ARE BLONDES FADING

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 4, 23 May 1890, Page 31

ARE BLONDES FADING

Okly a few years ago we were deluged with statistics about personal beauty, gathered and interpreted by anthropologists and men who make the physiological changes of the race a study. Dr. Beddoe, of the British Royal Infirmary, furnished the most elaborate collection of figures, and after examining the hair of nearly 1,000 young women who came before his notice, announced that the brunette was preferred over the blonde, in conjugal selection, by a ratio of four to three. From such premises the conclusion was obvious that the blonde was doomed to pass eventually out of existence in England, It hasalßo been demonstrated by various anthropological magazinists that blondes are growing noticeably rarer in America. One writer, in fact, has recently declared that tbey have almost disappeared from New England, and the prediction is freely ventured that as a result of the cosmopolitan mixing of races in this country the American girl of the future will be a brown-haired, dark-eyed creature, smaller as a type than the girl of to-day, but plumper and less angular. In further support of Dr. Beddoe's theory, the names of other women, famous for their brunette style of beauty, will readily occur to the reader.

It i 8 possible, says the Epoch, to make an extended catalogue of Doted English and Atnericaa women whose personal charms have been of the blonde type. Harriet Lane, whose reign at the White House ia James Juchanan's days is still a social milestone, was a blonde with "golden hair, deep violet eyes, and a peculiarly beautiful mouth," Kate uhase, the belle of Lincoln's administration, bad auburn hair. Harriet Williams, the Georgetown beauty woo married Count de Bodisco, the Russian Minister at Washington, and became the belle of St. Petersburg, was a " magnificent fair woman with golden hair and brown eyes." Saidee Polk Fall, the belle of Nashville, has reddish golden hair. Beautiful Consuelo Yznaga, now Lady Mandeville, has brown tyes and black eyebrows, but her hair is a mass of gold. Miss Mabel Wright, perhaps tbe prettiest girl in New York society, has been called "the most exuisite blonde ever seen on this side of the Atlantic, and Mrs Adolpb. Laienberg, the married belle, has a pink complexion, blue eyes and curling hair that " ia like spun gold." Amelia Rive? has straw coloured hair wnich she ties in a Psyche knot, and violet eyes. Mile. Reichemberg, Gen. Bonlanger's favourite, is a pretty woman of the blonde peasant type. Marie Bashkirtseff, the fair Russian artist about whom the world is talking, was a Blender and pink-cheeked blonde.

Maoy of tbe ladies of the Administration circles at Washington, includmg Mrs Morton, Mrs McKee and Miss Mildred Fuller, are blondes, and tbe list might be extended indefinitely. If the blonde is goiog out of existence, she is, from all indications, going out in a blaze of glory.— Exchange.

Farmer Woodruff, of Warwick, N.Y., painted his live sto?k with petroleum to kill bugs. An experimenting farm band lighted a bull and he ran blazing and bellowing into the barn. The barn was burned.

Irish Protestantism has, Bays the Weekly Register, been associated from first to last with miserable attempts to pervert the faith of Catholics whose poverty exposed them but rarely abandoned them, to iuch temptation. It is, therefore, refreshing to record a fact mentioned at a late meeting of the Council of the Gaelic Union for the Cultivation and Preservation of the Irish Language. This meetiug was held at the Mansion House in Dublin, where a letter was read from Arr*n Islands. In that distant home of the Celtic race, the Irish language is the ordinary vernacular, and Irish is taught in the schools. It was stated that the Rev. Father Nolan's Irish Prayerbook was recently reprinted at the expense of the Rev. Mr. Cleaver, JfLd is now ready for distribution as pr.zes to school children. This clergyman, Mr. Cleaver, is here setting a noble example ; and we shall rejoice to hear of other such instances of a perception of the simple truth that the faith of ages is deeply imbeded in the hearts and consciences of St. Patrick's children. We sincerly hope that Mr. Cleaver will have a reward for his good work in the inter(feeeipns of those whose devotions be has thus facilitated,