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diff --git a/23750-8.txt b/23750-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6501f63 --- /dev/null +++ b/23750-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3884 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Woman Beautiful, by Helen Follett Stevans + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Woman Beautiful + or, The Art of Beauty Culture + +Author: Helen Follett Stevans + +Release Date: December 6, 2007 [EBook #23750] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN BEAUTIFUL *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected +without note. Dialect spellings, contractions and discrepancies have +been retained. + + +[Illustration: LADY CURZON] + + + + +THE WOMAN BEAUTIFUL + + + +By + +MME. QUI VIVE + +(HELEN FOLLETT STEVANS) + + + +CHICAGO +JAMIESON-HIGGINS CO. +1901 + +COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY +STEVANS AND HANDY + + + + +PREFACE + + +The Woman Beautiful is not a radiant creature of gorgeous plumage and +artificial beauty, but a woman of wholesome health, good hard sense, +sparkling vivacity and sweet lovableness. Her beauty-creed hangs not +from rouge pots and bleaches, but suspends like a banner of truth from +the laws of wise, hygienic living. Her cheeks are tinted with the glow +that comes from good, well-circulated blood, her eyes are bright and +lovely because her mind is so, and her complexion is transparent and +soft and velvety for the reason that the true art is known to her. The +Woman Beautiful is all sincerity. She doesn't like to sail under false +colors and so insult old Dame Nature, whose kindnesses and benefits are +so well meant and freely offered. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +THE COMPLEXION 9 + Expression 14 + Useless Beauty 16 + Washing the Face 20 + Facial Eruptions and Blackheads 23 + Tan, Sunburn and Freckles 27 + Complexion Powders 32 + Wrinkles 35 + Recipes for the Complexion 39 + +CARE OF THE HAIR 46 + Dressing the Hair 56 + Superfluous Hair 63 + Recipes for the Hair 65 + +THE HANDS 68 + Bathing the Hands 71 + Care of the Finger Nails 73 + Recipes for the Hands 75 + +THE EYES 79 + The Girl Who Cries 83 + The Eyelashes 86 + The Eyebrows 86 + +THE TEETH 88 + +BATHING 93 + +DIET 100 + +SLEEP 109 + +EXERCISE 114 + +STOOPED SHOULDERS 125 + +BREATHING 130 + +MASSAGE 136 + +DRESS 144 + +THE THIN GIRL 149 + +THE PLUMP GIRL 154 + +THE WORKING GIRL 161 + +THE NERVOUS ONE 167 + +PERFUMES 174 + + + + +The Woman Beautiful + + + + + THE COMPLEXION + + The bloom of opening flowers, unsullied beauty, + Softness and sweetest innocence she wears, + And looks like Nature in the world's first Spring. + + --_Rowe._ + + +Bad complexions cause more heartaches than crushed ambitions and cases +of sudden poverty. The reason is plain. Ordinary troubles roll away +from the mind of a cheery, energetic woman like water from a duck's +back, but beauty worries--well! they have the most amazingly insistent +way of sticking to one. You may say you won't think of them, but you do +just the same. + +It was always thus, and thus it always will be. + +Diogenes searched untiringly for an honest man--so they say. Woman, +bless her dear, ambitious heart, seeks with unabating energy the ways +and means of becoming beautiful. + +After all, they're not so hard to find when once the secret of it is +known. Like the keys and things rattling about in her undiscoverable +pocket, they're right with her. If she will but stop her fretting for a +moment, sit down and think, then gird on her armor and begin the +task--why, that's all that's needed. + +There are three great rules for beauty. The first is diet, the second +bathing, and the third exercise. All can be combined in the one word +health. But, alas! how few of us have come into the understanding of +correct living! It is woman's impulse--so I have found--to buy a jar of +cream and expect a miracle to be worked on a bad complexion in one +brief night. How absurd, when the cause of the worry may be a bad +digestion, impure blood or general lack of vitality! One might just as +well expect a corn plaster to cure a bad case of pneumonia, or an eye +lotion to remedy locomotor ataxia. The cream may struggle bravely and +heal the little eruptions for a day or so, but how can it possibly +effect a permanent cure when the cause flourishes like a blizzard at +Medicine Hat or a steam radiator in the first warm days of April? + +Cold cream, pure powders and certain harmless face washes are godsends +to womankind, but they can't do everything! They have their +limitations, just like any other good thing. You may have a perfect +paragon of a kitchen lady, whose angel food is more heavenly than +frapped snowflakes, but you can't really expect her to build you a +four-story house with little dofunnies on the cupolas. Of course not. +Angel cake is her limit! And that's the way with those lovely liquids +and things on your pretty spindle-legged dressing table. They can do a +good deal in the beautifying line, but they can't do everything. Give +them the help of perfect health and scrupulous cleanliness of the skin, +and lo! what wonders they will work! + +There is but one way--and it's so simple--of making oneself good to +look upon. Resolve to live hygienically. There is nothing in the world +which works swifter toward a clear, glowing, fine-textured and +beautiful complexion than a simple, natural diet of grains and nuts and +fruits. But you women--oh! it positively pains me to think of the +broiled lobsters, the deviled crabs with tartar sauce, the pickles, and +the conglomerate nightmare-lunches that you consume. And yet you're +forever fussing over leathery skins, dark-circled eyes and a lack of +rosy pink cheeks. Oh, woman! woman! why aren't you wise? + +Here are some rules. They're golden, too: + +Eat with wisdom and good sense. That means to pension off the pie and +its companion workers of physical woe. + +Take a tepid sponge bath every day, either upon arising in the morning +or just before going to bed. + +Limit the hot scrubbings to one a week. + +Exercise with regularity, and dress as a rational human being should. + +Drink three pints of pure, distilled water every day. + +See that the bedroom is well ventilated, and don't heap up the pillows +until you have a mountain range upon which to rest your poor, tired +head. A flat bed and a low pillow help toward a fine, straight figure +and a good carriage. + +Keep your feet warm. Give those pretty round yellow silk garters to the +girl you hate, and invest in sensible hose supporters. If your +circulation is defective, wear wool stockings. + +Don't fret. Bear in mind what Sheridan said: + + "A night of fretful passion may consume + All that thou hast of beauty's gentle bloom; + And one distempered hour of sordid fear + Prints on thy brow the wrinkles of a year." + +Then rest. Don't, I beg of you, live on the ragged edge of your nerve +force. You need quiet, and all you can get of it. We victims of +civilization go through life at a breakneck gallop, and it's an immense +mistake. Anyhow, those who know say so. And it sounds reasonable. + +But, after all, the complexion is only a small part toward the making +of a beautiful woman. The hair must be kept sweet and clean and +healthy, and the teeth should be white and lovely. It was Rousseau, you +know, who said that no woman with good teeth could be ugly. Then the +hands and nails must have proper attention. Deep breathing should be +practiced daily and the body properly exercised. The carriage must be +graceful, the walk easy and without effort, the eyes bright, the +expression of the face cheerful and animated, the shoulders and head +well poised--but all these are different stories. There's a chapter in +each one of them. + +Above all, remember this one rule: Don't fret. Don't wear a look of +trouble and worry. Above everything else, remember those delicious +lines of the immortal bard: + + "You have such a February face, + So full of frost, of storm, of cloudiness." + +And after remembering, refrain. + + +EXPRESSION. + +One of the first things to remember in the cultivation of beauty is +expression. Who doesn't enjoy looking upon the young girl, with a +bright, cheerful face, laughing eyes and all that? Everybody! And when +the grumpy lady or the whiney lady or the lady of woes trots in and +sullies your near landscape, how do you feel? Just about as cheery as +if she'd come to ask you to attend a funeral! + +My dear girls, it doesn't matter if you have got a freckle or two, or +if your nose does tilt up just a little too much, if you have a jolly, +bright face people will call you pretty. You can count on that every +time. Good nature is a splendid beautifier. It brightens the eyes, +discourages approaching wrinkles, and brings the apple blossom tints +into your cheeks. + +Another thing to remember is this: Keep the mind active. There's +nothing that will make a stolid, bovine face like a brain that isn't +made to get up and hustle. Don't sit around and read lovey-dovey novels +or spend your time chatting with that stupid woman next door. Don't +forget that life is short and there's not a moment to waste. When hubby +discusses the question of expansion just pipe up and show him what you +know about it. Don't get into an argument with him, but let him see +that you read the papers and that you know a thing or two about passing +events. + +Then don't stay cooped up in the house. Go out every day, if it's only +to the corner market, and if you have to wade through snowdrifts. In +short, be up and doing. Don't dwell on past griefs or griefs that have +not yet arrived. Study is mental development, and mental development +usually means a bright, pleasing expression. + + +USELESS BEAUTY. + +As a general rule, the man of brains and good sense--and he's the only +man worth considering seriously--heartily despises the useless beauty. +By this I mean the woman who is always togged up and crimped and curled +and looks as if she were not worth a row of pins except as a means of +livelihood to the modistes and the milliners and the hairdressers! The +kind of beauty that I like is the sort that is active, doing, +achieving, and working for some good. I believe, and fully too, that we +can all appear at our best and yet not look as if we were made of cut +glass and Dresden that would crack or break or peel off if the lake +winds happened to take a fancy to blow our way. It may sound at a +frightful variance from the general preaching of the beauty teacher, +but--between you and me and the ice cream soda that we do not drink +because it upsets our stomachs and ruins our complexions--I have simply +no use whatever for the little girl who puts in the entire day (and +half the night) fussing over her complexion, kinking her hair into +seventeen little twists and curlycues, and dabbling lotions and things +on her nose till you can't rest. A certain amount of all this is +necessary, but don't give your life over to it. The waste of time is +enough to make one want to be a Patagonian lady whose sole adornments +in the beautifying line consist of a necklace of elephant's teeth and a +few Patagonian babies. When beautifying gets to the stage where one has +no time for mental refurbishing it ceases to be beauty culture, and is +simply nonsense and loss of time. + +I can spot this class of women a block away. In my mind's eye I can see +them fussing and primping for hours before they are ready to don their +street clothes and get down into the shopping district for the day's +work of pricing real lace and buying hairpins. And I always look around +me and think of what a vast deal of work there is in this great, big, +sorrowful old world, and what direful need there is of every one +pitching in and helping. To me, the useless woman is not a pretty +woman. She is an ornament, like the shepherdess on the mantelpiece or +the Spanish lady in the picture frame that hangs in the hallway. But +the other woman--the pretty and the useful woman--oh, but she is a +sight to make old eyes grow young. Her gown is spotless, her hair all +fluffy and lovely, her hat just at the correct angle. She steps along +quickly, and you know by the very air about her that she is a worker, +be she of the smart set or of the humdrum life that toils and spins +from morn till eve. Her eyebrows are not penciled, there is not a trace +of rouge on her cheeks, but she is a healthy, well-built, active woman, +whose very appearance of neatness, sweetness and buoyancy tells all who +see her that she is a devotee of the daily bath, the dumb-bells, the +correct and hygienic life. + +In half an hour any woman should be able to take her plunge, coddle her +complexion, dress her hair, manicure her nails, and attend to her +teeth. If more time be needed, then the work is hardly worth the while, +for life is mighty short, my dears, and things that must be done pile +up as the years go by. At night in fifteen minutes the face and hands +can be well washed, the hair brushed and combed and plaited, the teeth +well cleaned, and the complexion massaged with a little pure home-made +cream. Of course, when the hair is shampooed or the nails manicured +with particular care, or the complexion subjected to a thorough +cleansing by steam or massage, then more time is necessary. + +But the gist of it all is this: Let us not spend so much time on the +exterior effect that we will forget that which is most necessary to a +beautiful woman--the bright, interesting mind, the love of learning +things, the desire to be keeping apace with just a little bit of the +world's progress, and, best of all, teaching oneself how to live wisely +and well. There never was--to my way of thinking--a brainless, silly +woman who was beautiful. It takes the light of intellect, the splendor +of sweet womanliness, the glory of kindness, unselfishness and goodness +to complete a perfect picture of "the woman beautiful." + + +WASHING THE FACE. + +A good old stand-by query is about the simple matter of keeping one's +face clean. There is no manner of doubt but that the hard water which +we have in the cities is responsible for many complexion ills, and that +we must not use it too generously upon our complexions if we long for +the colors of the rose and the lily in our cheeks. There is nothing in +the world so excellent as rain-water for the skin, but it's a great +bulging problem as to how those of us who live in yardless flats and +apartments can manage to catch the elusive rain-drops. We might as well +hope to lasso an electric car and hitch it onto our back porches for +the babies to play in, I think. When city people persist in telling +others to wash their faces in rain-water and thus secure beauty +everlasting and glorious, I always have a mental picture of a frantic +lady with golden locks a-streaming and her eyes brimful of wildness, +rushing madly down the street with basins and things in her +outstretched hands. It's all right if one has rain-barrels or cisterns, +but, after years of perspiring and nerve-sizzling flat hunting, I have +failed to find apartments provided with either of these luxuries. With +folding beds built in the sleeping apartments and steam radiators with +real steam in them, the landlords feel that their duties are done. + +But to return to our muttons. Those who cannot have real rain-water +should use the harder brand sparingly on their faces. A thorough +scrubbing at night before going to bed is an absolute necessity, lest +the pores of the skin become clogged with the smoke and dust of our +murky atmosphere. A little castile soap and a camel's-hair face brush +will assist the cleansing operation. To soften the water, I would +advise the following delightful lotion: + + Four ounces of alcohol. + One ounce ammonia. + One dram oil of lavender. + + One teaspoonful to a large basin of water is sufficient. To keep + the skin free from harshness and on unpleasant terms with wrinkles + and turkey tracks, a little pure cold cream should be used. If, in + the morning, the skin has not absorbed all the oils of the cream, + then wipe away with a cloth just slightly moistened. When at other + times the face needs washing, let me suggest that this toilet milk + be used. It is also excellent to apply before fluffing powder over + the cheeks: + + + Milk of violets: + + Cucumber juice, boiled and cooled, one ounce. + Spirit of soap, one ounce. + Rose-water or orange flower water, four ounces. + + By remembering that there are two tablespoonfuls to the ounce, the + measuring will not be at all difficult. If one wishes a stronger + perfume add a few drops of violet extract. Whether rose-water or + orange flower be used is left to one's own choice. They are equally + excellent for the skin. + + +FACIAL ERUPTIONS AND BLACKHEADS. + +With most women, pimples are caused by indigestion or constipation. +Unless the body throws off its waste material as it should, the +poisonous matter will endeavor to find a way out through the pores of +the skin. The face, being the most sensitive, is usually the first part +of the body to be afflicted. The remedy for facial blemishes is found +in exercise, baths and a careful diet. And that reminds me that I would +like to remark right here that the combinations that girls and women +get when they order lunches are appalling enough to raise the hair +right off one's head, most particularly if one has any idea at all of +the general rules of hygiene and health. + +It is just as easy to put beautifying foods into your stomach if you +will but once make up your mind to it. And what a host of trouble it +will save you! Not only in cosmetics, but doctor bills. What you eat is +the fuel that keeps the engine of life going. Good food makes good +strong muscles, pure blood and a fair, healthy, firm skin. If there are +troublesome little blotches on your face then mend your eating ways, +even though it breaks your heart to give up those awful and +indigestible dainties that you dote on so religiously. In place of the +pastries and the sweets and the pickles and the highly spiced dishes, +substitute fruit and vegetables. Save all those nickels and dimes that +you invest in ice cream soda, and instead exchange them for lemons and +oranges that will help drive away the unsightly pimples and red +blemishes. If possible, make your entire breakfast of fruit, either +cooked or raw. If the apples and oranges and peaches and pears do not +make active the digestive organs, then go to a reliable druggist and +have this harmless and excellent prescription filled: + + Extract of dandelion, one dram. + Powdered rhubarb, q. s. + + Divide into three and one-half grain pills and take one every + night, or oftener if necessary. + +A state of nervousness will ofttimes bring a heart-wringing crop of +eruptions to the surface of the skin, and this condition is best +remedied by plenty of baths, lots of fresh air, exercise, and a stiff +but cheerful determination to brace up and not have any nerves--which, +by the way, is much easier said than done, as most of us know to our +sorrow. + +No matter of what order the facial eruptions may be, they must be +treated with the greatest gentleness possible. There is nothing in +the world worse than rubbing them with a coarse towel, a proceeding +strongly advised by the old-fashioned ones who--bless their hearts--are +so likely to stick to old-timey notions till the cows come home, no +matter what arguments may be brought up to convince them of their +mistaken views. + +Pimples must never be irritated. Breaking or bruising the skin only +adds to its diseased condition and general irritation. If the +complexion is unsightly with red blotches, a solution of boric acid in +boiling water, used warm, will be an effective lotion. Its application +should, of course, be combined with proper living as laid out above, +care being taken as to diet, exercise and the tepid daily bath. A good +cold cream should also be used. I have been told by many that +continuous applications of creme marquise had done away with pimples +and blackheads, and it is frequently found that nothing more than a +sensible diet and some simple pure face cosmetic is needed. When the +skin is merely inflamed--that is, red of color and very tender, there +is nothing better than a soothing cream like this. Listerine, witch +hazel and eau de cologne are all good as external lotions for pimples. +A paste of sulphur and spirits of camphor, which should be put on at +night and washed off the following morning, will do good work, provided +the beauty patient knows the laws of health. + +[Illustration: MRS. OGDEN ARMOUR] + +When there are both blackheads and pimples the latter must first be +gotten rid of. When the skin is perfectly free of these, then begin +with a camel's hair face-scrubbing brush to do away with the +blackheads. Wash the face thoroughly with the brush every night just +before going to bed, using warm water and pure castile soap. If the +blackheads are very bad add alcohol to the water. That is very +cleansing, but as it is also drying, a face cream must be smeared on +immediately after the face is rinsed and wiped. For some days it may +seem that the pores are large and coarse and open, but they are simply +undergoing a cleansing process that in the end will bring a lovely +white, perfect skin. Whenever I hear women say that they never wash +their faces, but use a cream instead, I always wonder if they really +feel clean. I am sure I would not. Fancy the state of our hands were we +never to wash them! And the face, having more oil glands, is in still +greater need of soap and water. However, let me say right here that no +soap at all is better than a cheap scented soap, and unless the very +best and purest soaps can be had it is much more desirable to +substitute almond meal or something of the sort. Treatment for +blackheads calls for the same care of the health as does treatment for +pimples. + + +TAN, SUNBURN AND