THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
GIFT OF
PROFESSOR GEORGE R. STEWART
i\r\
M
Yf
REPRINTED FROM "HARPER'S BAZAR."
THE
UGLY-GIRL PAPERS;
OR,
HINTS FOR THE TOILET.
NEW YORK: HARPER £ BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
HARTER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
TO
AUNT SUSAN,
THE DEAR AND HANDSOME OLD LADY WHO NEVER NEEDED ANY OF THESE RECIPES,
i
LET ME OFFER MY FIRST BOOK.
0. m. $).
PREFACE.
BY means of these scattered chapters the writer has come to know women better — their traditions, desires,. and delights. If through these pages women should know themselves and what they may become in regard and temper for their lovers, friends, children, and their own sakes, it will wrell reward the pleas- ant labor which has already met such kind appreciation. Begun by chance, to make an agreeable article or two for Harpers Bazar, the "Ugly -Girl Papers" were continued by request, and have brought the writer into friendly bearings with many of the readers of the Bazar. To their questions and hints these chapters owe more of their value than
PREFACE.
appears on the surface ; and the little book goes out hoping to meet, if not new friends, at least some old ones.
The science of the toilet is well -nigh as delicate as that of medicine ; and as no pre- scription has yet proved a specific for disease, no recipe can reach all cases of complexion. I could wish for this book 'the good-will and consideration of physicians, under whose ad- vice it may be hoped its suggestions will ap- prove themselves of wide service.
S.D.R
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Woman's Business to be Beautiful. — How to Acquire a Clear Complexion. — Regimen for Purity of the Blood. — Carbon- ate of Ammonia and Powdered Charcoal. — Stippled Skins. — Face Masks. — Oily Complexions. — Irritations of the Skin. — Lettuce as a Cosmetic. — Cooling Drinks. — Sun- Baths. — Bread and Molasses Page 9
CHAPTER II.
Care of the Hair. — Children's Hair. — When to Cut it. —^-Ammonia Washes. — Glycerine and Ammonia. — Po- mades.— How to Brush the Hair. — Cutting the Ends. — German Method of Treating the Hair. — Southernwood Pomade. — Hair -Dyes. — Dyeing the Eyebrows and Eye- lashes.— Superfluous Hair. — Depilatories. — Washes for the Eyelashes and Eyebrows 22
CHAPTER III.
Elegance of Manner. — Grace of the Latin Races. — The Secret of Grace. — Gliding Movement. — Calisthenics. — Erectness of Figure. — Shoulder Braces. — How to Acquire Sloping Shoulders. — Care of the Feet. — The Art of Walk- ing.— Picturesque Carriage of Southern Women 35
CHAPTER IV.
N. P. Willis as a Critic of Beauty. — The Perfume of the Presence. — Charm of Good Circulation. — Chills are In-
11 CONTENTS.
cipient Congestion. —Paper Clothing. —Luxuries of the Bath.— A Substitute for Sea -Baths. —To Secure Fra- grant Breath.— Delicate Dentifrices.— Fine Cologne.— A List of Fragrance Page 48
CHAPTER V.
Morals of Paint and Powder. — Antique Toilet Arts. — Washington Ladies.— Making Up the Face.— Whitening the Arms.— Tints of Kouge.— To Make French Rouge.— Milk of Roses. — Greuze Tints. — Coarse Complexions Caused by Powder.— Color for the Lips.— Crystal and Gold Hair Powder.— Dyeing Blonde Wigs.— To Darken the Hair.— Champagne and Black-Walnut Bark.— Doom of the Complexion Artist 51)
CHAPTER VI.
Recamier's Training. — Diana of Poitiers' Bath. — High Beauty of Maturity. — The Worth of Beauty. — George Fliot on Complexions. — Dr. Cazenave. — Barley Paste for the Face. — Prescriptions of the Roman Ladies. — To Re- move Pimples. — Cascarilla Wash. — Varnish for Wrinkles. — Acetic Acid for Comedones. — To Remove Mask. — Lady- Mary Montagu. — Habit of Italian Ladies. — Wash of Vitriol 70
CHAPTER VII.
