here comes Carnegie's prize beauty." At-'first she was amused, but that period parsed. She was intensely angry when the last-mail left, declaring that for her there was no more privacy. She is naodest, retiring, and businesslike, and'says that nobody else will endorse Mr Carnegie's opinion. Mr Carnegie declares his willingness to leave it to anybody's judgment whether he' is not right. "If I were not happily anarried," he says, "I would return xto Pittsburg to ?ee this young lady, but I imagine some enterprising \ roung P.iT,tsburg man has already seen .in Miss Lee what I have seen—-that she is a pear! beyond price." Others appear to l>© of the same opinion, for ■within two days, she received thirtysix offcrSief marriage, and. various tempting?overtures from the nroprie+ors of theatres Jind mnsic-h^lls. She has, it is pleasant to be able to record, rejected all of them.