MOMENTARY MUSINGS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1929, Page 16

MOMENTARY MUSINGS.

I wonder if the day will ever dawn when women will be really flattered — and sweetly so—by the sincerest form of flattery? When imitation of any of their gifts of charm, inherent or acquired, will kindle a heart-glow instead of inspiring the indignant comment: “Copy-cat!” Is it really impossible for women to rejoice in the vision of a general levell-ing-up of feminine taste, attractiveness, and mental clan, as the result of ugliness essaying to emulate beauty and homeliness aspiring to art? “My dear, have you heard Mona’s new speaking voice? Every cadence is a careful imitation of Joyce’s Celtic timbre.” “I ask you, did you ever see anything more blatant than Maud s painful attempt to copy Dora’s style? From carriage to coiffure, my dear. I assure you it’s a perfect scream!” “Did you see how shamelessly Hester has carried out Margery’s colour-scheme in her own room? I wonder she has the nerve to ask Margery to tea!” Such are the remarks all too frequently heard on feminine lips. Is there no appeal to our sense of pathos in. the humble attempt of the wrong people to follow the right example ?. Is there no appeal to our artistic imagination in the prospect of such example being so sedulously and patiently followed that ugliness at last gives place to beauty? Wouldn’t we all rather listen to cultivated voices than harsh or uneducated accents? Wouldn’t we all prefer to see feminine taste expressed in terms of culture and refinement by the many rather than the few ? Surely! --M. de F.