Ugly Men Who Were Famous.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 July 1910, Page 4

Ugly Men Who Were Famous.

HISTOK 1C AL EX A MPL.KS

"X.o woman worthy of tbo .name," vrote one of the loveliest ladies in fiondon socioty recently, really •ares a brass farthing wfoelbhor the nan she honours with heir hand, is land.some or ugly so long ns he possesses the manly qivality of brains, physical strength, honor, and so on ,vlhcli make powerful appeal to our wx." A ... And certainly history supports this rather unconventional view, tor many of .the plainest men of whom ive have any record have not only tvon preMy and well-dowered brides, but have-" been able to pick and -house among the fairest, to tlie confusion of tlte-ir more well-favoured rivals. Was there- ever a plainer wooer, we wonder, tlwui .1 c>lin AVilkes... the. famous champion of popular liberties and one of tlie most dissolute roues :>f his day? So ugly was Wilkes that the wry children ran away shrieking at of him in the •streets, and vet such was the spell lie cast over women that ''ladies of beauty and fashion vied with each ofchor for his notice, while men of handsome exterior ami all courtly graeus looked enviously and ampotenttly on." "Give mo a quarter of an hour's start," he used to boast, "and I will win any lady's hand against the handsomest man in England." And lie could have done it, too. There were few beauties, however fair or highly placed, whose hands could not have been his for the asking, and in the very early '20s he won for his wife one of the loveliest heiresses of the time, a lady who refused more than one coronet to be his bride. " ' Heauty and the Beast' they [■all us," Wilkes once said to 11 friend, "wild really I cannot find fault with the description." Hroughain, the great Lord Chancellor, was a man of almost repellent ugliiraw* without a solitary compensating grace of speech or manner. Conscious of his unattractive-ness ne shunned the plague. And what was the result? The ladies, the motsi lovely and aristocratic in the land, simply mobbed the "ugly .lawyer," and were as proud to win a smile from him as an offer of n coronet from any other num. When any one asked, " "Wliero iw Rroiighani?" the invariable answer was. "Where the ladies arotihieke«t." An<l sure enough, there he was: and the more he repelled his fair persecutors, the more they clustered round him. Another famous "lady kilW'" was Jean Paul Marat, one of the leading .and most infamous figuires in tiliv I'VeiK'h Revolution. "Beyond any jiie.stion," wrote a contemporary, " M. Mara'k is the ugliest man in the whole of France—and not merely ugly but positively repulsive in periflii, habits, and manners." And yet in his early years he. was beyond rivalry the most popular physician in Paris. His consulting rooms were crowded daily by the ovelie&t women in the. French capital, pushing and jostling to got a ivoi'd witili. or perhaps win a smile : rom him. That he turned a deal' >iii' and cool shoulder ia their allinvnuiiita only stimulated thedr ardor, in til their attentions hec«me .so eni-iai-ru.s.sing that at one time lie seiiMi.sly meditated flight. Kven when he contracted a loathiome skin disease while hiding in the sowers of Paris, lie was devotedly liirsed by one of the loveliest of his naiiy admirers, whom he "married )!!<■ line day in .Mie presence of tin--41111." ff possible, in' still more repulsive nan was Potemuk.in, the former pri,'ate .soldier who enslaved the fancy )f (*athenin» th.e Great and by ; her avonr w.na map 1 virtually C'zar of Russia. "Dreadful and repulsive,'' ,vis tine descrvption of him by out , ,\hv> knew him. "He has an uiiiviii'dy li<i'iire .nnd knVick-k.neiis, is iwirlhy of skin, coarse in fe.-i.turc uid li-as lost one eye. He often wses whole days in hit's room hall Ireswrt, iMicombetl. unwashed, hitng his nails find, .smatching hi.s , iinidv lie'id." And ydt, snys T)urmhl, "the KmpiTss is (|iiite crazy )ver him. ns is oroved by her pasuo'iiate letters, in which .slfe adIresses him «is 'my lord,' 'my king. 1 inv inestimable treasure. , " Hut perhaps the most remai'kabli , if nil these cases of woman's infnitiiition for uglv men wa.s that of \\. [luuiltcn, a Scotsman of a cenltwy uid a half ago. Hamilton was not )iily prctcrnatuiially ugly but lie \va s :errili'ly deformed. "His legs," wi ire told, "were drawn up to his wirs. his arms were twisted backyard, and almost every member was >ufc of joint." In .spite of these tturible physical lrawbacks Hamilton easily omtstri))>ed all the gallairts in hi.s district in "he favour of the ladies. "H< night hive married any of them foi :he asking—indeed, it is said scvera )f them actually asked him," ,«ays i chronicler. "Rut he rem-a-inet" )roof .against all their wiles until :if;er his ciVrlitit-'Mi birthday, and then >e ni.'i.nri'ed a girl of 20, 'himself bei'g rmrricl to the altar on iikmi'. , ihoiilder.s."