Clever Woman to Surpass Beauty.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 4, 25 January 1908, Page 19

Clever Woman to Surpass Beauty.

By

Marcel Prevost.

If some antiquarian of - a century or two ahead should run through the pages of our present day journals he probably would conclude that we are greatly concerned with feminine beauty. In his investigations he would find many magazines and journals illustrated with pictures of the “most beautiful woman in the world.” He would find that continents have been drawn into the search for the most beautiful women. He would read, for instance, that Paris had chosen its beauty amidst gredt pomp and enthusiasm, only to find itself violently challenged by Chicago in the claim that it alone possessed the most perfect specimen of the fair sex. Posterity might thus come to the conclusion that we have been great adorers and admirers of beauty, of the feminine form, and were ready to engage in another Trojan war for another Helen. This, however, would have been a grave mistake and a proof that written documents do not always tell the truth in regard to the spirit of the times. No age was as indifferent to feminine beauty as is ours. No people and no country seriously concerns itself with feminine beauty to-day, and the people who interest themselves least are the French. Paris is the city least interested in the world in feminine beauty. London has its professional beauties. America with its customary aggressive-

nees seeks to head the list in the esthetic chapter on the “most beautiful women.’’ Paris alone is in the rear in this race. All it does towards cultivating beauty is to give municipal masquerades where one sees sweet faces of fishwomen and laundresses who are pretty, indeed, to behold from afar, but who do not in the least resemble Helen or even Mme Recamier, nor Lady Hamilton. This is the public taste. In the most fashionable Paris society, however, there is the same indifference towards feminine beauty. A remark about this or that woman being the "most beautiful woman” in Paris will not provoke any dispute. At must it will receive the reply that there is no such a thing as the “most beautiful” woman in Paris. On the other hand, if you turn the conversation as to who is the most clever, most charming woman, the discussion will at once become animated. Scores of names will be advanced end each name will find its champions and admirers. This is significant. In Paris, and in all other cities which are under Parisian influence, beauty as such has ceased to be valued. Elegance, culture, rather than plastic beauty, count in present day society. A beautiful woman without other charming and elegant attributes does not count. A cultured, charming, and clever woman, even if not beautiful, counts in accordance with her higher attributes. Tell a Parisian woman that she is beautiful, but that she does not know how to dress or do up her hair, and she will bear you a grudge all her life long.