FRECKLES. + +Tan, like borrowing friends, and various other afflictions, is awfully +easy to get, but really more than passing difficult to remove. It is +delightful to sit on a big bowlder that dots a great, lovely, sandy +waste and watch your hands gradually turn from their customary +whiteness to a deep burnt orange. One has to have something to show for +a trip out of town, one thinks, else the doubting Thomases will arise +and give vent to suspicions that one has been merely concealing oneself +in an attic or back bedroom. It is pleasant, too, to go fishing, with a +dainty, absurd little hat that, although it looks pretty, is about as +useful as would be a beaten biscuit pinned to one's tresses. You feel +your nose becoming unusually warm, and it begins to tingle and smart as +if the pores were filling up with hot sand. All of which is quite in +keeping with summer-resort existence, and you are as proud as Lucifer +when you trail back to town to show this cerise-tinted evidence of your +outing. + +But the friends who you thought would envy you giggle and smirk and +nudge each other and make suggestions that are supposed to be +mirth-compelling. And then and there you decide to do differently next +summer. A sunburned nose may be a treasurable possession away from +town, but back among the hosts of the city it is a different matter. +More than that, it is an affliction. + +If the weeks at the seashore or the lakes would only brown the summer +girl it would not matter so much. But instead of making the skin a +beautiful, poetical olive tint, it usually turns it to a hue which is +best compared to the flaunting colors of the auctioneer's emblem. If +the girl is reckless, if she runs here and there without a hat, and +gives never a moment to the care of her skin, her own mother is not +likely to recognize her unless the summer girl soon repents and mends +her ways. + +What mischief Old Sol cannot do, the brisk winds will contribute. The +result is usually a red-eyed, red-nosed, flakey-skinned little woman, +whom one would never suspect of having been rollicking through a few +weeks of midsummer joys. If her ears are not blistered, her nose is, +and if her complexion is not harsh and rough from lack of care, it is +bespeckled with freckles and covered with a deep layer of golden brown +tan that has distributed itself like patches on a crazy quilt. + +There is not one woman in forty who can afford to ignore the ordinary +precautions for preserving her complexion during the summer months. + +A parasol is the first necessity. A white gauze veil is another, +although this can be dispensed with if the skin is not particularly +sensitive to sun and wind. Never, under any circumstances, must you +bathe your face in soap and water before going out of door or just +after coming in. This habit will make the freckles pop out in fine +order. After coming in from a tramp or a fishing party bathe the face +at once in half a cupful of sweet milk in which a pinch of soda has +been dissolved. If this is inconvenient, as it often is when one is a +hotel guest and not a cottager, then use a good face cream. Strong +soaps containing an excess of alkali are bad enough at any time, but +during the hot weather they are particularly trying to almost any skin. +Too much care cannot be taken to get proper soaps. + +The following sedative lotion applied to the face will prevent its +tanning or freckling to any extent, that is, if one takes proper care +of one's skin: + + Distilled witch hazel, 3 ounces. + Prepared cucumber juice, 3 ounces. + Rose-water, 1-1/2 ounces. + Essence white rose, 1-1/2 ounces. + Simple tincture of benzoin, one-half ounce. + + After rubbing this into the skin with the finger tips and letting + the cuticle absorb it well, apply a pure vegetable powder. + +When the face becomes sunburned apply plenty of cold cream. But be sure +that it is your own home-made cream, else you may be putting lard or +something else on your face, which, in a most amazing short time, will +produce a thrifty growth of tiny, fine hairs. And then you will wish +you had never lived to see the coming of the "happy summertime." + +Lastly, to remove freckles, quickly apply lemon juice with a camel's +hair complexion brush. Let the juice dry in and massage with creme +marquise. + + +COMPLEXION POWDERS. + +Whenever women fail for congenial topics of dispute they can always +fall back on the old topic of the best face-powder. + +"I have used that delightful velvety 'Blush Rose' for years and years," +says Mrs. Lovely, "and I think it is simply fine." + +"Blush Rose?" shrieks Mrs. Pretty. "Why, I wouldn't use that for +a-an-any-thing! My husband's brother-in-law, who worked in a drug +store, once told me that 'Blush Rose' had lead and bismuth and ever so +many other dreadful, awful things in it. Now, I dote on 'Velvety +Carnation.' I know that that is perfectly pure. And it sticks just like +your husband's relatives--simply never lets go!" + +"'Velvety Carnation!'" repeats Mrs. Lovely. "You poor child. I don't +wonder that you have such a time with your skin--" And so on until both +charming disputants march airily away, each deciding that the other +will soon be in her grave if such foolishness in the choice of a face +powder is continued. + +Women need not discuss finances or peace policies. They have their own +little face-powder question that is good for all time to come, no +matter whether we all go and settle in the Philippines or hand these +interesting islands back to Spain with a "much-obliged, thank you." I +have often thought how thankful we should all be that we are not +Dahomey ladies, who have no opportunities for these pleasant little +arguments. We may have to put up with a good many discomforts in our +life of civilization, but we don't miss quite everything in the way of +joys. + +The formula for face powder which I am about to give is not only +perfectly harmless, but of exceptional medicinal qualities. Nothing is +better for an irritated skin than boracic acid, so the girl with facial +eruptions can feel perfectly safe in using this powder. Oxide of zinc, +in the quantity given, can do no possible injury; many of the +manufactured preparations being made almost entirely of this ingredient. + + + Poudre des Fees (Fairy Powder): + + 1 ounce Lubin's rice powder. + 3 ounces best, purest oxide of zinc. + 1/2 ounce carbonate of magnesia, finely powdered. + 20 grains boracic acid. + 2 drops attar of rose. + + When purchasing your ingredients ask the druggist to powder each + separately in a mortar. First put your rice powder through a fine + sieve, and then through bolting cloth. Do the same thing with the + oxide of zinc, the magnesia and the boracic acid before adding them + to the rice powder. When all are combined put twice through bolting + cloth. After each sifting throw away any tiny particles that + remain. It is very necessary that all the ingredients be made fine + and soft and fluffy. Add the oil of rose last. By putting in the + tiniest suggestion of finely powdered carmine you can get the cream + powder, and by putting in still more you will have the rose or pink + tint. While blonds, with clear, perfect skins, can use either the + white or the pink very nicely, cream is the more acceptable color + for brunettes. + + + Consuelo Powder: + + 5 ounces of talcum. + 5 ounces of rice flour. + 2-1/2 ounces of the best zinc oxide. + 2 drops each of oils of bergamot, ylang-ylang and neroli. + + The three main ingredients should be sifted over and over again, + and if flesh color is desired, a little carmine must be added, the + sifting continuing. Then add the perfumes and sift again, so as to + avoid any lumps. + +A formula for violet powder is given in the chapter on perfumes. + + +WRINKLES. + +It doesn't matter whether or not you are afflicted with wrinkles, it's +an excellent thing to give them some attention. Freckles are bothersome +and provoking, and red noses make us as cross as black cats, but +wrinkles!--they are the worst of all, for with them comes the sickening +realization that the freshness of one's complexion is beginning to +fade, and that youth itself is slipping away. + +It is before the lines really appear that they should be considered, +for then they're much more easily managed than when they--with their +sisters and their cousins and their aunts, to say nothing of grandmas +and babies--settle down for a nice long stay. Wrinkles are worse than +bogie men, and "they'll git you if yo' don't watch out!" + +Wrinkles are unnecessary evils--anyway, until one gets to be a hundred +or so. That is, if you are so lucky as not to have troubles enough to +keep you awake six nights out of seven, which seems to be the case with +most people these days. Even then perhaps you can deceive yourself into +believing that life is one big, lovely, roseate dream after all. Worry +is a paragon of a wrinkle-maker. And, by the way, did you ever know +why? + +It is not so much for the reason that screwing up the face traces lines +and seams in the skin as it is because the fretting upsets the stomach. +It has a most depressing effect on that hyper-sensitive organ. Haven't +you often noticed what a finicky, doleful sort of an appetite you have +whenever you are indulging in a fit of the blues? The physiological +explanation is the very close alliance of the great sympathetic nerves, +which make up a little telegraph line more perfect and complete than +any yet constructed by man. The poor, worn brain is fagged and tired. +This fact is immediately communicated to the stomach, which, in true +sisterly fashion, mopes and sulks out of sheer sympathy. + +Then, of course, with an unruly digestion, all sorts of complications +begin. The eyes get dull, the face thin and sallow, the complexion bad, +and the flesh flabby. At that stage the wrinkles, with their aforesaid +relatives, sail in upon the scene. And there you are! And--ten chances +to one--it's a cheerful time you'll have getting rid of them. + +That's why I say you must take them in hand before they arrive, and +dole out discouragement to them by correct living and the necessary +facial massage. + +The skin of the face wrinkles exactly for the same reason and by the +same mechanism that the skin of an apple wrinkles. The pulp of the +fruit under the skin begins to shrink and contract as the juices dry +up, and, quite naturally, the skin which was once taut and smooth, now +being much too large for the contents, puckers up and lays itself in +tiny folds. It's the same way with the skin of the face. When the +subcutaneous fat of the cheeks and brow--which, when we are young and +plump and rosy, is abundant--begins to be absorbed and to gradually +disappear, then the cuticle straightway starts in to shrivel and fall +into minute lines. + +So it is wisdom to anticipate the coming of wrinkles and lay plans to +ward them off. Live after strict rules of hygiene, as told in the +chapters on Exercise, Baths, Sleep, Diet, and Dress. Have a tonic +method of living. Invigorate your muscles and the skin of your body by +sponge baths and brisk drying with a coarse bath towel. Friction is a +great beautifier. Eat only that food which is going to do you some +good, and take your exercise with regularity. Add to this a happy, +hopeful disposition of mind and a big fat jar of pure, properly-made +skin food, then read the chapter on massage and follow the instructions +given therein. If any wrinkles or crow's feet come and lodge with you +after that, then I'll take off my hat to their perseverance. + + +RECIPES FOR THE COMPLEXION. + +In compounding face creams one cannot be too careful and painstaking. +It is much like preparing a salad or a charlotte russe, either of which +can be utterly ruined by lack of care--or too much fussing. The creme +marquise is especially difficult for the woman who tumbles things +together in a haphazard fashion. Unless compounded just so carefully, +it will be likely to crumble, but when done according to directions it +makes a cosmetic that is absolutely unrivaled. The other creams which +follow this formula are more easily made for the reason that they +contain less fats and are therefore less apt to separate from the +rose-water. The creme marquise is a whiter, harder preparation than any +of the others. + + + Creme Marquise: + + 1/4 ounce of white wax. + 2-1/2 ounces of spermaceti. + 2-1/2 ounces of oil of sweet almonds. + 1-1/2 ounces of rose-water. + 1 drop attar of rose. + + Shave the wax and spermaceti, and melt in a porcelain kettle. Add + the almond oil and heat slightly, but do not let boil. Remove from + the stove and add the rose-water, to which the perfume has been + added. Beat until creamy, and put in jars. Cease beating before the + mass becomes really hard. Be sure that your druggist weighs the wax + carefully, for too much of this ingredient will spoil the creme by + making it too firm. This delightful preparation should be applied + immediately after washing the face, but can be used at any time. It + is absolutely harmless. Get the best materials--and see that your + almond oil is the real thing instead of a cheap imitation, which + acts almost as poison to the skin. + + + Strawberry Cream: + + White wax, 1/2 ounce. + Spermaceti, 1/2 ounce. + Sweet almond oil, 2-1/2 ounces. + Strawberry juice, 3/4 of an ounce. + Benzoin, 3 drops. + + Take large fresh berries. Wash and drain thoroughly. Macerate and + strain the juice through a piece of muslin. Heat the white wax, the + spermaceti and the oil of almonds. Remove from the fire and add the + strawberry juice very quickly. Beat briskly till fluffy, adding the + three drops of benzoin just as the mixture begins to cool. Put in + jars and keep in a very cool place. This quantity will fill a + three-ounce jar. Apply every night as a cold cream. This is + particularly excellent for sunburn. + + + Orange Flower Skin Food: + + Spermaceti, 1/2 ounce. + White wax, 1/2 ounce. + Sweet almond oil, 2 ounces. + Lanoline, 1 ounce. + Cocoanut oil, 1 ounce. + Tincture benzoin, 3 drops. + Orange flower water, 1 ounce. + + Melt the first five ingredients in a porcelain kettle. Take from + the fire, and add the benzoin and the orange flower water, fluffing + it with an egg-beater till cold. This recipe will make five ounces, + quite enough to prepare at one time. For those who dislike oily + creams it will be found delightful, as the skin absorbs it. The + mission of the skin food is to do away with wrinkles. Massage must, + of course, accompany its application. For hollow cheeks or dry, + rough skin it is unexcelled. Its fattening qualities plumpen the + tissues and so raise the lines of the face and gradually obliterate + them. + + + Clover Cream: + + Spermaceti, 1 ounce. + White wax, 1 ounce. + Oil sweet almonds, 5 ounces. + Rose-water, 1-3/5 ounces. + Powdered borax, 20 grains. + Essence of clover, 5 drops. + + Dissolve the borax in the rose-water and add the essence of clover. + Melt the white wax, the spermaceti and the oil of almonds, using a + porcelain kettle, as tin or iron is injurious to the oils. When + melted remove from the heat and add the rose-water (all at once). + Then beat quickly with an egg-beater until the mixture is cold and + firm. It is impossible for the rose-water to separate from the oils + if directions are carefully followed. The recipe given above will + fill an eight-ounce jar, so perhaps one-half the quantity should be + tried at first. + + + Camphor Cold Cream: Take one-half ounce each of spermaceti and + white wax, melt and add three and one-fourth ounces of oil of sweet + almonds, then add one-fourth ounce of camphor, broken into small + pieces, and stir until dissolved. Then pour in one and one-half + ounces of distilled water in which fifteen grains of borax have + been dissolved. Stir until well mixed and beginning to thicken, + then add four drops oil of rose, one drop oil of rose geranium, one + drop oil of ylang-ylang, two drops tincture of musk, and two drops + tincture of civet. Continue to beat until cold. + + + Cold Cream: + + White wax, 1/2 ounce. + Spermaceti, 1/2 ounce. + Orange flower water, 2 ounces. + Almond oil, 4 ounces. + + Melt all together gently and pour into cups to cool. When cold pour + off the water, remelt, and pour into jars to keep. + + + Oatmeal Lotion: + + Two tablespoonfuls fine oatmeal. + + Boil and strain. When cold add + + One dessertspoonful of wine (white Rhine preferred), and the juice + of one lemon. + + Fluff over the face before going to bed, not wiping it all away. + This is excellent for sallow complexion. + + + Rose Toilet Vinegar: This toilet vinegar is made by taking one + ounce of dried rose leaves, pouring over them half a pint of white + wine vinegar, and letting stand for two weeks. Then strain, + throwing rose leaves away, and add half a pint of rose-water. It + can be used either pure or diluted, and is especially good for an + oily skin. + + + Lavender Lotion (to soften water): + + 4 ounces of alcohol. + 1 ounce of ammonia. + 1 dram oil of lavender. + + Add one teaspoonful to two quarts of water. + + + A stringent Wash: Place in a half-pint bottle one ounce of cucumber + juice, half fill bottle with elderflower water, and add two + tablespoonfuls of eau de cologne. Shake well and add very slowly + one-half ounce simple tincture of benzoin, shaking the mixture now + and then. Fill bottle with elderflower water. + + This is very whitening, but its best mission is that of making + large, open pores less noticeable and disfiguring. + + + Cucumber Milk: + + Oil of sweet almonds, 2 ounces. + Fresh cucumber juice, 10 ounces. + White castile soap, 1/4 ounce. + Essence of cucumbers, 3 ounces. + Tincture of benzoin, 38 drops. + + Get the juice by slicing the cucumbers, unpeeled, boiling in a + little water and straining carefully. The essence is made by mixing + the juice with equal parts of alcohol. First dissolve the soap in + the essence, add the juice, then the sweet almond oil very slowly, + and finally the benzoin. Shake well for half an hour if possible. + This is a most effective remedy for tan and sunburn. + + + + + CARE OF THE HAIR + + Her luxuriant hair--it was like the sweep of a swift wing in + visions.--_Willis._ + + +Pretty hair can redeem a whole host of irregular features. With little +waves and kinks, and clinging, cunning tendrils that lie close to the +temples, a "crown of glory" will transform an ordinarily plain woman +into one passably good to look upon. If you doubt this, just create a +mental picture of yourself in the last stages of a shampoo! Isn't it +awful? The damp, straight locks hanging in one's eyes, and the long, +fluffy strands, that aren't fluffy at all but as unwavy as a shower +bouquet of macaroni, and the tag ends and whisps sprouting out here and +there like a box full of paint brushes six ways for Sundays--well, one +is always mentally thankful at such times that one's "dearest and best" +isn't anywhere around to behold the horrible sight. But after awhile +the long, damp tresses are patted and fussed over until they are dry, +and then they're combed out and curled up and kinked and twisted, and, +oh, my countrymen, what a change is there! The harsh lines of the mouth +are softened, the eyes look bright and pretty, the complexion comes out +in all its sweetness like the glorious rainbow of a week ago. + +It makes all the difference in the world! + +But of course you will straightway exclaim: "That's all right to say +about those lucky girls who have nice long tresses, but how about us +poor mortals whose 'crown' consists of eighteen hairs of eighteen +different lengths, and all of them falling out as fast as they can?" To +be sure, conditions do--once in a while--alter cases. But I claim, and +always will claim--till the day comes when beauty matters won't matter +at all--that every woman can have pretty hair if she will take the time +and use the good, uncommon sense which seems necessary to acquire it. + +You know, and I know, and every other woman knows, that women treat +their hair as they treat their watches--to unpardonable abuse. Of +course, one's hair isn't dropped on the sidewalk or prodded with +stickpins until the mainspring breaks, but it is subjected to even +deeper and more trying insults. One night, when the little woman is in +a real good, amiable mood, the tresses are carefully taken down, +brushed, doctored with a nice "smelly" tonic, patted caressingly and +gently plaited in nice little braids. The next night it is crimped +until each individual hair has acute curvature of the spine; then it is +burned off in chunks and triangles and squares; it is yanked out by the +handfuls, it is wadded and twisted and tugged at and built up into an +Eiffel tower, and--after a few hours of such torture--the little woman +takes out the sixty odd hairpins, shakes it loose, gets every hair into +a three-ply tangle of its own, and then hops into bed! When she gets up +in the morning she pulls out and combs out more hair than she can make +grow in after seven months' careful treatment. + +I tell you that is the one great trouble with women. They will not +stick to one particular method. If they feel like fussing and coddling +they will, but if they're tired or cross or in a hurry to get to sleep, +well, they just let their hair take care of itself. One's tresses need +regular care just as do plants or babies or people. Make up your mind +that you have hit upon the best way to treat your hair and then stick +to it, no matter whether school keeps or not. + +To disentangle the hair use only a coarse comb, being sure that every +tooth is smooth and firm, so that it will not tear or split the silky +fibers. The fine comb is a thing of horror, and has no place upon the +dressing-table. It irritates the scalp, bringing forth a prosperity +year crop of dandruff and attendant unhappiness. Added to this, it +splits the hair shafts and injures the roots. + +Brushing the hair is sadly overestimated. A dozen or two strong strokes +each