Oscar Cosby, From Tiflis to Tibet (1905)

Excerpt from Cosby's essay in Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, XXXVII, No. 12 (1905)

My stay at Tiflis is notable in memory for one loss... The loss was my illusion concerning the beauty of the Georgian women; they are comely, with symmetrical features and dark complexion, and they are prettily gowned; but one begins already, even in this rather superior Asiatic type, to miss that fineness of feature and expression to which the high development of feminine beauty in Europe and America has accustomed us. Early travelers who have rhapsodized over these and other Eastern women may have been somewhat affected by the fact that they approached them much more laboriously and tardily than is now necessary. To-day Tiflis may be reached in four or five days' railway journey from Paris, with but a two-days' drive over the Caucasian Mountains from Vladikavkaz. Thus the Caucasian beauty is put into immediate juxtaposition in one's mind with the more perfect type in France.