In the negro car of a railway train in one of the gulf states a bridal
couple were riding--a very light, rather good looking colored girl and a
typical full blooded negro of possibly a reverted type, with receding
forehead, protruding eyes, broad, flat nose very thick lips and almost
no chin. He was positively and aggressively ugly.
They had been married just before boarding the train and, like a good
many of their white brothers and sisters, were very much interested in
each other, regardless of the amusement of their neighbors. After
various "billings and cooings" the man sank down in the seat and,
resting his head on the lady's shoulder, looked soulfully up into her
eyes.
She looked fondly down upon him and after a few minutes murmured gently,
"Laws, honey, ain't yo' shamed to be so han'some?"
Little dabs of powder,
Little specks of paint,
Make my lady's freckles
Look as if they ain't.
--_Mary A. Fairchild_.
He kissed her on the cheek,
It seemed a harmless frolic;
He's been laid up a week
They say, with painter's colic.
--_The Christian Register_.
MOTHER (to inquisitive child)--"Stand aside. Don't you see the gentleman
wants to take the lady's picture?"
"Why does he want to?"--_Life_.
One day, while walking with a friend in San Francisco, a professor and
his companion became involved in an argument as to which was the
handsomer man of the two. Not being able to arrive at a settlement of
the question, they agreed, in a spirit of fun, to leave it to the
decision of a Chinaman who was seen approaching them. The matter being
laid before him, the Oriental considered long and carefully; then he
announced in a tone of finality, "Both are worse."
"What a homely woman!"
"Sir, that is my wife. I'll have you understand it is a woman's
privilege to be homely."
"Gee, then she abused the privilege."
Beauty is worse than wine; it intoxicates both the holder and the
beholder.--_Zimmermann_.