night will remove the day's dust and dirt, will promote +circulation and sweep out flaky matter. The brushing must be done +firmly but gently, and not with the violent methods of a carpet +sweeping machine. Really, it is simply appalling the way some women +dress their hair. A few tugs and yanks with a comb of uneven, unsmooth +teeth, a scattering brushing back of scolding locks, some singes here +and there with a red-hot curling iron, a twist, a roll, a pat and the +application of a dozen hairpins, and the hairdressing for the day is +done. + +Instead, the comb should be used with gentleness, not dug into the +scalp, as is the practice of some mistaken beskirted mortals. There is +an old saying to this effect: "Wash the scalp, but not the hair; comb +the hair, but not the scalp," which saying, I leave to you, is good +enough to paste in one's hat--or rather on the back of one's hair +brush. + +After the brushing each night it is an excellent plan to part the hair +into small strands and wipe off with a cloth slightly moistened. This +is a sort of sponge bath which tones and invigorates the growth. + +Combs should never be washed, but cleaned with a stout thread. Brushes, +however, must have frequent washings in warm ammonia water, taking care +to keep the backs dry. They should never be put in the sunlight when +wet, but left to dry in an open window. + +Curling irons certainly do heaps of damage. Any woman who has ever +found herself suddenly bereft of a nice fluffy bang, and in its place a +stubby little burned-off fringe, will say that this is true, while +those numerous hair-crimping girls who have known the humiliating and +painful experience of having a hot curling iron do frolics down their +backs can add startling testimony, and, what is more, show disfiguring +scars as proof. + +If the iron is used carefully and at proper heat, the hair is not +injured. But certain it is that when the iron is smoking-hot it kills +the life and lovely texture of the hair. Besides, how very ugly and +unkempt those burned little ends look! It was surely not of such that +Pope wrote: + + Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare, + And beauty draws us with a single hair. + +Soft papers in which the short locks are wound is a good method for the +girl who singes her top-knot every time she tries to curl a few little +tendrils. Kid curlers are all right, providing the hair does not become +entangled in the small ends, and so have to be torn when the hair is +taken down. There is a certain secret in the hair-curling process which +is too intangible for written description. The hair must not be wound +tightly and the effect must be loose, fluffy and natural. + +The great necessity for keeping the hair perfectly trimmed is to rid it +of the split ends, for hair cannot be nice under such conditions. When +the nourishment within each hair shaft does not extend the full length, +then the hair cracks into several finer hairs, and one of these perhaps +resumes the growth. That leaves a rough, bad shaft. The best way to +keep the hair clipped properly is to twist it in rolls and to singe off +all the little ends that stick out. + +It is almost impossible to state positively how often the hair should +be shampooed. Oily hair needs a thorough washing every two weeks, while +drier tresses should not be given a bath oftener than once a month. +Half the reason for falling hair, or hair that seems never to grow, is +caused by improper shampooing. The scalp must be kept scrupulously +clean. And I doubt very much whether the soap and soiled water can be +thoroughly rinsed out without the use of running water, the bath spray +being the most convenient means of getting this. How often, after +washing one's hair, one finds a white, sticky substance clinging to the +teeth of the comb! This should never be, and the hair must be +continually washed until it is fluffy and soft and absolutely without +any suggestion of the shampoo. When the hair is very oily a +dessertspoonful of ammonia and a pinch of borax should be added to two +quarts of warm water. This will soften the water and make the soap more +easily rinsed out of the hair. The liquid verbena soap makes a +delightful shampoo. Recipe can be found at the end of this chapter. + +When shampooing, rub the lather through the strands gently, and with +the finger tips remove all the little particles of dust and dandruff +which may be clinging to the scalp. And may I gently suggest that you +do not go at the task as if you were scrubbing a grease spot out of a +rug? You must neither dig the scalp with your nails nor wring out your +hair as you would a wash-rag. Try not to get your hair into a more +mussed-up and tangled condition than is absolutely necessary. After +using the bath spray liberally dry with warm towels, then--if +possible--get some one to vigorously massage the scalp. This will +almost invariably prevent one from taking cold. Never begin combing out +your locks until they are nearly dry. A sun bath of twenty minutes is a +good tonic. + +Occasionally an egg shampoo is more beneficial than the usual one of +soap. This is especially true when one has just recovered from a fever +or when one's scalp is in an unhealthy condition or afflicted with +dandruff. The rosemary formula is very effective. + +Dandruff is nearly always the result of neglect. If the scalp is washed +as frequently as it should be, dandruff is not so likely to accumulate, +although it is a perfectly natural formation. When the hair is +excessively oily or the scalp unusually crowded with dandruff, the +weekly shampoo should not be neglected. + +Blond hair should always be washed with the yolk of an egg, as that +will make it keep its golden tints. Mixing the egg with a pinch of +borax and a pint of warm water is a good plan. + +Hair dyeing is one of the mistakes of unwise femininity. All dyes +containing either mercury or lead are very dangerous. But why should +women dye their hair? Goodness only knows. One might as well ask why +women fib about their age, or why women shop three hours just to buy a +pair of dress shields. There are some questions of life which we are +destined never to solve. There is nothing lovelier than white hair. +Combine with it a fine complexion and a pair of animated brown eyes and +you have as picturesque a beauty as ever awakened emotions in the heart +of man. But, nevertheless, women moan and wail over every stray gray +hair. They go off downtown and proceed to lug home a cartload of +mysterious bottles which they keep religiously away from hubby's +investigating eye. I won't tell the result of the experience, for it is +too well known. It is a certain episode through which half the women of +forty years have passed--sooner or later. When comes the desire to +transform those little threads of silver into deeper shades remember +the charming lines of Bancroft: + + "By common consent gray hairs are a crown of glory, the only object + of respect that can never excite envy." + +Unknown washes, as well as dyes, do great mischief. Good health, +wholesome food and proper care of the scalp are the three most +important essentials toward beautiful and luxuriant hair. There are +some simple lotions, harmless and easily prepared, which will assist +the growth and nourish the roots. + + +DRESSING THE HAIR. + +It has always been a double-turreted wonder to me why romancers are +forever harping about heroines with "tresses in artistic disarray." All +the tresses in such condition that I have ever gazed upon have looked +most slovenly and ofttimes positively waggish. How any one can think +that a girl with a tangled braid hanging down her back, a little wad +over one ear, a ragged, jagged fringe edging its way into her eyes and +half a dozen little wisps standing out here and there in haystack +fashion--how one can even fancy that such a head as that is pretty is +more than I can explain. Clothes may make the man, but rational +hairdressing goes a pretty long way toward making the woman. Observe my +lady in curl-papers and my lady togged up for a dinner party. Comment +is unnecessary, for you have all seen her--or yourselves, which is +quite the same thing. + +Those fortunate women to whom straight hair is becoming should never +indulge in curls. There is nothing prettier than hair drawn loosely +away from the face. It leaves displayed those lovely lines on the +temples about which artists and poets go mad. As to the style of +dressing one's hair, that must be left solely to one's taste. If the +lines of the head, the shape of the face and the hair itself are +studied a bit the solution of the most becoming coiffure is very easily +solved. + +A head that looks like a wax image in a hairdresser's window is +certainly anything but pretty. Neither is it artistic, for the +correctly crimped and waved side-locks are too mechanically planned to +look at all natural. To nearly all women the plainer the mode of +hairdressing the more becoming it is. That does not mean that you +should comb your hair straight back and wad it into a funny little +bump. Quite the contrary. Comb it back if you will, but have the coil +loose and graceful. It is very bad for the hair either to be pulled +back tightly or to be closely arranged. Ventilation is necessary, and, +by the way, caressing and smoothing the hair with the fingers is a good +tonic for its growth and beauty. + +A few loose short curls about the face seem necessary to the good looks +of the majority of women, but the heavy bang was shelved years ago. +Wasn't it hideous? But perhaps you are too young to remember. Get out +the family album, then, and see for yourself. + +[Illustration: MRS. JOHN JACOB ASTOR] + +There are certain rules for hairdressing that were just as good in +Eve's hairpinless age as they will be a hundred years hence. By keeping +these rules in mind you can make a picture or a cartoon of yourself, +just as you wish. The one thing to remember is that the lines and +proportions of the face must be carefully considered and a mode of +hairdressing adopted which will lessen and not exaggerate those lines +and proportions. Be alert to your defects, and do not forget that what +may be essentially appropriate for one woman will be dismally +inappropriate for another. + +Suppose a woman has a square, heavy jaw. She is just the one who flings +defiance at prevailing fashions and clings to the dear old straight +bangs deep over her eyes. The heavy chin makes a straight line, the +heavy fringe makes another, and the result is that her face is as +perfectly square as rules and measurements could make it. Let this +deluded lady shake herself together and mend her ways. By making the +top of her head appear wider the broad jaws will--according to all laws +of reasoning--seem to be narrower. A few dainty puffs towering up +prettily and a soft, fluffy fringe left flying out over the ears will +not only add grace to the forehead but lighten the heaviness of the +lower part of the face. A bow of ribbon or any other perky little +headdress will detract from the straight cross lines. + +Then there is the woman with the sharp chin, the woman of the +wedge-shaped face. She invariably wears her hair over her ears and so +elongates the V lines of her chin. By arranging the hair close to the +sides of her head and putting it in a soft low coil on the top a much +more pleasing effect can be got. + +The same rule for the heavy-chinned woman applies to the chubby, +fat-faced feminine mortal. The "roly-poly" visage looks less +"roly-poly" when the front hair is drawn back and up in pompadour style +and the long tresses piled into a nice little tower. The pompadour mode +of hairdressing also holds good with the girl whose eyes are set too +high. This helps along the old-time idea that the eyes of a woman +should be in the middle of her head--that is, that they must be set +midway between the bottom of the chin and the top of the hair. + +For the women with eyes set too low an exactly opposite arrangement +should be adopted. Instead of drawing the hair away from the face, +bring it down to it. Part the hair and let it come low on the temples +and brow. + +I have never seen anything or anybody look much funnier than does a +woman with a sharp-pointed nose and a pysche knot. The nose bumps out +in the front and the wad of hair sticks out in the back with a +similarity that is positively convulsing to any one with half an eye +for the humorous. It gives one an idiotic longing to take a measuring +rule and find out the exact distance from "tip to tip." Another waggish +picture is made by the snub-nosed girl with her hair arranged à la +Madonna. These long hirsute lamberquins on either side of her face make +the poor little nose appear even smaller, like unto a wee dab of putty +or a diminutive biscuit. + +Don't caricature your facial defects. Don't get the lines of your head +and face "out of drawing." Don't twist your hair up after every new +fashion that chances to come along. Study the contour of your head from +every side and then adopt that style of hairdressing which at once +brings out the good points and conceals the bad ones. The most becoming +coiffure is the one that gives the most artistic balance to the face. +What will do for the fat, dumpy Miss Plump will make a human joke out +of the lank, willowy Miss Slender. + + +SUPERFLUOUS HAIR. + +If there is one blemish more than another that gnaws out our very heart +supports and gives a good hard case of nervous chills, it is this. What +woman can look at another so afflicted without a feeling of deep pity? +There is something so masculine and altogether impossible in a bearded +lady, even if she be merely a poor imitation of the real exhibited +thing. + +Unless proper means are taken to abolish it, superfluous hair should be +left religiously alone. The more it is pulled out or irritated the +lustier and heartier will be the growth that follows. As for cutting +it--well! who does not know what the result is sure to be? A +challenging Kaiser William mustache, maybe, or perchance a Herr Most +style of hirsute trimmings. In applying creams of any sort to the face, +it is wisdom to leave the upper lip untouched with the cosmetic, +although one may feel perfectly safe in using home-made emollients +which do not contain animal fats. Heat, rubbing and friction are all +conducive to the pests, and such oils and fats as vaseline, glycerin, +olive oil and mutton tallow or suet should never be used. Depilatories +likewise should be shunned. The powdered preparations are usually +composed either of sulphite of arsenic or caustic lime, and merely burn +the hair off to the surface of the skin. It seems quite impossible for +any such powder to kill or dissolve the hair roots without injury. The +sticky plasters, made of galbanum or pitch, and which are known as +"heroic" measures, are equally undesirable, since they are not +permanent cures any more than the depilatory powders. The worst feature +of these cures is that for every hair pulled out or burnt off a coarser +one takes its place, and for every tiny, downy growth a fully developed +hair appears. Of course, the plaster removes this soft lanuginous +growth with the hardier one, and for that reason should be left +severely alone. The tweezers are therefore less objectionable than the +plaster, but this is such a painful way of getting happiness that I +cannot advise it. + +There is no doubt but that electrolysis is the best cure. The only +objection to this is that an incompetent operator will cause her patron +considerable pain, and will also be likely to scar the skin. A dainty +little woman who has been an expert in this work for years tells me +that it is not at all necessary for the beauty patient to hold the +little handles--I know not the technical term--of the battery, although +this causes a little more careful work on the part of the operator. At +the same time, it makes the operation less painful, and really not at +all hard to endure. The general desire to have the work done quickly +causes the scars. If the hairs are picked out here and there and not +close together the skin can heal and the rest of the horrors be +destroyed at the next sitting. To remove a very prolific growth several +"seances" will be necessary. But the result will be clear, unscarred +skin, and no future chance of the wee worries coming back to bring +heart-hurts and mental agony. + +To those who have any timidity at all about the electric needle, there +is peroxide of hydrogen and diluted ammonia. Use one as a lotion one +night and the other the next. This will often prove a permanent cure, +while a better, less noticeable state is certain. The remedy is one, +however, that will take time and patience. The superfluous hair will +gradually become light-colored and almost white, and the ammonia will, +if used persistently, deaden the growth. Do not expect the bleach to +take effect right away, for it won't. If the skin is at all irritated +rub on pure, thick cream. + + +RECIPES FOR THE HAIR. + + Liquid Verbena Soap: Cut in small pieces one-half pound of pure + imported castile soap. Put in porcelain kettle with two quarts of + warm water and dissolve by boiling. When cold it should be of the + consistency of rather thin cream; if thicker, add more water. Stir + in one-fourth pint of alcohol and let stand several days in a warm + room. All the alkali and impurities will settle to the bottom of + the bottle, leaving the liquid as clear as crystal. Pour off + carefully, leaving the residue for kitchen purposes. Perfume with a + few drops of oil of verbena, or any scent one may prefer. A small + quantity of this used in the shampoo is delightfully cleansing. + + + Shampoo for Dandruff: + + Yolk of one egg. + One pint of warm water. + One ounce spirits of rosemary. + + Follow with thorough washing with liquid verbena soap. + + + Egg Shampoo: Shake the yolk of an egg in a pint of alcohol, strain + and bottle. To a bowl of warm water add two tablespoonfuls of the + liquid. + + + Dandruff Cure and Hair Tonic: + + Forty-eight grains resorcin. + One-fourth ounce glycerine. + Alcohol sufficient to fill a two-ounce bottle. + + Apply every night to the scalp, rubbing it in well. This is good + for falling hair. + + + Lemon Hair Wash (for blond tresses): + + One ounce salts of tartar. + Juice of three lemons. + One quart of water. + + Apply a cupful to the hair and scalp just before the shampoo. + + + Quinine Tonic for Oily Hair: + + One-half pint alcohol. + One-half pint water. + Thirty grains of quinine. + + Apply every other night, rubbing into the scalp. + + + Hair-curling Fluid: Mix one and one-half drams of gum tragacanth + with three ounces of proof spirits and seven ounces of water. + Perfume with a drop or two of attar of rose. If too thick add a + little rose-water. + + + + + THE HANDS + + "I take thy hand, this hand, + As soft as dove's down, and as white as it; + Or Ethiopia's tooth, or the fann'd snow, + That's bolted by the northern blast twice o'er." + + --_Shakespeare._ + + +Pretty hands--like sweet tempers and paragons of husbands--are largely +a matter of care and cultivation. Much more so, in fact, than most of +us are aware. While tapering fingers and perfect palms count for +considerable, the general beauty of the hand lies not in its correct +outline so much as in the whiteness and velvety softness of the skin +and the perfectly trimmed, well-kept nails. I have seen hands as plump +as rotund little butter rolls, with fingers like wee sausages, and I +have also gazed upon long, slender hands as perfect of form and +proportion as any hand ever put into a Gainsborough masterpiece. And +both have been called beautiful. Of course, we all know that the +Gainsborough model is perfection, but nevertheless we can content +ourselves with the knowledge that really ideal hands are as rare as a +few other nice things in this world, and that we can struggle along +very well with our good imitations providing we are able to keep them +clean and well groomed. + +The poets have raved their wildest over the beauty of women's hands +from the time when Adam had his first desire to write jingles--if he +ever was so silly--to the present day of Kipling's entrancing verse. +Shakespeare in his many tributes to the unfortunate young Juliet spoke +of the "white wonder" of her hands, and there has probably never lived +a versifier who has not, at one time or another, gone into paroxysms of +poetry over "lovely fingers," and "dainty palms," and all that. And I +don't wonder, do you? for a woman's hand--when it is beautiful--is +certainly a most adorable thing. It should be soft and yielding and +caressing--with small, dainty joints, a satiny surface and carefully +manicured nails of shell-pink tint. + +First of all, tight sleeves and very tight gloves must be condemned. +Next, relaxation and repose are to be cultivated. A beautiful hand that +fidgets continually is not to be admired for anything beyond its +ceaseless efforts to be doing. Ben Jonson once said: "A busy woman is a +fearful nuisance," and it's more than likely that he had in mind some +fussy dame whose nervous fingers were everlastingly picking at things +and continually on the wiggle. + +The hand can easily be taught to move gracefully. The ordinary Delsarte +movements of swinging the wrist backward and forward, of raising the +hands high above the head, and the general exercises for the +cultivation of gesture and expression are all good and can bring about +the habit of spontaneous relaxation and activity. No gestures at all, +though, are better than awkward ones. + +Large joints are very unsightly. It is said of the Countess of Soissons +that she never closed her hands for fear of hardening the joints. +Funny, isn't it, to what extremes those old-time ladies went? And yet +the Nordauites say we are degenerates! + +Of Mme. Crequy it is recorded that "she was a woman most resolute," and +in proof of that assertion the chronicler says that if no lackey