BEWARE OF PLAIN WOMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17915, 3 August 1926, Page 11

BEWARE OF PLAIN WOMEN.

“Poor old Fred!” his sister Janet exclaimed in half-ironical compassion. “When he engaged Miss M. as short-hand-typist he concluded, because she was plain, she'd be sensible, and she has turned out the laziest, most illtempered employee he has ever had, and what is worse, she’s convinced either that every man is in love with her or slighting her. and it’s most uncomfortable. It’s hard luck when he wanted to engage a golden-haired one instead, and daren’t! “It must have been the puritans who started the wretched fallacy that if a woman is uncomely she will be good, or at least good-hearted and grateful for affection. That her husband may rely on her to be a model housekeeper, and atone by her sterling worth for her lack of personal charm. “As a matter of fact,” Janet continued. “I’ve noticed that plain women are often eaten up with conceit and self-consciousness. The girl who is pretty and gay, even when her joy in living leads! her into extravagances in dress and manner which shock her elders, often proves an excellent wife and a pleasant, unexacting companion. The world has smiled on her, and she hasn’t a grievance to mope over. She likes to be liked, therefore she is kind and hospitable, and she would not be as nice looking as she is were she not full of energy and vitality. “Nature isn't a deceitful old beldame, really, when she draws a man’s fancy by a graceful form and a pair of rosy lips. A generous, cheerful disposition is reflected in an attractive exterior, and a peevish, sluggish one in a muddy complexion and tight, unsmiling mouth. Fact as well as Action marks the villain with a sinister forbidding appearance, criminals and dunces are rarely handsome people, and selfishness and lack of feeling disfigure the countenance just as humanity and frankness adorn it. “The man who yields to the desire of his eyes, and woos and wins it, docs not run more risk of future trouble than he who coldly decides that it is dangerous and for prudential reason chooses a plain wife. “Thank goodness, a fair face is often the index of a fair soul.”