The Pulaski Citizen

LADIES COLUMN.

Caroline Harold, Editor.

When are Women Lovely?

Loveliness in women, though it may vary in its character and manifestations at different periods of life, is not the property of youth only. There is a great and undeniable charm in a fresh beauty of eighteen, to which inexperience and early romance lends, perhaps, additional fascination. A pretty girl of that age who has been untouched by care, and who knows of the world through imagination only, is a very delightful object; and many men wish they might take captive her first affections. Between eighteen and twenty one the changes in a girl, so far as the charms of her person go, are not likely to be great; but in that time, by longer intercourse with society, and by natural development, she may get more companionable for men of maturity, and her carriage and self-control become better and greater.

These are important years in a young woman's life, the years during which, in our climate, the majority of the sex are married. And yet, from twenty two, twenty-five or twenty six a maiden may, and generally does, still further advance in attractiveness, and add to the store of her charms. She is still young, but she has outlived some of the youthful fancies, and feels some of the dignity of womanhood. No better ages than those in a maiden's life, and never is she lovelier. But why stop at twenty-six?

What fairer women are to be found than many of those between twenty-six and thirty, and even older? Girls of eighteen may look on them as unsought old maids, and yet they are in their womanly prime, and may capture hearts that have been steeled against girlish fascinations. Oftentimes they make the best of wives, and men find a solace and companionship in their society which immaturity cannot give.

They have the advantage of experience, and have learned the lessons taught by longer contact with the world, while still they may not be averse to falling in love.