were +within call she opened the doors herself--without fear of blistering +her hands! It was the desire for dainty, delicate white hands that +first gave nice little boys the task of trotting after stately dames +and carrying my lady's prayerbook or fan. Fancy one of those +porcelain-like creatures of helplessness hanging onto the strap in a +State Street cable car! Perish the thought! And what a jolly time Mme. +Crequy would have had could she have indulged in a Christmas shopping +scrimmage. After a few tussels with the swing doors that bar our +entrance to the big stores, Mme. Crequy would have blistered her hands +to the queen's taste and the poultice stage. There's no chance of a +doubt about that. + + +BATHING THE HANDS. + +With the hands, as with almost everything else in the strife toward +beauty culture, cleanliness is the first great essential. You cannot +keep your hands smooth and pretty without an occasional hard scrubbing. +Unless the hands are unusually moist naturally, hot water should not be +used. Have the bath tepid--just warm enough to be cleansing. Say a fond +farewell to all highly-scented soaps and bring yourself down to a +steady and constant faith in the pure white imported castile. I doubt +very much if there is a soap manufactured which can equal this for its +harmlessness and purity. The best way is to buy a large bar, letting it +dry thoroughly, and cutting off small slices as they are needed. + +Never fail to let the soapy water out of the basin and fill again with +a clear rinsing bath. When drying be sure that the towel is not coarse +or rough, and that it absorbs every particle of moisture. Very gently +press back the cuticle around the nail. A little orange-wood stick or a +piece of ivory will assist you when the skin is inclined to stick close +to the nail. Let the hands have their most cleansing bath just before +you go to bed, and then is the time to apply your cold cream or +cosmetic jelly, which--in nearly all cases--is all that is needed to +keep the hands soft and nice. + +Wearing gloves at night is very uncomfortable and quite unnecessary. +Lotions can be put on an hour or so before one goes to bed, and by that +time they are usually pretty well absorbed into the cuticle. + +If the hands are red use lemon juice, applying cold cream as soon as +the juice is dry. For callous spots rub with pumice stone. + + +CARE OF THE FINGER NAILS. + +There has been a great change in manicuring methods of late. The old +steel implements of torture are banished, and the ivory instruments +have long since taken their place. Steel should never be put to the +fingers, except to use the scissors when the nails are too long, or to +trim the skin in order to free it from hangnails. The best operators no +longer cut away the cuticle about the base of the nail, and the +manicure who does that nowadays is not a student of the French method +of manicuring, which supplanted every other some time ago. The same +effect--and better, in fact--is got by simply pressing back the flesh +with the end of an ivory or orange-wood instrument. The gouging and +snipping, so irritating to a person of nerves, is thus avoided. +However, if you only know how, you can manicure your nails at home and +they will look every bit as well as if you trotted downtown and spent +half a day and a nice big dollar. + +Fill a china wash basin with a suds of warm water and castile soap. +Soak the hands for five minutes. With an old soft linen towel push back +the skin around the nails. If there are hangnails snip them away +carefully. Cutting the cuticle at the base of the nail was a barbaric +feature of a new science which disappeared when it became more rational +and refined. Never, under any circumstances, must the inside of the +nail be scraped with a sharp instrument. Another thing to be avoided is +the vulgar application of pink nail cosmetics. Who has not seen a +pretty hand made hideous by nails all gummed up with red paste? Oh, +yes, and claw-like nails! They, too, have been "called in," now that +progress, good sense and civilization go marching on at a two-step +pace. + +The nails should be trimmed the same shape as the finger tips, and left +neither too long nor too short. There's a happy medium that is easily +discovered, because of its usefulness, its convenience, and its +artistic beauty. A too-highly polished surface is also a vulgarity +invented by the old-time manicure. A little powder rubbed briskly on +the nail with a heavily padded polisher is a great improvement, but +when the nails shine with door-knob brilliancy it's high time to call a +halt. As for jagged, uneven nails--there's no excuse for them. + + +RECIPES FOR THE HANDS. + +Cosmetic Jelly: Take thirty grains of gum tragacanth, soak in seven +ounces of rose-water for two days, strain through muslin and add +one-half ounce each of glycerin and alcohol, previously mixed. This +dries in a moment after application. + + + Glycerin Balsam: + + White wax, one-half ounce. + Spermaceti, one ounce. + Oil of sweet almonds, four and one-half ounces. + Glycerin, one and one-half ounces. + Oil of rose geranium, eight drops. + + Melt the oils. Remove from fire and beat in the glycerin and + perfume. Stir briskly until cold and white. + + + Creme Duchesse: + + Benzoinated mutton tallow, three ounces. + Oil of sweet almonds, one ounce. + Glycerin, two drams. + Rose-water, two drams. + Oil rose geranium, twenty drops. + + Heat the tallow and oil of almonds in one vessel and the other + three ingredients in another. Mix the two and stir until cold. On + account of the mutton tallow, which might possibly cause a growth + of superfluous hair, this cream is not desirable as a face + cosmetic. The benzoinated mutton tallow can be made by taking + one-half pound of the tallow and one-half ounce of the benzoin, and + keeping at a high temperature until the alcohol has completely + evaporated. Strain through muslin. + + + Almond Meal: + + Orris root in fine powder, four ounces. + Wheat flour, four ounces. + White castile soap, powdered, one ounce. + Powdered borax, one ounce. + Oil of bitter almonds, ten drops. + Oil of bergamot, one fluid dram. + Tincture of musk, one-half fluid dram. + Mix well and pass through a sieve. + + + To make the hands soft: Take one quart of warm water, and in it + soak one-half pound of oatmeal over night, then strain and add one + tablespoonful of lemon juice and one teaspoonful each of olive oil, + rose-water, cologne, glycerin and diluted ammonia. Rub into the + skin three times a day. + + + To plumpen the hands: One-fourth ounce tincture of benzoin, eight + ounces of rose-water, and four ounces of refined linseed oil. Rub + in morning and night. This is equally nice for the neck and arms. + + + Wash: + + Rose-water, three ounces. + Bay rum, 2 ounces. + Glycerin, one-half ounce. + Borax, one-half ounce. + + + Amandine: + + Blanched bitter almonds, three and one-half ounces. + Powdered orris root, three-fourths ounce. + Powdered white castile soap, three-fourths ounce. + Glycerite of starch, one and three-fourths ounces. + Clarified honey, one ounce. + Oil of lavender flowers, one-half dram. + Oil of bergamot, one-half dram. + Oil of bitter almonds, four drops. + + Beat the blanched almonds with a small quantity of water to a + smooth paste, add the other ingredients, and mix intimately. A + solution of cochineal will color it. + + + + + THE EYES + + "Tell me, sweet eyes, from what divinest star did ye drink in your + liquid melancholy?"--_Bulwer Lytton._ + + +You would think, wouldn't you, that women would be good to themselves? +But they aren't. Not a bit of it! They abuse their complexions with +cosmetics as deadly as Mrs. Youngwife's first plum pudding. They "touch +up" their tresses with acids terrific enough to remove the spots of a +leopard. They paddle around in the rain like ducks in petticoats and +overshoes, and then sit down and chat with the woman next door for a +whole hour, so that the damp skirts can more properly inaugurate a +horrible cold that will settle down and stay for six weeks or more. And +their eyes--but that's a story in itself. + +An oculist once said that every dot in a woman's veil was worth $5 to +the gentlemen of his profession. The eye is being constantly strained +to avoid these obstacles in its way, and, of course, it is weakened and +tortured. Think of a woman paying $1.50 for something that will, in +time, destroy her eyesight just as sure as fate! I leave it to you if +she's not a ninny? But women do these things in spite of +everything--except when the overworked eyes begin to pain, and then +they're glad enough to do almost anything for quick relief. + +To keep one's eyes in good, healthy condition, rigid laws must be laid +down and carried out, though the heavens fall and the floods descend +and everything gets up and floats out into Lake Michigan. You must not +read in bed, and you must kiss good-by to that becoming black veil of +many dots and spots. + +When you crawl out of bed in the morning do not dig your fists into +your eyes and rub and rub until, when at last you do open those sleepy +"windows of the soul," there is two of everything in the room, and big +black spots are whizzing through the air. Pressure on the eyeball +flattens the lens of the eye, and is sure to produce myopia, or +shortsightedness. If the eyes are not inflamed at all they should be +washed every morning in moderately cold water. In case of inflammation +an application of hot water and milk in equal parts will be found most +beneficial. Dry with a piece of old, soft linen, being sure to wipe +inward toward the nose so as not to issue invitations to those horrors +of womankind--crow's feet! Great care should be taken to keep all +foreign substances, especially soap and other irritants, from the +delicate skin of the lids, and particularly from the still more +sensitive eyeballs. + +Gaslight brings direful havoc to good eyes, especially when the flame +is in a mood to flicker and splutter, as gas sometimes does. Take a +faint, wavering light and a piece of embroidery and you have as fine a +recipe for premature blindness as can be unearthed in a month of +Sundays. Sewing in the twilight is equally disastrous, as is the habit +of facing the light when writing or reading. + +Few women realize the great need of resting the eyes occasionally, and +the unhappy result of trying them to the utmost limit. The very moment +that the eyeballs ache work should be suspended, no matter how +necessary or urgent. Rose-water and plantain in equal parts makes a +refreshing wash, and elderberry water is said to be good when there is +a disagreeable itching. + +If the eyes are hot and watery use hot water which has been poured over +rose leaves. Witch hazel, that good old stand-by, is always refreshing +and is especially good when combined with camphor water. It is best +when applied at night and allowed to dry on the lids. Weak tea, which +is the eye tonic of our grandmothers, is also splendid. + +A lotion that has been tried over and over again and found excellent +for tired and inflamed eyes, is made by rubbing one teaspoonful of +pulverized boracic acid in fifteen drops of spirits of camphor and +pouring over this two-thirds of a cup of hot water. Stir and strain, +and use as needed. + +To brighten the eyes, steep good green tea in rose-water, soak bits of +absorbent cotton in the liquid, and bind on at night. + +For granulated lids--and what is more maddening and painful?--make an +alum paste. This is done by rubbing a small piece of alum into the +white of an egg until a curd is formed. Apply to the lids upon retiring +at night, tying a piece of soft linen over the eyes. + +So many girls say that they look a fright in eyeglasses, and ask if +they should wear them. Most certainly if the eyes are worn out and +failing. An oculist of the very best reputation should be consulted. +The fee does not exceed that of the quack, and the eyes are tested with +greater thoroughness. Glasses must be chosen with the utmost care, as +ill-fitting lenses can make a great deal of trouble. They are worse +than no glasses at all. Then, after eyeglasses are put on, they must be +changed now and then to suit the changing conditions of the sight. If +the eyes are not in a bad state, wearing spectacles for a few months +may strengthen them so that the glasses can be discarded. Also, if the +oculist knows his business as he should, he can give you much valuable +information concerning the care of your eyes. + + +THE GIRL WHO CRIES. + +Now, about the girl who weeps. You don't see many of her these days. +Women used to think that big, sad eyes, just ready to send forth a +November gale of tears, was quite the proper thing, especially if there +chanced to be a man about. Women of experience--and who should really +know--say that tears are worn-out weapons for bringing masculinity to +time. We later-day mortals go in for everything that bespeaks strength +and backbone and a certain amount of strong-mindedness. When little +wifey wife begins to snivel nowadays, Mr. Husband doesn't upset the +furniture in his efforts to kiss away the tears. He is quite likely to +straighten up and say: "Oh, brace up, Pauline!" or else, "Go look in +the glass, my love, and see what a beautifully tinted nose you have!" + +Yes, these are unromantic days, and there's no mistaking that fact! +There's little room for the weepy, wailing woman whose big, inflated +ambition is to dampen stunning neckties and deluge nicely laundered +shirt-fronts. Of course, women must have their good, comfortable cries +once in a while, but if they're wise they will retire to their own +rooms and have it out by themselves. This is not quite so satisfactory +as the old-time methods, for the reason that loneliness does not +inspire an exhibition of woe, and if one doesn't look out one is apt to +forget what one is boo-hooing about. But, take it all in all, it's +safer and more in keeping with fin de siecle rules and regulations. + +It used to be that a man would say: "Well, it breaks me all up to see a +woman cry. I just can't stand it!" But now it's different. Instead, he +remarks wearily: "Anything but a yowling woman!" + +The poets have written lots of lovely things about tears. +Notwithstanding that fact, there is an old German proverb: "Nothing +dries sooner than a tear," which isn't so bad. And Byron, you know, +said that the busy have no time for tears. Which, one must acknowledge, +is quite true when one thinks how everybody is up and hustling these +days. They're either wearing themselves down to skin and bone trying to +earn a living and to reside in a $60 flat with electric lights and a +real back yard, or else they're gradually killing themselves in an +effort to enjoy life and to have a good, jolly time all around. +However, that's neither here nor there. So let's jog along to more +timely topics. + + +THE EYELASHES. + +Who hasn't bumped into the woman who is woefully wandering around minus +her eyelashes? My dear girls, you make the mistake of your life when +you begin to snip and clip and tinker with those pretty little curtains +that fall over your eyes. If eyelashes are cut in infancy they will +grow longer, but when one gets big enough to wear long skirts and to do +one's hair up high and wear a little bonnet with jet dofunnies on it, +there's not much of a show for eyelashes being made longer by trimming. +Touching the lashes with castor oil will increase the growth, and +moistened salt is also good. + + +THE EYEBROWS. + +The eyebrows must be kept well brushed, and by persistent care can be +pinched into graceful lines. A heavy eyebrow can be trained with really +little effort. The brush should be small and rather stiff and firm. It +will at once cleanse and invigorate. + +I cannot approve of penciled eyebrows. A professional in the "make-up" +art can touch the eyebrows here and there and bring a marvelous change. +But for the ordinary amateur it is better left undone. Besides, if +coloring is applied, it is only a short time before the hair will fall +out. And then won't you look pretty? + +Eyebrows that meet over the nose are really very disfiguring, and the +cure is so simple that there is no need of this blemish, providing, of +course, that one can afford to take the necessary treatment. The +electric needle is the only sure and certain cure, and two sittings +will be sufficient to remove them for good and always. Be sure that you +patronize only the best operator, as you will surely regret it if you +don't. + +Sage tea, with a few drops of alcohol added, will darken the eyebrows +without injury. Cocoanut oil makes an excellent tonic to increase the +growth. + + + + + THE TEETH + + "Some ask'd how pearls did grow, and where? + Then spoke I to my girl, + To part her lips, and shew me there + The quarrelets of pearl." + + --_Herrick._ + + +Femininity may be heir to many beauty woes, but ugly teeth is one +trouble which is often caused by sheer neglect. How many of us can +recall the days of childhood and girlhood without remembering the fibs +we told to escape cleaning our teeth? The blessed mothers implored and +begged and threatened and fussed, but we went our way joyful and +serene, making all due preparations for future unhappiness. But when +the girl began to think more about her personal appearance, and less of +the frivolities of advanced babyhood--oh, that we were all back at that +jolly time of life!--things were very different. The neglected teeth +got good attention then, but often the mischief had already been done. +I trust that the younger readers of this volume on beauty will remember +that this is hopelessly true, and something not to be forgotten--like +yesterday's toasted marshmallows or to-day's lesson in political +economy. + +I have heard it said that too much brushing will injure the teeth, but +don't you believe it! The sooner you become accustomed to a moderately +stiff brush, that will do its work well and thoroughly, the better. All +foreign matter must be constantly removed, else decay will come as sure +as fate. A perfect state of cleanliness cannot be unless the teeth have +proper and constant attention. By this I do not mean that you must +cease all other occupations and take up that of eternal scrubbing. +Simply keep your teeth clean. Toothpicks must not be used excessively, +cold water should not be applied--or very hot, either, for that +matter--and all powders containing gritty substances must be tabooed. +It is quite unnecessary for me to add that you must not bite thread or +break nuts with your teeth, for all of us have had this bit of +information dinned into our ears since the time when "little children +should be seen and not heard" made life a worry and a care. I must +confess, however, that I have seen women untie knots and do various +bits of very remarkable mechanical work in this unique manner. My +experience has been so broad in this particular line of observation +that the expression "biting ten-penny nails" has never appeared to me +to be much overdrawn. + +If one seriously desires fine, beautiful, white teeth--and who +doesn't?