PLAIN MEN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1699, 15 March 1913, Page 4

PLAIN MEN.

Not long ago there was a discussion on ..., looks and appearance, and someone declared that-as time,goes on men get plainer in face and nioro feeble in form and frail of constitution (says a, writer in .. "The Queen"'). ' ■ . . : There may perhaps be some truth in. ■ : this statement.' In former days the fail- ■■ lire in men's looks, ill quite the .upper. • classes was no doubt the result of too. - . niuch luxury and of frequent .jntermar-. riage. • liut in 1913 men in the best set often livo simple, lives, and intermarriage .i ,- hps of late become far less frequent—a social 'gain., which may-bo more or'lesa set down ,to'the American invasion. ' • :\- •'.••As,regards the present-day loss of looks, tho'streiinous way wo Ijve has; pf-otoirsej much to tay. on the subject;'' Tlie modern man soon 'takes a careworn "face fllld a bent? figure from his lifo qfhustlo :aftd - •'' bustle, and from tho (jcl-rich-qqick nietU- , ods, and from the stem stressVof lip-to-; ■" dato competition. And it' 1 may bo that much harm is done to a man's looks by too much smoking, and the-rapid rate of : modern 'locomotion.' However, it is amusing to'note 1 that ; beauty in men has gone out of fashion, not only in real lifo, but in ficfion. Now-; adays we hear little or nothing of tho • handsome hemes who charmed our..hearts!*' in the 'seventies and 'eighties. ■ Gone, are < aro Guy Livingstones of a former . ape, also "Ouida's" splendid Guardsmen,; with their blue eyes, gplden .hair, and, hopeless . ~ wickedness. Even. Rhoda liroiigluon's "Vikings," fair-skinned, brainless giants., are out of date,in the modern, novel.. In ■. fact, tho jeunc premier has given place-. ■ • to tho brainy worker. * ,1 v. Plain inch are to the fore in present: ->v day plays and stories. Who would e\- . pect a handsome hero in. ail Ibsen drama? And Cyrano de Bcrgerac owes to his huge . nose the fact that ho is the hero of a ■. play by Rostand. Also wo maj;. note such : heroes as Lucas Juliet's Sir Richard Cal- o.:. mady, llicliens's Doris Androvsky in his- , "Garden of Allah," Violet; Hunt's 111'. ;■ . Dand in her "Whito Roso of Weary - Leaf," and Nick Rateliffe in Ethel Dell's novel "The Way of an Eagle." 1 And plain men may take, comfort, for thero is no beauty like • that, of .perfect health, a line figure, and a keen intellect.