--one must treat them well. Just before going to bed, give them +a thorough cleaning, using waxed dental floss to remove any large +particles which may be between them. Use only a pure powder, the +ingredients of which you know. Be sure that all powder is well rinsed +away. See that your brush is kept scrupulously clean. Upon arising in +the morning rinse the mouth with diluted listerine. This makes an +excellent wash, especially when the gums are tender and liable to +bleed. Brush the teeth with tepid water. After breakfast, luncheon and +dinner, wash them again, letting the last cleansing be the most +searching and thorough. Once in a while it is wisdom to squeeze a +little lemon juice onto the brush. This will remove the yellow +appearance that often comes, and will also keep your teeth free from +tartar. + +[Illustration: PRINCESS HENRY OF PLESS] + +Every six months visit your dentist and have your teeth thoroughly +examined. The smallest cavities should be filled at once, and the pain +will be less than when these agonizing crevices get so large that you +feel that it's a flip-up between going to a dentist or jumping into the +lake. I know that most of us women are cowards when it comes to seances +in dentist chairs, but all such things--like house-cleaning and writing +letters to folks you don't like, and entertaining your husband's maiden +aunt--all these things are heaps nicer when they're well over with. +They are the events which we prefer should ornament the past instead of +the future. + + + To Sweeten the Breath: + + Alcohol, twelve ounces. + Cinnamon, two and one-half drams. + Ginger, one-half dram. + Essence of peppermint, one dram. + Cloves, one-eighth dram. + + Mix and leave in infusion for two weeks in a tightly covered + vessel; filter and bottle. Put one teaspoonful in a glass of water, + and rinse the mouth with this every morning. + +Recipe for violet tooth powder appears in the chapter on perfumes. + + + + + BATHING + + "Even from the body's purity, the mind + Receives a secret sympathetic aid." + + --_Thomson._ + + +The road to beauty has never been better known than it was to the Greek +and Roman women of centuries ago, yet they did not begin to have the +resources in cosmetic arts that we have now. But they bathed +incessantly, believing that cleanliness and health were the vital +points in their endeavors to be lovely. They went in for athletic games +to a large degree, and thereby hangs the secret of well-developed +figures and fine, stately carriage. Creamy lotions for the face, made +mostly of almond oil and the oil of cocoanut, were their complexion +solaces. + +No doubt these beauties of the past centuries had more time than we for +their baths and games, but nevertheless let us make a strong, stern +effort to follow in the wake of their excellent teachings. Surely they +proved the wisdom of them in their own incomparable beauty. + +Speaking of baths reminds me of Mme. Tallien, the beautiful French +woman, who lived in the time of the first Napoleon. She went in for +baths galore. Let me tell you what she did. + +She gathered together all the strawberries or raspberries that the +corner grocery could supply. These were mashed to a pulp and the +bathtub filled. In this Mme. Tallien bathed until the idea of milk and +perfumed baths appeared to her fancy. There were many absurd and +useless fads those days as well as wise beautifying practices--just the +same state of affairs as now confronts us. + +How much more rational than Mme. Tallien's notions were the methods of +Diana of Poitiers, who, history tells us, was fresh and lovely at +sixty-five! She left the berries and things to their rightful place, +the breakfast table, and each morning took a refreshing bath in a big +tub of clear rain-water. There has nothing yet been found, even in this +progressive age of electric elixirs and beautifying compounds, that can +equal this old-time aid to loveliness. + +With the delightfully convenient bath-rooms, that even the most +ordinary apartment or flat has now, bathing is not a matter of trouble +and bother, but is, instead, an invigorating pleasure. I believe firmly +in the need of the daily bath. Not the thorough scrubbing, mind you, +but the quick sponging and the plunge. Let the thorough scrubbing be at +least twice during the week, and the five-minute plunges on other days. +Certain it is that one is much refreshed by the dipping luxury, and +still more certain is the fact that in no other way can the flesh be +kept healthy and firm. To those who are robust enough to stand it, the +cold bath is very good, but I would not advise it as a general thing +for women. For actual cleansing warm water and pure soap are necessary. +The shock of cold water immediately closes the pores, and they then +retain all the impurities that they should cast out. The temperature of +the water for the daily tepid bath should be about seventy-five or +eighty degrees, never more than that. + +Whether or not the bath should be taken at night or in the morning is a +question which each must decide for herself. While it has often been +claimed that a bath at night will quiet the nerves and make one sleep +sweetly, I have known many persons who found it an utter impossibility, +as it caused them to be restless and wide-awake. One reason why the +bath before going to bed is desirable is that a soothing emollient can +be applied to the face, neck and hands, and thus will the skin be +whitened and beautified. After a warm plunge the pores of the skin are +opened and in excellent condition to absorb a good skin food or a +pleasant cream. + +Bath bags are simply luxuries. They are pleasant ones, to be sure, but +they should never take the place of the flesh brush. It is best to +follow the scrubbing with a gentle washing with a bath bag, for the +almond meal and the orris root will give a charming, velvety appearance +to the skin. They should never be used a second time, as the bran +frequently becomes sour after a drying. So, if you are of an economical +turn of mind, you will make your bath bags very small, just large +enough to serve for one beauty bath. + +A little starch thrown into the bath will sometimes whiten the skin. +Salt is not cleansing at all, but is very invigorating and a pleasant +tonic if one is worn out and languid. Turkish baths are splendid +complexion-makers, but must not be indulged in too frequently. If the +skin is dry and feverish, a dry bath--or massage--with oil of sweet +almonds will promote a healthy skin and bring about good circulation. + +Constant bathing is the best remedy for excessive perspiration. But +this is not really effective unless a little benzoin is added to the +water, and the armpits well dried, and dusted with powder afterward. A +good bathing powder for this purpose is made of two and one-half drams +of camphor, four ounces of orris root and sixteen ounces of starch. +Reduce to a fine powder and tie in coarse muslin bags. + +Remember that a coarse complexion, with black, disfiguring, open pores, +can be almost entirely cured by keeping the pores of the body free from +sebaceous matter. Have the bathtub carefully scoured each day, as the +oils and dust washed from the body invariably collect on the sides just +where the water reached. For the thorough cleansing have the tub half +filled with warm water. Use a coarse rag, a bath brush and large, +coarse towels. Before stepping into the water wash the face and neck +well with castile soap and a camel's-hair brush, this being +particularly necessary when the pores are clogged and acne has formed. +Rinse thoroughly and dry with gentle pats. When using the brush, do not +forget to let the scrubbing go well down onto the chest, lest your neck +will be bleached white and nice only part of the way. + +Once in the tub, go over the body briskly with the flesh brush, using +plenty of good soap and not being at all sparing of elbow grease. This +scrubbing is very invigorating, for it exercises the muscles and stirs +up one's blood as well. After the scrubbing use the bath spray, letting +the water get gradually chilled. The drying should be brisk and quick, +and a warm robe of some sort must be donned while the hair is being +combed for the night, the teeth brushed and the face anointed with a +pure home-made cosmetic. Then go to bed. If you don't find a prettier, +fresher complexion with you next morning, then I'll miss my guess, and +will take up another occupation than that of doling out beauty advice. + + + Quireda Bath Bags: + + One pound of fine oatmeal. + One-half quart of new clean bran. + Two-fifths pound powdered orris root. + Two-fifths pound almond meal. + One-fourth pound white castile soap, dried and powdered. + One ounce primrose sachet powder. + + Dipped in tepid water and used as a sponge these bath bags make a + velvety lather that softens and whitens the skin in a way that + warms the cockles of one's heart. + + + + + DIET +_ + "Good food is the basis of good conduct, and consequently of + happiness; more divorces are caused by hash than by + infidelity."--_Hetty Green._ + + +The object of eating is nourishment to build up the nerves, the +muscles, the blood, the tissues, and, in fact, the whole body. Judging +by woman's mad devotion to things she should not eat, this is a piece +of information which has never before been confided to her. + +Let the food be well cooked, daintily served and delicately +flavored--for all that aids digestion with persons of sensibility and +refinement--but see to it that the ingredients are wholesome and of the +best and freshest qualities. A fifteen-cent lunch at one of the +tearooms, where dishes are prepared with some idea of the rules of +hygiene, is much better than a twenty-five-cent course dinner at a +cheap restaurant. This is a hint for the business girl who lunches +downtown. + +Ripe fruits, served upon green leaves, are always appetizing, even if +there is nothing more than toast or rolls to go with them. Cereals, +such as rice, barley or hominy (they must be steamed for hours), served +with rich cream, make ideal luncheons. A baked apple, a bit of rice +pudding, or a custard--they, too, are worth the while and the price. +Eggs, either boiled or carefully scrambled, or made into an omelet, +flavored with a dash of parsley, and chops or fish delicately broiled, +are substantial viands. Soups or broths, breads, fruits and an +occasional salad make desirable luncheons. A noonday meal of creamed +potatoes and green peas is not to be despised, and it's a godsend to +the poor stomach that has been heroically tussling with cocoanut +pudding, fruit cake and chocolate rich enough to own a castle in +Europe. Such dishes as Italian spaghetti, with tomato sauce and +Parmesan cheese, or celery or cress salad, with no other dressing than +the best olive oil and a teaspoonful of vinegar, will do very well. + +There is no economy in buying badly cooked luncheons. Seek quality, not +quantity, and, so far as health and good looks go, you'll find yourself +getting along famously. + +Rich foods, especially pastries, can bring forth an array of facial +eruptions that is positively maddening to the poor victim. Ice cream +soda, too, deranges the stomach and creates all sorts of disagreeable +disturbances. Hot bread and rolls, indulged in to an appalling extent +in southern households, can do more real damage to a good, fair skin +than all the winds and wintry blasts that ever shook chimneys or swept +friskily around corners and alleyways. + +Overeating not only brings indigestion and creepy dreams, but +invariably makes the complexion coarse, high-colored and overruddy. +That does not mean that one should nibble at things and not demolish a +"good square meal." Eating should be understood--rules laid down and +religiously carried out. + +Usually hygienic dishes and health foods comprise a complete list of +one's special horrors. Most girls who have tried them say so. But just +the same, there are dozens--yes, hundreds--of nutritious viands that +are decidedly more palatable and appetizing than the sweets and +indigestible doughy nothings that not only make of you a physical wreck +but set you to wishing most heartily that the man who invented mirrors +had died of the measles in his early infancy. + +Rice is a good old stand-by as a builder-up of a run-down constitution. +But you don't like it? Well, then, stew it with chicken sometime and +you will soon discover what great possibilities are in this despised +grain. Oatmeal, as it is usually cooked, is a thing of horror, to be +shunned and avoided and run away from. But oatmeal left to slowly +simmer for a full hour, and served half liquid, fluffed over with a bit +of powdered sugar and covered with rich cream, is fit for a queen--most +especially if the royal lady is ambitious for a fair visage with sweet, +soft skin and cheeks just touched with the crimson of health. + +A thick porterhouse steak, broiled quickly and well seasoned with salt, +pepper and butter, or rare little chops of lamb, are always excellent +tonics, as well as complexion tinters. + +Very often a lack of beauty is nothing more than a lack of proper +nourishment. The best cure in the world for a haggard, wan, white face +is a proper understanding of good foods. Sometimes a tonic of iron is +needed to brace the wearied physical state. Cod liver oil, which is so +very disagreeable to most people, is the sure cure for the girl whose +extreme slenderness causes her to lie awake nights to fret and worry. +But when the oil is prepared with malt it is even better, and also less +trying to swallow. A combination of malt and hypo-phosphates is +excellent too, and will bring back the fire of energy to the eye, and +the roses to the cheeks. A dessertspoonful taken before meals will +stimulate and strengthen, and get the tired body into a better state to +resist the wear and tear of ill health or overwork. + +One beautiful woman of my acquaintance declares that the secret of her +radiant looks is simply lettuce and olive oil. She eats lettuce summer +and winter, and this queer complexion cure has certainly worked like a +charm in her case. She buys the crisp young head lettuce, being careful +to use only the inner leaves. Over this she pours two tablespoonfuls of +the best olive oil and the very slightest dash of vinegar. Salt and the +least wee bit of sugar finish the salad. The good qualities of lettuce +are usually destroyed by rich, mustardy dressings, that breed acute +dyspepsia and desperate despair over good looks. But olive oil and +lettuce is as good a combination for rugged health and a fair face as +one can find in a year's search from Cape Horn to the Yukon. Others +besides the lovely lady of whom I speak have found it so. The secret, +though, is, I fancy, in the olive oil, which is an excellent aperient. + +A complexion-destroying habit is that of eating late lunches just +before going to bed. An apple or an orange is a benefit--as is also +plenty of cold, distilled water--but when it comes to gnawing chicken +bones, devouring big slabs of rich cake or finishing up a dish of +leftover salad, then is the time that kind relatives or guardians +should step in, say a word and take a hand. The girl should be saved +from herself at almost any expense. + +Fruit is a panacea for many complexion ills. What a pity, then, that +blind womankind persists in dabbing things on her nose instead of +putting healthful, purifying beauty food into her stomach. + +There is no reason in the world why fruit should be considered a +luxury. It should be used as a staple article of diet. Surely that must +have been the original intention. But alas, how many housewives will +pay forty cents for a can of lobster that will upset stomachs, frazzle +pleasant tempers, cause all sorts of complexion horrors and bring a +perfect comet trail of nightmares and dyspepsia! And these same women +will wrap themselves in a sanctimonious mantle of economy when the +woman next door pays the same sum for a dozen great juicy oranges. + +Grapes and apples are among the most nutritious fruits, and there is +nothing in the world so good for a skin of oily surface or yellow hue +as a grape diet. Besides, grapes are extremely appetizing, are very +easily digested and are sure to agree with even the most delicate +stomach. Ripe peaches have nearly all the merits of the grape, and, if +in proper condition, are also quite unlikely to bring about indigestion +or stomach disorders. + +There has never yet been concocted a better spring tonic than +strawberries. The reason why they are particularly excellent to enrich +and purify the blood is because they contain a larger percentage of +iron than any other fruit. It is a shame ever to embarrass and +humiliate the luscious things by imprisoning them in the indigestible +layers of a shortcake. A fluff of pure powdered sugar and a dash of +whipped cream and you have a toothsome dish fit for the most finicky +god that ever graced Olympia's pleasant realms. + +The woman who has a dingy, muddy skin must pin her faith to oranges, +lemons and limes. These are simply unrivaled as complexion clearers. +The juice of the grape fruit is fine, too. Fruits of this class +stimulate and make active the digestive organs, which, as you probably +know, are the main seat of nearly all complexion ills. A breakfast of +oranges and strawberries will do more toward making you a pretty, +wholesome, healthy woman than almost anything else. + +To be perfectly wholesome, fruit with firm flesh, like plums or apples +or cherries, must be thoroughly masticated. The skin of raw fruit +should under no circumstances be eaten. It is covered invariably with +multitudes of minute germs which always swarm upon the surface of the +fruit and multiply rapidly under favorable conditions of warmth. Before +eating grapes or cherries all dust and impurities must be removed by +careful washing in several waters. + +But to sum up the entire question of diet, eat what you know will agree +with you, and choose the blood-making, nourishing foods. Let fruit and +vegetables predominate in your meals, but do not avoid meats entirely. +Cake is not harmful unless very rich, but greasy pastries--like pies +and tarts and things of that sort--are simply utterly, hopelessly +impossible! Fats make the skin oily and coarse, pastries produce +pimples and blackheads faster than you can doctor them away, and too +much sweets will have about the same effect. Instead of buying candies, +save your money and acquire a fine complexion along with a bank +account. It will pay in the end. + + + + + SLEEP. + + "What a delightful thing rest is! The bed has become a place of + luxury to me. I would not exchange it for all the thrones in the + world."--_Napoleon I._ + + +If womankind half realized the beauty benefits of plenty of restful, +refreshing sleep, all femininity would be crawling into bed at sunset. +I've often wondered why the great sisterhood that is praying and +working and fretting for physical loveliness does not understand that +more real help comes from rational, hygienic living than can be +squeezed out of all the cosmetic jars that ever enticed weak feminine +hearts. + +Beauty sleep! Why, we've heard of it since the long-ago days when our +blessed mothers sung it, lullaby-fashion, into our ears! As little +girls it brightened the "sand-man" hour and made us go contentedly to +bed. As women it should rightly continue its good work, and the dear +Lord knows we need it more now than we did then, for--perhaps--the +crow's feet have begun to show their ugly little tracks and the fine +complexion of early girlhood is losing its luster and brightness, and +is growing a bit dull and yellowed--like a leaf first touched with the +autumn chill. + +Perhaps you won't believe it, but there are right ways of sleeping and +wrong ways as well. The girl who curls up like a shrimp is the one who +will be writing to me in a great flurry and worry, telling me that her +shoulders are round, and that she simply can't make them nice and +square as they should be for the new tailor-made that is to transform +her into a happy little Easter girl! The woman who is horrified to find +wrinkles appearing like wee birds of omen does not have to tell me that +she is a pillow fiend and sleeps with her head half a foot higher than +her heels. It stands to reason that a pillow will push the flesh of the +face up into little lines. There is no necessity for pillows at all, +and girls don't need them for comfort any more than a little puppy dog +needs patent leathers or overshoes. The bed should be hard and +perfectly flat, with springs that do not sag or give and let the poor +sleeper roll down in the middle in a jumbled-up heap. A hair mattress +is the best for health and comfort, but others will do nicely if they +are only perfectly flat and not too soft. + +The first thing to do, then, is to dispense with the pillow. If this +change cannot be accomplished all at once, then let your pillow be +gradually made smaller and smaller until none at all is desired. Your +sleep will be much better, and after the habit is once formed a pillow +is looked upon with derision. I know foolish mothers who put their +children to sleep on pillows as big as a school-girl's love for +caramels, and the poor babies tumble and toss, and the next morning +those mothers dose them for a pain in the "tum-tum." Alack-a-day! +Babies don't need pillows--unless it be those little soft cushions of +down that are as flat as pancakes. + +But to return from babies to beauty. If your sleep is restless and you +awaken with a dull headache and the feeling of weariness that makes you +want to begin the night over again so as to get refreshed, you may be +sure that something is wrong--either you are worried or troubled or are +working too hard for your own good. Perhaps your digestion is out of +order, or the room is not properly ventilated. It may be any of these +things that keep you from getting the rest that is really so very +necessary for health and comfort and good looks. + +Heavy bedding is also distressing, and as good a maker of nightmares as +deviled crabs or plum pudding. Light blankets make the best covering. +Let the window be open at top and bottom, so as to have perfect +ventilation. Don't eat an indigestible lunch before retiring; this is +the greatest of all beauty follies. Lie on the abdomen, with your hands +at your sides. This position will keep your shoulders back, will give +you a good figure and a better carriage. When you have followed these +directions and still find that you spend most of the night crawling +around over your bed vainly seeking a comfortable and restful spot, +then you can make up your mind that you need a good tonic and a +doctor's counsel, for your nerves or your digestive organs are not as +they should be. + +To sum it all up in a nutshell: You must sleep well, and you must sleep +a great deal if you wish to be the "woman beautiful." Sitting up late +at night will cause grey hair as will nothing else. It makes those dark +circles about the eyes, and causes the "windows of the soul," to lose +half their luster and softness and beauty. Who ever saw a pretty woman +with dull, lifeless eyes? She wouldn't be pretty were she so afflicted. +By sleeping properly, the body is kept stronger and fresher, and thus +the complexion is benefited greatly. Wrinkles do not come so soon, the +skin does not take on that muddy, yellow hue as it would otherwise, and +cheeks are pink and rosy with that greatest of all rouges--Health. + +There's a heap of truth in all this. If you do not believe it, then +give up late hours--be they for study or pleasure--and see if the +problem won't work itself out nicely with you. I think it will. In +fact, I am really quite sure of it. + + + + + EXERCISE + + "Better to hunt in fields for health unbought + Then fee the doctor for a nauseous draught + The wise for cure on exercise depend; + God never made His work for man to mend." + + --_Dryden._ + + +It would have done your heart good to see her. + +She came into the room with the briskness of a March flurry of snow. +Her cheeks were poppy-red, her eyes sparkled with the mere joy of +living. And she chuckled happily as she tucked back the curly scolding +locks that were flying about, all helter-skelter, like feathers +unloosed or fluffy chicks blowing away from the mother wing. + +"Isn't it jolly?" she chirped, as she threw her muff on the floor and +made a dive for Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson is a cat, as black as the +ace of spades and as pugilistic a feline as ever walked a fence. + +"Isn't what jolly?" I queried. "The weather or your sprightly self? Do +you know, you'd make a splendid poster now for some new-fangled +cork-soled walking shoe? Or perhaps a bearskin ulster for Klondike +wear. I'm sure a feather boa concern would pay a fortune for your +picture. I would I were an artist man, with a little brush and a little +pencil and a little palette with nice little paint puddles on it----" + +"What-in-the-world? Here I start in to dilate upon the joys of exercise +and off you go, just like a musical top with your buzz-buzz-buzz, and +your incomprehensible talk about little painters and little palettes +and little paint puddles. I'm sure it's not a bit nice of you." + +Peter Jackson was shoved to the floor. + +"But walking is jolly!" she piped, "and I've just had the very +gloriousest tramp and I feel as fine as a--what is it they say? Oh, as +fine as a violin--I--I mean fiddle. I walked miles and miles--perhaps +not quite so far--and the wind was blowing a blue streak right in my +face. Ugh! first it made me shiver and creep up into my collar. But +bimeby I got nice and warmy, and my cheeks tingled. I felt as if I +could walk from here to the place where the sun goes down. Do you know, +I never before realized how much fun it was to take a good tramp. I've +half a mind to reform from my rôle of lazy-bones and walk every day, +whether it snows, blows, cyclones, or turns warm, and fells us all with +sunstrokes and heat prostrations." + +"Health is the vital principle of bliss, and exercise of health," said +I, quoting Thomson. + +"Oh, well," and my pretty, rosy-cheeked guest arose. "I must be going. +You know how it is when one gets to preaching physical culture and +spouting poetry. Ta-ta!" and away she went, like the fleeting memory of +last night's dream. + + * * * * * + +If women paid as much attention to exercise as do men there would not +be so many wrinkles and stooped shoulders among the feminine sex, and +old age wouldn't rap on the door ahead of time. The girl who goes in +for outdoor sport, who isn't afraid of walking a block or two, who +loves the cold air and who revels in wheeling and swimming and skating, +is the one who won't be an old woman in appearance while she is still +young in years. Keep the muscles firm and healthy by exercise. This +will not only improve your carriage and add to your general +development, but will aid the digestive organs in their work and keep +you animated and cheery. Who of us does not know the inspiration of a +walk in the open air after a few days spent in the close atmosphere of +the house? Fresh air is the elixir of life. We can't have too much of +it, and--oh, my girls--think of the exceeding cheapness of it! It can +be got for the asking, which is more than one can say for the various +beauty pomades and lotions that beckon us toward poverty. + +Walking and skating are the best exercises during the winter, but all +kinds of exercises are acceptable, providing they are gone about in the +proper manner. It is easy enough to see why thorough and regular +exercise is absolutely necessary to health. + +We all know--at least, we all should know--that the general size of the +human body depends on muscular development. The same bony frame which +makes a slim-jim girl that tips the scales at seventy-five pounds can +be padded with good solid flesh until it boasts of a triple chin, +fingers like wee roly-poly puddings, and a full 200 pounds in weight. +The framework of the body counts little toward size. + +The muscles are like the various bits of machinery which go to make up +a steam engine. In performing their work they produce heat and motion. +The fuel which supplies this force is taken into the body as food, +prepared for use in the intestinal tract, and from there carried by the +blood to be stored up in the muscles and various tissues as latent +force. Through the circulation of the blood the whole body is heated by +muscular exercise. It stands to reason that continual exercise of a +certain kind will develop certain muscles. For instance, there's the +arm of the blacksmith or the firmly developed legs of the danseuse. The +same muscle that grows when used within certain limits will waste away +when deprived of proper exercise. + +In physical culture the object is the symmetrical development of all +the muscles, not one at the expense of the other. So, for that reason, +don't pin your faith to dumb-bells and Indian clubs and neglect more +necessary exercise. If you do you will in time find yourself possessed +of big Sandow arms that will make the rest of you look as spindle-like +as a last year's golden-rod stalk. + +Walking is as good a form of exercise as anything yet discovered. But +walking as most girls and women walk won't do you one bit of good. You +might just as well spend your time trying to count 700 backward or +while away the hours talking 1880 fashions with the woman next door, +for all the health or happiness or physical development that you will +get out of it. + +Corsets and bands and belts must be done away with. You must have full, +free use of your lungs. Then, don't wear heavy petti-coats that will +retard the free movements of your legs and make your hips ache with +their tiresome weight. Dress warmly but as lightly as possible. + +Above everything else don't stick your fingertips into a muff and +waddle along like a little duck in sealskin and purple velvet +trimmings. Your arms must swing easily at your sides. Thus equipped +walking should not be a task, but a great, big, lovely joy, no matter +if the frost does nip your nice little nose and make your cheeks feel +as if they had been starched, dried, ironed and hung on the line to +air. + +English women who come to America can tell us a thing or two about long +walks. Only the other day a pretty Englishwoman with a complexion like +apple blossoms casually divulged the information that a walk of ten or +fifteen miles was an old, old story to her. So, when I say that three +miles a day--the three miles ought really to be covered inside an +hour--is not a bit too much to give one's muscles the necessary +exercise, I hope you won't lean back in your chair and gracefully +expire. Some of you will gasp, no doubt, for a walk of five blocks to a +suburban station is usually looked upon as a heroic martyrdom to +circumstances and environments. + +Alas, for woman's fickleness! And alas, for her playful habit of going +to extremes! Suppose, for instance, that Polly Jones says she is going +to take a nice long walk every day of her life; that she knows the +bountiful blessings and benefits of a brisk tramp, and that she will +take that tramp in spite of obstacles as big as the Auditorium or as +immense as her longing for a cherry-colored silk petticoat. + +The first day--and, mind you, she has not walked a mile for weeks, the +lazy girl--she covers five miles in an hour and ten minutes. + +And when she comes home she's such a wreck that the whole family is up +in arms in a jiffy, and whisk out the tomahawks ready for war. That's +the end of Polly Jones' pedestrian exercises. + +And Daisy Brown. She does quite the same thing, only not so violently. +The first day she walks four miles, the next two, and then comes a trip +around the corner to get arnica and liniments for her poor, aching +bones. Thus also terminates Daisy's stern resolution to take daily +constitutionals. + +But the wise woman. Daisy's and Polly's methods are not hers. Far from +it! When she begins to walk for health and beauty she dons loose, +comfortable clothes, and with swinging arms and head well back, strides +along briskly and easily. Her first day's walk is scarcely a mile. The +second tramp is longer; and gradually the distance is increased until +the three miles are covered in about fifty minutes. + +The wise woman does not take her exercise in the afternoon, but in the +morning, an hour or so after breakfast, when the day is young and +everything seems bright and hopeful and cheery. Then it is that the +babies are out in their go-carts and carriages, and the "chillens" are +trooping to school. It's heaps pleasanter than an afternoon walk when +one has more of the worries and events of the day on one's mind. + +[Illustration: QUEEN HELENA OF ITALY] + +It is the regularity of exercise--and living, in fact--that brings the +best results. A stated time for baths, meals, rests and walks is the +proper plan for those fortunate ones who are not rushed into a +condition of decrepit antiquity trying to do fourteen different tasks +in thirteen small, limited minutes. Some of us, the very busy ones, +cannot have the necessary rests during the day, but baths and exercise +can usually be arranged and carried out. They should be, for they are +of more vital import than most of us realize. + +Running is splendid exercise, but we city folk have few opportunities +for exhilarating fun of that sort. A woman sprinting for a cable car +might quite as well be a trained bear in a pink mosquito netting +petticoat for the sensation and giggles she creates. With a bonnet +perched over one ear or dangling dizzily from an escaping empire knot +she is neither a dignified nor an inspiring picture. + +So it's quite as well all around to run in one's own room. In fact, the +best way to run is to run in one small spot and not go ahead. That +sounds befuddled, but it is easily explained. Get into loose clothes, +throw open the window, place your hands on your hips and go through the +movements of running. It is best to be in stocking feet or light +slippers, else that odious woman in the flat below may knock on the +steam pipe as a signal for peace and quiet. + +After fifteen minutes of mock running take an invigorating, tepid +sponge bath with just a dash of benzoin in the water. After that comes +vigorous friction with a rough towel. Then take a nap if you can spare +the time. Of course one must guard against exposure to cold after one +is heated by the exertion of exercise. + +Dancing would be one of the best of exercises were it not for the +close, ill-ventilated rooms, the tight clothes, the exposed shoulders +and the nervous strain which is always on hand at large social affairs. + +As for skating, there is nothing better. It makes a woman feel like a +new man. I say that quite consciously, as, in my opinion, to feel like +a new woman--that poor, long-ridiculed creature--would be more +humiliating than joyful. Don't you think so? + +Horseback riding is questionable exercise. The side saddle is apt to +increase the tendency to curvature of the spine, while tight corsets +prevent the good that would come to the heart and lungs and digestive +organs. Swimming is good, particularly for nervous, high-strung +persons. And the wheel? Well, that best of all exercises--for it is the +best when indulged in by the wise woman, not the crooked-back, +scorching, silly--is a story in itself. + + + + + STOOPED SHOULDERS + + "Her grace of motion and of look, the smooth + And swimming majesty of step and tread, + The symmetry of form and feature, set + The soul afloat, even like delicious airs + Of flute or harp." + + --_Milman._ + + +Stooped shoulders is one beauty ill that is wholly unnecessary. Any +girl with real brains and a little energy and will power can make +herself straight and bestow upon herself a good carriage. It is +entirely a matter of doing and persevering. Most of us know remedies +for our small failings, but how many of us apply them persistently +until a cure is brought about? Few indeed, and more's the pity. + +When starting the reform always bear in mind that the chest must be +held upward and outward. When this is done it is not necessary to keep +the shoulders back in a forced, strained position, and so make little +crowfeet in the back of your gown. The benefits of holding the chest +thus are more than one--or two, either, for that matter. If practiced +continually it will strengthen the lungs. It will also develop the +chest and neck as no masseure of miracle-working fingers can ever hope +to. Breathing exercises are also excellent. + +Incorrect positions during sleep cause many stooped shoulders. The big +fat pillow of our grandmother's day is the worst kind of a horror. No +pillow at all is best, and after one becomes accustomed to sleeping +that way it will be found much more restful and altogether comfortable. +The best position for sleep is to lie face downward, with the arms +straight at the sides. Of course, I am fully aware that most women +sleep curled up like kittens, but they can change their ways if they +will but try. + +The woman with straight, good shoulders never carries her arms heaped +full of bundles, for that draws them forward and makes them droop as +dismally as an ostrich plume in a blizzard. Instead, the "budgets" are +carried with the arms down at the sides. Neither does she clutch the +back of her skirt in that bantamlike fashion practiced by the woman of +less judgment. The back breadths of her new tailor-made are grasped +about six inches from the belt, and held up just so that they clear the +ground. Hats worn deep over the eyes are not desirable, this wise woman +also knows, for however tightly they are pinned to one's back hair, +they are mighty likely to keep one's body at an uncomfortable slant. + +The plump woman who wears her hose supporters pinned to the front of +her corsets seldom knows that the constant pulling of the elastics has +a tendency to make her shoulders droop. Shoes of high heels and narrow +toes are equally bad, for the wearer is plunged forward in an +ungraceful and line-destroying attitude. The low-heeled, square-toed +shoe--that is now in vogue--is the thing to wear, and blessed be the +Lord for at last bringing womankind to a rational understanding of what +she should wear on her much-abused little feet! + +The tailor-made gown is serviceable as a promoter of good figures, for +usually, unless one keeps one's shoulders back, the front of the bodice +proceeds to lay wrinkles in itself and so spoil the good effect that +women love as they do their pet jelly dishes and their Dresden teacups. + +Other things to be remembered are: Always stand on the front or ball of +the foot and keep the knees straight. Carry yourself so that a string +extended downward from your chest would reach the floor without +touching another part of the body. Do not push your head forward and do +not be in a hurry so that you will waddle along like a little duckling +with absolutely no grace or carriage. Dress comfortably, have your +clothing well fastened, and your gown loose enough to give your lungs +opportunity for the full expansion that, for the sake of your health, +they should have. Make sofa cushions of your pillows and sleep always +face downward, flat on the mattress. Last, but not least, don't be a +woeful lady and amble along in a disconsolate, sloppy-weather fashion +that is so utterly hopeless that I could never set before me the awful +task of suggesting a remedy. One of the secrets of happiness and +success is cheerfulness. Men and women and even babies like cheerful +folk, while they will race their overshoes off trying to get away from +the unhappy ones of dismal tales and many worries. Be cheerful, even +though the laundress has washed your best handkerchief into a real-lace +sieve, or the rains and snows of December have descended upon your best +Sunday bonnet and made a pocket edition of a rag-bag thereof, or even +if the gas range has blown itself and all the kitchen windows into the +next block. Be cheerful at all hazards! It pays! Really it does! + + + + + BREATHING + + "The common ingredients of health and long life are, + Great temp'rance, open air, + Easy labor, little care." + + --_Sir Philip Sidney._ + + +Among the first lessons that the beauty student must learn is how to +breathe properly. I know, my girls, that that sounds awfully stupid, +but there are yards and acres of truth in it nevertheless, and the +subject is well worth your while--you can depend upon that. Haven't you +ever noticed that most of the women who have gone in for vocal culture +have round, pretty waists? Almost invariably the singer is a woman of +fine figure, well-poised head, firmly-set shoulders and easy carriage. +And the reason is simple. She has learned from the beginning that she +must breathe properly, that every breath must come from the abdomen and +not from the chest, and that to breathe in that way she must hold up +her chin and expand her lungs. + +We often mistake carriage for fine figure. It is the woman who poises +her head well and who keeps her shoulders back that attracts the eye of +other women. There is something brisk and energetic and active about +her that makes of her a sight good to look upon; while another woman +with perhaps a much better figure will trail about with a +down-in-the-mouth air and a slow, doleful gait that will give one the +blues and an absence of appetite for weeks to come. + +You cannot possibly breathe properly and have your shoulders +stooped--at least you cannot make such a combination without a mighty +big lot of discomfort. If you breathe as you should you will develop +the chest and bust, give better lines to the shoulders and--unless you +are naturally inclined to be plump and rotund--will make your waist +become round and slender and pretty. If you doubt this, try for +yourself and see. + +I wish that I could impress my readers with the fact that improper +breathing brings many ills. Breathing is a highly important function, +and bad breathing not only produces symptoms of consumption, but makes +the waist unduly large. The reason for this is that holding the chest +up will keep all the internal organs in their proper places, and so not +allow them to spread the waist in the unsightly way that usually +denotes deficient vitality instead of the "Greek health" upon which +physicians are wont to dilate. Good breathing strengthens muscles and +makes the flesh firm. The reward is a perfect, round, slender figure +and a trim waist. + +Begin your breathing lessons in the morning just after getting out of +bed, when you will have no tight skirts or bands to hinder the full +expansion of the lungs. Raise every window and get all of God's blessed +air that you can, and, above all things, let not this practice cease +when the winds of winter blow as if from Greenland's icy mountains. The +breathing exercise is all the better then. Place your hands on your +hips and walk slowly across the room, your chest held upward and +outward, and every breath coming deeply from the abdomen. After three +trips you will find yourself pretty well tired out. Rest for a few +moments and try again. The next morning make the exercises longer, and +as soon as the muscles that hold your chest up become firm and strong +there will be little exhaustion. Vary the exercise by standing still, +taking as long a breath as possible and holding it for several seconds. +This practice, indulged in for five or ten minutes every day, is most +beneficial. But the main motive in all breathing exercises is to get +into the habit of standing straight with the shoulders held back and +the chest up. "Play" that you are trying to make your chest creep up +and touch your chin. + +One of the greatest injuries that come from wearing tightly laced +corsets is the compression of the ribs. The unyielding steel and +buckram will not permit a variation in the waist measure as a deep +breath is inhaled or expelled. The proper and healthful corset is the +one that expands or contracts with each respiration of its wearer, and +that is why I am such an enthusiastic devotee of the corset waist with +the elastic bands on either side. It matters not one bit how tight the +clothing may be, so long as it is given elasticity and is yielding. +This is absolutely necessary to perfect health and the proper +development of a woman's figure. + +With the breathing capacity increased, enlargement of the lungs and +development of the chest are sure to be the results. But, be it +understood, please, that this growth is not the work of a day or a +week, or a month even. However, if it is continued religiously there +will be a difference of five or six, or even seven, inches in your +chest measure in the course of a year, to say nothing of the +improvement in carriage and figure, and the health and strength that +correct breathing will give. + +There are a number of things to remember. The first is that one must +secure breath control, the next that the best authorities condemn +thoracic or upper chest breathing. Keep the chest up and out, and let +the expansion be at the waist line. Inhale slowly and smoothly as much +air as you can, swelling out the lower chest at the sides just below +the arm pits as the air is drawn in. Hold this air five seconds. Then +exhale it slowly and gradually, crushing in the ribs gently with the +hands as the air goes out. During the exhalation be sure to keep the +upper chest still. Do not let it sink, as it will be apt to if not +restrained by an effort of the will. Exhale again and hold the breath +for ten seconds, then for fifteen seconds, and finally for twenty +seconds. This exercise will do for the first day. Increase the power of +holding the breath by practicing regularly each day. + +Be careful not to make any motion suddenly. In calisthenics of any kind +the more slowly and carefully the exercise is performed the greater +will be the benefit. But best of all, keep in mind that these breathing +exercises are not only making you a pretty woman of pretty figure, but +giving you that greatest of all beauty elixirs--health. + + + + + MASSAGE + + "The love of beauty is one of the most firmly implanted qualities + of the human mind, and only those who are mentally deficient fail + to appreciate it. From the human standpoint there is no edifice so + beautiful as that earthly temple which enshrines the soul."--_Dr. + Cyrus Edson._ + + +Massage is as old as the hills. Most really good things are, I've +found. The Grecian and Roman women preserved their wondrous, wholesome +beauty by reveling in luxuriant baths and then undergoing vigorous +massage by their stout-armed slaves. Massage is a natural alleviator +and comfort-giver. The first thing a baby does when he bumps his +precious head is to rub the injured spot with his little fist. Relief +seems to come with friction. If one's temples hurt, the hands seem to +itch and tingle to get to rubbing and smoothing out the aches there. +And the reason for it is that friction makes active the nerves and +blood vessels and exercises the tired or fretting muscles. Massage is +exercise. If we were to cease using our arms the muscles would shrink +and soon become incapable of movement. The skin outside would, of +course, be affected by the general warpings of the tissues, and the +result would be everything that is dreadful to the mind +feminine--crow's feet, wrinkles, sallowness and lack of the tints and +colors of health. You who have enjoyed the pleasures of a Turkish bath +must know how new and robust and fresh you feel after the invigorating +cleansing and pummeling by a strong and experienced masseuse. + +We all know about the system of decay and renewing which the skin +constantly undergoes. It is much the same way with the muscles. The +very tiny cells of which the muscles are composed are continually being +repaired. As the wornout particles are rejected the new fiber is +created. Does it not stand to reason that massage will facilitate this +process, make the flesh firmer, restore vigor to the muscles and give +new life to the entire system? + +The muscles of the face, more than those of any other part of the body, +are lazy and torpid. As the troubles of life descend, the wear and tear +of bothersome existence begins to show. The circulation becomes +defective, and this brings flabby tissues and a wrinkled, sallow skin. +Then, oh, woe! woe! One feels as if one might just as well be dead and +gone as to be trailing through life so afflicted. + +Massage means "I knead." While the professional masseuse should be well +informed concerning the muscles of the face and neck, the location of +the veins and arteries, and the general formation of the skin, the +little home body who wishes to rub away a few wrinkles or turkey tracks +can easily dispense with the acquiring of so much knowledge. With +knowing what "not to do," she will get along very well, although it has +always been my opinion that the simplest and most satisfactory way to +learn to massage one's own cheeks and brow is to go to a first-class +professional for one or two treatments. If you keep your eyes open you +will easily learn the simplest and most effective movements. + +The first thing to remember is that massage will both create and reduce +flesh, according to the treatment given and the time devoted to it. +Severe rubbing and rolling of the flesh between the fingers will +gradually dissolve the fatty tissues. The flesh will then become soft +and flabby, and the skin will be likely to fall into tiny lines unless +an astringent wash, like weak alum water (used hot), is applied to +tighten and harden it slightly, and so make the flesh firm. If the +massage is continued, the flabby flesh will also be reduced, especially +when the astringent wash is applied to help the hardening process. When +the face is to be plumpened or wrinkles removed, then rub the skin very +gently with a rotary motion, which is not a mere rubbing but a kneading +as well, and follow with light tapping movements. Never roll the flesh +between the fingers unless reduction is the object. Also, never massage +oftener than once every twenty-four hours, and then only for fifteen or +twenty minutes. + +So much for the don'ts. Before beginning the massage have the face +perfectly clean. Wash with tepid water and pure castile soap. Otherwise +the dust and powder are kneaded into the pores and the result is +frequently extremely irritating. + +The reasons for massage are many. It facilitates and stimulates the +skin in its continual effort to throw off the tiny flakes of dried, +dead cuticle. It is exercise for the muscles, and at the same time it +inspires a livelier circulation of the blood. It is easy to understand +then why massage is so beneficial for the face, and why it makes a +rosy, healthy complexion. Massage alone will remedy many a complexion +ill, for when the muscles are sluggish and torpid, the tissues weak and +flabby, the circulation as slow as the messenger boys in the funny +papers, and the skin sallow and wrinkled, all in the world that is +needed is a little gentle patting and coddling and rubbing into a less +lifeless state. + +Great care must be taken lest the skin become bruised and irritated. +For this reason a cream or skin food is used. Let me suggest that this +emollient be of the good, pure, home-made kind, not the cheap cosmetic +which has mutton tallow or lard as a principal foundation. The orange +flower skin food (formula appears in the chapter on the complexion) is +the best formula for this purpose, as it will, by absorption, fatten +and build up the impoverished tissues, and at the same time strengthen, +whiten and soften the skin. Mineral oils must never be used. Glycerin +not only makes the complexion darker and rather yellow, but it dries +the secretions of the skin very rapidly, and a dry, harsh surface is +the sure result. Vaseline--as we should know from its reputation as a +hair tonic--will not prove a happiness to one. + +The skin food should be rubbed in all over the face and far down upon +the neck with a firm, circular movement. When the cream is partially +absorbed begin the manipulations, starting at the forehead. Place the +thumbs on the temples and in that way hold the skin firm and taut. With +the tips of the first and second fingers of both hands rub the lines +transversely. If there be wrinkles across the forehead, rub up and +down, holding the skin tight at the top of the forehead with the first +fingers and manipulating with the second and third. + +Another movement which is excellent for wrinkles is to place the first +finger of each hand crosswise of the wrinkles about half an inch apart. +Then push up a little fold. As the left hand finger pushes its way +along the wrinkle, let the right hand one rub up and down, always +keeping the line up into a little hill. + +In massaging the lines about the eyes the movement should begin by +rubbing the eyelid from the nose outward half an inch beyond the end of +the eye, then returning below the eye toward the nose. This will make +the massage sweep back crosswise of the crow's feet. Another movement +is to hold the skin taut and then knead the lines firmly with the first +and second fingers of the right hand. + +If the chin is fleshy and you wish to massage it down to smaller +proportions, you must dissolve the fatty tissues by picking up the +flesh between the thumb and forefinger and rolling and rubbing as much +as you possibly can without injuring or breaking the skin. Then, in +order to keep the flesh from getting flabby the rotund little chin must +be bathed in cold water, in which is a small pinch of alum, a piece the +size of a bean being plenty for a pint of water. This alum bath, +remember, is only to be applied when you are reducing the carbon or +fat. + +The "kneading" movement is very beneficial. This is done very gently +with the thumb and forefinger only--precisely the motion used in +kneading bread. The smoothing manipulation for the wrinkles is probably +better explained as an "ironing out" motion. All lines can stand these +two movements. Whenever the skin seems particularly dull of color and +generally lifeless, then the patting comes in excellent play. This is +merely a gentle tattoo over the entire face. Electricity is an +excellent accessory to massage--but that is another story. + +After the massage, wet a wash cloth in water slightly chilled, and lay +over the face. This will close the pores nicely. Dry and apply powder. + +I trust that my beauty students will easily understand the +foregoing--it is certainly a difficult topic to explain lucidly. As I +said before, it is a wise plan to go to some one who thoroughly +understands the art and let her teach you. While massage can be given +at home, it is more satisfactory if done by a professional whose +knowledge of anatomy will assist her toward the best results. + + + + + DRESS + + "Be plain in dress, and sober in your diet; + In short, my deary, kiss me! and be quiet." + + --_Lady W. Montague._ + + +The world has its full share of silly women--more's the pity--but there +is not one who can hold a candle to the girl who trots about in the +cold, bleak days of winter clad in summery undergarments fit only for +the warm atmosphere of a baker's oven in August. So long as these +exhibitions of utter absurdity continue we cannot consistently harp +upon woman's recently acquired good sense in dress. It seems more and +more the fad for girls to boast that they have never worn a vulgar +outfit of flannel undergarments, but it is quite observable that these +same girls are the very ones who are eternally grunting and groaning +and coughing and fussing. And how can they help it? You can't have good +health if you keep yourself in a semi-refrigerated state. A sleeveless +vest of silk is not sufficient to keep one's body warm, even though the +prettiest bodice in Christendom and the swellest of "coaties" cover it. +Skirts of white muslin, with pretty frills and lacey trimmings that +fall in soft folds and ruffles around one's feet, are mighty dainty +things for the summer girl--but is there a colder sound than that of a +starched white petticoat in the dead of winter? Bur-r-rr! it gives one +the cold chills to even think of it! + +Who has not beheld the stunningly gowned girl stalking majestically +around the shopping district in a little tailor-made jacket topped off +with a fur collarette? She tells herself that she is perfectly warm and +comfortable, but you and I know better, my dear, for we have seen her +unhappy efforts to crawl up into this same collarette, and we have +beheld her shivering misery as a good stiff gust of January wind sends +her flying around a corner. + +I am a firm believer in the tailor-made gown, and I am of the opinion +that style often counts more than real beauty with women of stately +carriage and pretty figure. But nevertheless, I believe first in +keeping warm and in protecting one's health. The girl in the smart +little jacket could well afford to wear a winter coat over it on the +coldest days, and even then she would not swelter from the heat. +Really, it is torture for a woman of common sense to go along the +shopping district and see her poor, miserable sisters who let comfort +fly to the four winds of heaven while they revel madly in appearances. +It's all very well, my girls, to look your best. But don't make +sacrifices that will injure your health. I'd rather see a woman in a +last winter's coat with the seams shiny than look upon a foolish but +radiant creature in a bit of a cape that would keep her about as warm +as would two good-sized cobwebs stitched together. The first woman +would have the advantage of displaying evidence of real brains on the +inside of her head. And beauty without brains isn't real beauty at all, +but a sad, shop-worn, tear-wringing imitation. + +It is my opinion that in choosing underclothing for cold weather +finely-woven cotton is the best of all. Silk is not durable, and wool, +even of the finest quality, will often prove irritating. Besides, so +many of us spend most of our time in steam-heated homes or offices that +woolen garments keep one too warm. The cotton union suit makes a very +desirable undergarment. This should be high-necked, long-sleeved, and +made to come well down over the ankles. For the girl whose particular +worry is a nose of flaming red, let me say that in fleece-lined +stockings, calfskin boots and warm overshoes lies her only hope of a +less flamboyant nasal appendage. + +There is no need of fourteen petticoats, notwithstanding the fact that +really nice old ladies insist upon wearing that number. One skirt of +silk or moreen, together with a tiny short one of white muslin and a +pair of sensible, warm, woolen equestrian tights will make one more +comfortable and will allay that immense swelling about the hips which +much be-petticoated old ladies have. The tights, however, should be +worn only when one is out of doors. During really cold weather no woman +with sense enough to fill a one-grain quinine capsule will venture out +of the house without thus properly clothing her lower limbs. Let +femininity come to the understanding that in proper dressing and +rational eating she will find the first and best materials for building +her house of beauty. It's all very well to wear pretty, fluffy, +lace-trimmed undergarments, but if you think that a wan, white, pinched +little face pays you for such extravagances in silliness, then you are +a ninny. Wear the fluffy things if you will, but put on the warm ones, +too. In making a choice between the raiments of a ballet dancer and +those of an Eskimo lady, I'd point the finger of approval toward the +latter--at least at those times when the thermometer is lounging around +the zero point. + + + + + THE THIN GIRL + + "Beauty gives + The features perfectness, and to the form + Its delicate proportions." + + --_Willis._ + + +Diogenes and his lantern had an easy, simple task. If they had started +out together to turn their searchlight of discovery upon a woman who +was neither too fat nor too thin, no doubt they'd been poking around in +other people's affairs ever since. I once heard of a woman to whom the +idea of gaining or reducing flesh had never occurred, but she died +before I got a chance to look at her, so of course I am rather doubtful +as to the truth of the story. To my mind she should have been made +president of something or other or else been put on exhibition where +the rest of suffering womankind could have gone and feasted their eyes +upon such an impossible paragon. If there is not a general wail about +over-weight or under-weight, then it's a thin neck, or big hips, or an +inclination to too much "tum-tum," or skinny arms, or cheeks like +miniature pumpkins--and goodness only knows what else. And by the time +one particular horror is massaged out of existence another crops up +like a spook in the closet of a "fraidy-cat" girl, and then the +business is begun all over again. + +Therefore, say I this: Don't worry yourself into your grave about too +much flesh or a lack of it unless you find yourself taking on the +extreme proportions of a skeleton lady, or a museum exhibit of unusual +plumpness. A thin neck may be a bad thing--as all girls so afflicted +can testify--but if that thin neck is rebellious, and pays absolutely +no attention to tonics or massage or other coddling for which it should +rightly be grateful, then merely say, "All right, if you insist!" And +turn your attention to other things. What admirer of feminine beauty +would not look upon a bright mind, quick, kindly wits, and sweet +lovableness as a thousand times more acceptable than a neck as round +and perfect as that of a Venus? + +On the other hand, let me say that, if you will merely look after your +health--exercise every day, be out of doors, eat proper foods and take +your daily sponge bath--you will keep your chest broad and full, and +your waist trim and neat. Breathing exercises every morning are +excellent for this happy condition of affairs. It is my firm belief +that women could mold their bodies as they would if they only had +patience and perseverance--not so much in flesh-gaining or +flesh-losing, but in being wholesomely strong and healthy. This is most +necessary, not only to prolong life and make it pleasanter and more +livable in every way, but to be what God evidently intended--a robust, +well-developed and perfectly formed woman. + +Thin girls must be lazy and plump ones busy. If you work hard and have +the usual load of worries that half the women lug about with them as +they do their powder rags and their purses, then you may never hope to +revel in a vast amount of fat. Fretters are invariably thin; they +simply worry off the flesh faster than nature can create it. + +When a woman is unusually slender it is her duty to get fat, not any +more for the reason that she will look prettier with the angles filled +out than for the reason that she will be stronger and healthier and in +a better condition to resist illness and fatigue. She should have at +least ten hours' sleep out of twenty-four, and this must be healthy +sleep in a well-ventilated bedroom, on a hard mattress, and with no +high pillows to make her stoop-shouldered and of ungainly figure. A nap +during the day is a good thing if one can afford the time. Absolute +freedom from care and anxiety are necessary, but--alas--we cannot +always regulate the antics of fate or circumstances that deny us these +sweet privileges. The diet must be of the most nourishing, and should +consist mostly of food containing starch and sugar, such as good fresh +butter, rich milk, cream, fruits both raw and cooked, macaroni, fish, +corn, sweet potatoes, peas, beans, ice creams, desserts without +pastries, and nourishing broths. Cereals, poultry, game, chocolate and +sweet grapes are all excellent. Avoid all spiced, acid or very salty +foods. While plenty of outdoor life is most essential, a great deal of +exercise is not. If there is any internal disease, especially the +slightest inclination to dyspepsia or liver trouble, one cannot +possibly gain flesh until the cause of the extreme slenderness is +removed. When the body is plump in one part and fails in another, +either massage or a gymnastic course is advised. Dumb-bells and Indian +clubs will develop the arms; massage with a fattening emollient, +together with loose clothing, tepid baths and breathing exercises, will +increase the size of the chest and bust, while swimming, moderate +bicycling and walking are good for nearly all plaints of the thin lady. + +But until these changes are brought about--and it will take lots of +time--do not fret or worry. Merely wear your clothing very loose, +substitute a comfortable little waist for stiff, unwieldy corsets, and +see that your gowns are made full and dainty. In this last particular +you will have an immense advantage over the woman who would sell the +shoes off her feet to be thin and "willowy." + + + + + THE PLUMP GIRL + + "What's female beauty but an air divine, + Through which the mind's all-gentle graces shine? + They, like the sun, irradiate all between; + The body charms, because the soul is seen." + + --_Young._ + + +If one had to choose between being too fat or too lean, the wise woman +would certainly take the smaller allowance of flesh. Jack Sprat might +incite pleasant ridicule, but Jack Sprat's wife--lo! there would be +naught but pity and tears for her! It is better by far to be the butt +of jokes concerning "walking shoestrings" or "perambulating umbrella +cases" than to waddle through life burdened to death with an excessive +amount of flesh. The thin sister can pad out the angles, put frills and +puffy things over the bony places, but alas for the fat one! She gets +into clothes that are skin-tight, and she draws in her corset string +until it snaps and gives at every breath and sneeze, and even then she +does not look graceful and pretty, for the fat--like secrets--will out, +and it rolls over and around like the little bumps and humps in a +pudding bag. + +[Illustration: LADY NAYLOR-LELAND] + +Yet, after all, there's more hope for her than for her sister in +misery. While some thin girls might revel in cod liver oil and nearly +convert themselves into a hospital storeroom of tonics and fattening +foods, they can't get round and rotund--the Lord seems to will it that +certain persons are to amble disconsolately through life minus the +proper allotment of flesh. But with the overplump lady it all lies +within herself as to whether she is to be stout and buxom or of more +artistic and beautiful proportions. It is simply a matter of getting up +and hustling, a condition of animation frequently foreign to her +nature, but not at all impossible to even the most unwieldy. + +While a certain careful routine of living is necessary for a speedy +change for the better, the two main points to remember are diet and +exercise. To the girl who says: "But I can't diet. I get hungry. I love +sweets and goodies, and have to have them," I must reply: "Well, then, +be fat." What is worth having is worth working for, and the woman who +is too fat for her own comfort and personal appearance invariably has +ahead of her the dreadful bogy of additional flesh as the years go on. +And surely that should be enough to inspire her to mend her ways. + +In beginning the change--that is, in starting out on a regular system +of dieting and exercising--you should remember that the reform must be +worked gradually. One must go slowly into the more healthful manner of +living. The severe methods of flesh-reducing cannot be too greatly +deplored, and many a woman has lost her life by these extreme measures. +I do not mean that they have died at their exercisers or that they fell +exhausted because they did not have enough to eat, but that in their +mad efforts to become thin quickly they undermined their health and +laid a good foundation for physical disorders. Good health, with too +much plumpness, is preferable to beautiful proportions and the +listlessness and pain of ill health. So you can follow my advice with +the greatest safety, as health--to my way of thinking--is greater than +beauty, for the last depends upon the first, invariably. + +To-morrow, when you get up, throw on a loose, warm wrapper, and then +open the window. Stand in the cool, crisp morning air, and expand your +lungs a dozen times, holding your hands on your hips and raising +yourself lightly on your toes. Vary this by walking across the room, +taking long, full breaths from the abdomen. This practice is equally +good for the thin girl, or any other kind of a girl, for that matter. +After airing your lungs close the window and run into the bath-room, +where you should have a quick sponge bath, rubbing the body briskly +with a heavy towel. A quick alcohol rub can follow, just as one +pleases. For breakfast let there be fresh uncooked fruit, especially +oranges. Tea or coffee must be taken clear, as neither milk nor sugar +should be indulged in by the beauty patient whose chief ambition it is +to lose flesh. Toast must always be eaten instead of bread, and butter +used sparingly at all times. Avoid fats, starchy cereals, +flesh-producing vegetables and pastries. This is very simple, when you +once make up your mind to it. Do not fancy you are thus left with +nothing whatever to eat--like Mother Hubbard's unhappy dog. Meats, +either cold or broiled, are good if eaten in moderation. Poultry, fish +and game are all right. Asparagus, string beans, spinach and tomatoes +are the most appetizing of vegetables, and in these four alone there +will be sufficient variety, especially when salads of all sorts are +included, although these must, of course, be taken without oil. Young +onions are also excellent, as are condiments, dried fruits and +acidulated drinks. A hot lemonade, taken every night, is good, but it +must have little sugar, else the effects of the acid will be +overbalanced. + +As for exercise, walking is best of all. Running is very beneficial, +but the unique witticisms of the average small boy will probably keep +this form of exercise confined strictly to the house. Begin by walking +half a mile for several days, then make the distance a mile, and keep +increasing your daily walk until you cover at least five miles. That +may sound like an impossibility, but don't you believe it, for it's not +at all. In Great Britain a walk of fifteen miles is not considered half +an effort, and who does not know that the English girls have the most +superb complexions in the world? Besides this, they are healthy, +wholesome, well-developed women, and that counts a good deal in the +race for beauty. If the five-mile walk is too exhausting, then take a +longer time getting to the point, when it will be exhilarating instead +of enervating. + +Sleep must be limited to seven hours, and daily naps are strictly +tabooed. To those who prefer, mechanical massage can be given, and this +will take the place of long walks, although they are really preferable, +as the fresh air is necessary. Oxygen destroys or burns out carbon, and +carbon is fat. The more exercise and fresh air, the more oxygen, and +consequently destruction of fat by the one healthy means of remedying +obesity. Soda phosphates and the various fat-reducing preparations are +not desirable. The only way to cajole willowiness of body into coming +in your direction is to diet and to take plenty of exercise. Do not +drink much water. A little lemon juice added to it will make it less +fattening. + +There, now, plump lady, are your rules! Abide by them and your woes +will surely disappear with a swiftness that will make you laugh. + + + + + THE WORKING GIRL + + "Labor is life!--'Tis the still water faileth; + Idleness ever despaireth, bewaileth; + Keep the watch wound, or the dark rust assaileth." + + --_Mrs. Frances S. Osgood._ + + +It has often occurred to me that there are a vast number of plucky +little bread-winning girls and women to whom even a tiny jar of creme +marquise is a hopeless impossibility. For them is this chapter written. + +In the first place, we all feel pretty sure that--in the great, +wonderful beginning of things--it was never meant that women should +work. We can't help knowing this when we look about us every night at +six o'clock and see the weary, patient, brave little faces that line +either side of the elevated trains or the crowded street cars. Women +are not given to the solving of problems, so we won't go into the great +"whys" or the "wherefores." That's a loss of time anyhow. But we will +do heaps better than that. We will try to be hopeful and cheery, and +learn how to make the best of the little happinesses that do come our +way. + +The working girl--and we all take off our hats to her pluck--needs more +than any other class of womankind to take care of her health. She is +out in all kinds of weather, she works hard, and ofttimes struggles +through a daily routine that is harrowing beyond everything. After +hours there is mending to be done, or a thousand and one little duties +to keep her busy until, tired out and nerve-weary, she goes to bed to +gain rest and strength for the struggles of the morrow. She cannot +afford the little luxuries of the toilet that are so dear and near to +the heart of womankind the world over. The joys of having her hair +"done" or her pretty cheeks massaged are not hers--and the pity of it +is that often enough the fault lies not within herself, but in the +unhappy circumstances of fate that have placed her among the less +fortunate sisterhood. + +Let a large bar of castile soap be the working girl's first investment. +I say a "large" bar for the reason that it is much cheaper when bought +that way. A good-sized piece of the pure white castile can be bought at +some of the drug stores for fifteen or twenty cents. This should be cut +into small cakes and put on a high shelf, where it will become dry and +hard and so it will be more lasting. With plenty of warm water, a few +good wash-rags and this pure soap you will have a beauty outfit that +will be more beneficial than all the rouges and eyebrow pencils that +were ever put into the windows of beauty shops. + +The bath should be daily. Now do not say that you have not the time, +for the sponge bath--which will make the blood tingle and the flesh +glow--can be got through with in almost no time. It is most imperative +that the secretions of the skin and the dust gathered during the day +should be removed. When the body is not kept scrupulously clean the +complexion is sure to suffer, for there the pores of the skin are most +susceptible, and eruptions and blackheads come from very slight causes. +When the hands become rough and tender, and will not stand soap, +prepare a little almond meal. This, too, is very inexpensive, for, +instead of the powdered almonds, you can use the pressed almond cake, +which is nearly as good and very cheap, and in place of the orris root +wheat flour can be used. Take three ounces of the first and seven of +the latter. If you can afford it, add a little powdered talcum. A cream +for the face and hands, and one which can be used with perfect safety, +is benzoinated mutton tallow. This is simply the best mutton tallow to +which benzoin has been added, and both ingredients kept at a steady +heat until the alcohol of the benzoin has been completely evaporated. + +About the hair: The greatest secret of luxuriant locks is absolute +cleanliness. There are many women who vainly fancy that they keep their +pretty locks perfectly clean, when they really do not at all. Only +plenty of running water can thoroughly rinse the soap or shampoo out. +If the hair is at all sticky, or if a slight oily substance adheres to +the comb, then the hair is not clean. (And let me say right here, combs +and brushes too must be kept as scrupulously clean as the hair itself.) +Castile soap makes the best shampoo in the world, especially when a +little piece is dissolved in warm water and a tiny bit of ammonia or +alcohol added, although for dry hair neither the alcohol nor ammonia is +at all necessary. If a tonic is needed, then use the sage tea, which, +however, must not be put on light, blond tresses. Common kerosene, if +one can endure the odor, is an unsurpassed remedy for falling hair. +Rubbing the scalp every night with the finger tips until the flesh +tingles and glows is a most inexpensive way of stimulating the +circulation, and frequently makes the hair grow long and nice and fine. + +What one eats plays such a leading part in the beauty-getting +efforts--but I have but little space left now to tell about that. +Summed up in a nutshell, it is this: Eat very little pastry, and shun +greasy foods or fat meats, like pork or bacon. Pin your faith to +vegetables and fruit. A luncheon of two apples is of greater +nourishment, and more, real value to good looks, than a repast of mince +pie and coffee--two unspeakable horrors to any one who regards health +and beauty as worth the having or the striving for. + +As for the dress, I could write a seven volume treatise on that. It +sounds prosy, I know, and very stupid, but let me tell you that it is +the wise girl who buys for comfort, utility and wear, instead of style +and elaborateness. A plain little fedora, if well brushed, makes a +trimmer, neater appearance than a cheap velvet hat ornamented with +feathers that have straightened out and flowers that have long since +lost their glory in the rains and storms of autumn time. It is the same +way with shoes and gloves. If one can possibly afford it, calfskin +boots and heavy gloves should always be purchased. They will not only +outwear two or three pairs of the lighter, less durable kind, but they +will give warmth and comfort and a well-groomed look as well. + + + + + THE NERVOUS ONE + + "The beautiful seems right by force of beauty; and the feeble + wrong because of weakness."--_Elizabeth Barrett Browning._ + + +Of all the unfortunates on the face of the globe there is none so +worthy of real all-wool pity and yard-wide sympathy as the woman of +nerves. Yes, and her family needs a dash of consolation, too. One +nervous woman can create more nervousness among other women than could +a cageful of mice or a colony of cows suddenly let loose. It is not for +herself that the fuss-budget should mend her ways, but for the great +good of humanity at large. + +We are all of us more or less nervous, and it is really interesting to +observe what strange outlets woman's natural nervousness chooses. + +"I'd walk from Hyde Park to the city hall at midnight and never be a +bit scared. But let me stay in the flat alone after dark and I'm in a +state of terror that would make you weep were you to behold me," +confesses nervous lady No. 1. + +"I have nerves of iron," pipes up nervous lady No. 2. "Except when +there is a thunderstorm. Then I wish I were as dead as Julius Cæsar." + +"Well!" drawls nervous lady No. 3. "I don't believe in ghosts at all, +but I'm scared to death of 'em. Sometimes I not only keep the gas +burning all night, but I sit up in bed so as to be right ready to run +away from 'em." + +Some people have contempt for the nervous ones. I have only pity. Any +one who has gone through the tortures of hearing imaginary burglars +three nights in the week for ten or twelve years on an endless stretch +needs consolation and then a good, straight talk on the beautiful +convenience of horse sense. Most women are always hearing burglars. +Probably one in a thousand turns out to be a real, live housebreaker. +Whenever the wise woman hears one fussing with the lock on the front +door or trying to squeeze into the pantry window, she just says: "Same +old burglar. He'll be gone in the morning," and he always is. That's a +heap better plan than arousing the household and suffering the +unmerciful torture that a family given to ridicule can inflict. + +I heard a woman say the other day that she never knew what it was to be +nervous until a certain ragman began to take pedestrian exercises up +and down the alley back of her house. He carries a canvas bag over his +shoulder, and he yells "Eny ol' racks" until that woman locks herself +in a closet and stuffs sofa cushions into her ears. His "Eny ol' racks" +has got on her nerves so that she is simply beside herself until that +man takes himself and his yell out of hearing distance. To be sure, he +yells through his nose, but why in the world that woman should make +herself miserable about something she can't possibly help is a +double-turreted mystery to me. The thing for her to do is to sit down +placidly on the back porch and make up her mind that the ragman is not +going to upset the tranquillity of her existence; that he hasn't any +right to interfere with her happiness, and that she isn't going to be +fool enough to let him. I'll wager a peseta against a gum drop that she +could do it, too, and without half an effort, if she would only once be +consistent and determined. + +There is no use in beating about the bush. I feel sorry for the nervous +woman at all times and every day in the week, but there's no chance of +a doubt that the nervous woman is mentally unbalanced for want of +courage and lack of will power. Some place, way back in the far corners +of her intellect, there are numerous little sore spots that need the +healing tonic of level-headedness and the bravery of belief in her own +strength. Those wise gentlemen of pellets and pills tell us that when +there is a defect in the structure of the nervous system, some certain +region of cells not well flushed with blood is usually at the bottom of +the infirmity. The cure, they say, is discipline and training, good +food, exercise and plenty of sleep and good fresh air. + +[Illustration: MRS. J. R. DE LAMAR] + +Sunlight is a glorious medicine for the woman of nerves. If I had a +nervous fuss-budget under my care, the first thing I would do would be +to feed her well. I'd give her nourishing broths and daintily-served +vegetables, and little steaks and chops and plenty of fattening cereals +and drinks. I would bundle her off to the parks every morning with +sealed orders not to come back until she was dead tired and as hungry +as a small girl at a boarding school. I would impress upon her mind the +great need of throwing worry to the winds and taking in good, long +breaths of God's blessed fresh air. Then, after feeding her some more, +I'd make her take a nice, refreshing sponge bath and tumble early into +bed. After several days of such treatment I'd corner her where she +couldn't get away and lay down the laws. + +"Now it's just with yourself," the lecture would begin with, "whether +you are to be a jolly-hearted, wholesome-looking woman or a tailor-made +gown with a bundle of nerves inside of it. No matter what comes, don't +make yourself wretched by fretting. Every one has troubles. You can't +escape them. Sometimes they come with a sweep-like tornadoes gone mad, +and you'll say to yourself: 'My heavens! I wonder if I'll live through +it all?' But you will, and between you and me, my dear, it's just as +well to come out of the battle with a smiling face as with eight +additional crow's feet and a new scolding lock of gray hair. Just say +to yourself: 'I will not grind my teeth because the man next to me in +the street car is chewing a toothpick. I am not responsible for his +lack of manners. I positively refuse to have fits because the woman in +the flat next to mine plays the flute eight hours a day. If it's +convenient I'll move; if it isn't I'll not make existence a daylight +nightmare.' + +"School yourself!" I will continue. "Get lots of starch in you and a +backbone that is a backbone! Don't fall down in a heap and mope over +things you can't help. The agreeable things in life are as rare as +sage-brush growing in Gotham, while the disagreeable is bobbing up +eternally. So brace up, my friend, and make the best of it. Discipline +yourself. Keep your mind fresh and bright, and your body strong and +healthy. If you have hard work to do then do it with the least possible +expenditure of worry and nerve-force. Be in the open air as much as you +can, and above everything else dwell not on the unhealthy state of your +nerves. Let self-mastery be your shibboleth and 'no nerves' your +prayer." + + + + + PERFUMES + + "Oh, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, + By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! + The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem, + For that sweet odor which doth in it live." + + --_Shakespeare._ + + +Women love delicate perfumes as they do silk stockings and violets. +It's just "born in 'em," like their deep-rooted horror of mice and +bills and burglars. From the time when the baby girl sniffs the +sweetness of the powder puff as it fluffs about her soft, pretty neck +until the white-haired lady lovingly fondles the lavender sachets that +lie between the folds of her time-yellowed wedding gown, she loves +sweet odors. + +The true gentlewoman never uses strong perfumes, yet her hats and +clothing and handkerchiefs always send forth a faint scent of fragrant +flowers. The odor is so very slight that it does not suggest the +dashing on of perfume, but, instead, bespeaks scrupulous cleanliness of +body and garments, with perhaps an added suggestion of the soft winds +that blow over a clover field. No perfume at all is far better than too +much, for who does not look with suspicious eyes upon the woman who, +when passing one on the street, seems to be in an invisible vapor of +white rose or jockey club--strong enough to work on the streets? + +There is a secret about it all, and such a simple one! It is merely +choosing one particular odor and using it in every possible way. There +is nothing sweeter than violet perfume, so suppose I illustrate with +that? Begin by using orris root for your teeth, combined, of course, +with the other necessary ingredients. Then, if you can afford it, get +the expensive imported violet soaps, although as a matter of +beautifying there is nothing better than the pure white castile. The +odor of this, disliked by some, can be entirely done away with by using +a little violet toilet water in the bath and touching the ear lobes +with it afterward. + +Then, between the folds of your gowns and in the crowns of your hats +lay little violet sachets, always removing them before the gown or hat +is worn, as the perfume must be faint and delicate. A few drops of +essence of violet will scent your face powder, if it is not already +perfumed, and bath bags of orris--and other good things--will add to +your galaxy of sweet odors. If you use creme marquise or any of the +other delightful cosmetics told about in our beauty book, add a little +essence of violets to them while they are being mixed. Putting it all +in a nutshell: Simply choose your favorite perfume and carry it out in +every detail. For those who are fond of violet I will give the +following recipes: + + + Creme de la Violettes: Place in a porcelain kettle one ounce each + of white wax and spermaceti, cut in fine shavings. When melted add + to this five ounces oil of sweet almonds and heat, but do not let + boil. Remove from fire and pour in quickly one and one-half ounces + of rose-water in which ten grains of borax has been dissolved. Beat + briskly. When beginning to thicken, add one-half teaspoonful + essence of violets. When nearly cold put in little jars. Use as + cold cream or any general face cosmetic. It is more effective when + applied at night, just after the face is bathed in warm water and + while the flesh is pink and moist. + + + Perfume--Violettes de Bois: + + Essence of violets, five ounces. + Essence of acacia, one ounce. + Essence of rose, one ounce. + Extract of iris root, one ounce. + Oil of bitter almonds, five drops. + + + Violet Lotion: + + Alcohol, four ounces. + Ammonia, one ounce. + Essence of violets, one dram. + + Add one teaspoonful of this to a bowl of water when bathing the + face, neck and arms. Hard water is the cause of many bad + complexions, and this will remedy that particular trouble of the + beauty-seeker. + + + Poudre de Vicomtesse: + + Talcum powder, seven and one-half ounces. + Finest starch, one and one-fourth ounces. + Powdered orris root, one and one-fourth ounces. + Oil of orris, ten drops. + + + Violet Bath Bags: + + Two pounds of finely ground oatmeal. + Three ounces of almond flour. + One cake of best white castile soap, shaved fine. + One-quarter pound powdered orris root. + + Take one yard of cheese cloth and make it into little bags about + four inches square and fill with the mixture. These will make a + soft white lather, and afterward the face, neck and arms should be + rinsed in water containing a few drops of benzoin. Larger bags can + be made for the regular bath. + + + For the Teeth: + + One-fourth pound of prepared chalk, finely powdered. + Three-fourths ounce pulverized castile soap. + One ounce powdered orris root. + One-half dram oil of sassafras. + One ounce pulverized sugar. + + + Violet Sachet: + + Black currant leaves, powdered, one-fourth pound. + Rose leaves, one-fourth pound. + Cassia buds, one-eighth pound. + Orris, ground, one-half pound. + Gum benzoin, one-eighth pound. + Grain musk, powdered, one-fourth dram. + Mix thoroughly and let stand for one week. + + + Violet Toilet Water: + + Essence of violet, one and three-fourth ounces. + Essence of rose, one-half ounce. + Essence of cassie, one-half ounce. + Alcohol, 14 ounces. + + + Essence de Fleur d'Oranges: + + One-half ounce pure neroli. + One pint alcohol. + One ounce essence of jonquille. + + + Violet Sachet Powder: + + Eight ounces of orris root. + Five drops oil of bergamot. + Three drops oil of bitter almonds. + Four drops oil of rose. + One fluid dram tincture of musk. + Mix thoroughly. + + + Lavender Sachet Powder: + + One pound powdered lavender. + One-quarter pound gum benzoin (powdered). + Six ounces oil of lavender. + Mix. + + + Heliotrope Sachet Powder: + + One-quarter pound rose leaves. + Two ounces tonquin, ground fine. + One-quarter pound pulverized orris root. + One ounce vanilla (powdered). + One-half grain musk. + Two drops oil of almonds. + Mix by fluffing through a sieve. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Woman Beautiful, by Helen Follett Stevans + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WOMAN BEAUTIFUL *** + +***** This file should be named 23750-8.txt or 23750-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/5/23750/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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