Shining Pallor. — Lustrous Faces. — Golden Freckles. — Ti- ger-Lily Spots. — Sun Photographs. — Nitre Removes Freckles. — Old English Prescription. — For Yachting. — Almond-Oil. — Buttermilk as a Cosmetic. — Rosemarv and Glycerine. — Lotion for Prickly Heat. — For Musquitoes. — Protecting Hair from Pea Air. — Fashionable Gray Hair. — Dark Eyes and Silver Hair. — To Restore Dark Hair. — Bandoline. — Cold Cream. — Almond Pomade. — Frr Skin Diseases.— Sulphurous Acid 77
CONTENTS. ill
CHAPTER VIII.
Service of Beauty. — Not for Vanity, but Perfection. — Eye- brows of Petrarch's Laura. — Fashionable Baths. — Trim- ming the Eyelashes. — Luxury of the Toilet, — Its Magnet- ic Influence. — A Safe Stimulant. — Amateurs of the Toi- let.— Cosmetic Gloves. — To Refine the J^kin of the Shoul- ders and Arms. — Sulphate of Quinine for the Hair. — For the Eyebrows and Eyelashes. — A Harmless Dye. — To Re- move Sallowness. — A Hint for Stout People. — Perfumed Bathing-powder Page 8G
CHAPTER IX.
Hope for Homely People. — Two Vital Charms. — The Way to Live. — Sunrise and Open Air. — Bleached by the Dawn. — Live at Sunny Windows. — In Balconies and Parks. — Christiana's Breakfast. — Brown Steak and Good-humor. — True Bread. — Device for Stiff Shoulders. — Corsets and Girdles.— The Latter more Needed. — How to be Pleased with One's Self .' 95
CHAPTER X.
The Bonniest Kate in Christendom. — A Word to Mothers and Aunts. — Different Vanities. — The Sorrows of Ugly Women. — Recipes of an Ancient Beauty. — Sand Wash. —Color for the Nails. — Embrocation for the Hands.— Soap to Bleach the Arms. — Freckle Lotions. — Artistic Enthusiasm at the Toilet . 1 08
CHAPTER XL
A Dark Potion. — Olive-oil and Tar for the Face. — Olive- tar for Inhalation. — Carbolic Lotion for Pimples. — Cure for Musqnito Bites. — Pale Blondes. — A French Marquise. — Deepening Colors by Sunlight. — Seductive Cosmetics. — Nose-machine. — Finger Thimbles 117
lv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
Removal of Superfluous Hair.— Effects of High Living.— Work of Typhoid Fever.— Roman Tweezers.— Lola Mon- tez's Recipes.— Paste of Wood -ashes.— Bleaching Arms with Chloride. —Cautions about Depilatories. —Public Baths.— Improving Complexions by the Sulphur Va?>or- bath. — How Arabian Women Perfume Themselves.— Profuse Hair, Sign of Nature's Bounty Page 1 25
CHAPTER XIII.
Madame Celnart's Works of the Toilet. — Literature of Beauty. — Cares of the Toilet. —Arts of Coiffure and Lacing.— How to Hold a Needle Gracefully.— Iris Powder for Tresses. — Arts of Italian Women. — Depilatory used in Harems. — Spirit of Pyretic. — Herbs used by Greek Women.— Mexican Pomade.— Dusky Perfumed Marbles. —Lost Perfumes.— Sultanas' Lotion.— Brilliant Paste for Keck and Arms. — Baking Enamel 134.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Last of the Rose. —Weighing in the Balances. —To Love and to be Loved.— The Enigma of Love.— Its Power over the Lot of Men.— Inspiration in the Looks. —The Land of Spring.— The Duchess of Devonshire.— Women at and after Thirty. —Training of Emotion.— Warming the Voice.— Crow's-feet at the Opera.— Bohemian Arsenic Waters.— Recipe from Madame Vestris.— Milk of Roses. ' —Sweet-oils.— Opera-dancers' Prescription for Restoring Suppleness 146
CHAPTER XV.
The Fearful Malady of which no one Dies.— Esprit Odon- talgique. — Gray Pastilles. — Important to Smokers.— Mouth Perfumes.— Care of the Breath.— Directions for Bathing.— Perfumes for the Bath.— Bazin's Pate.— Qual-
CONTENTS. V
ity of Soaps. — Bathing and Anointing the Feet. — Nicety of Stockings. — Delicate Shoe Linings. — Feet of Pauline Bonaparte Page 1 f>5
CHAPTER XVI.
64 The Leaves are Full of Joy." — Nobility of the Body.—' Its Possibilities.— Brain and Heart Dependent on it. — Physical Culture Imperative in America. — Our Contempt of Health. — Easier to be Magnificent than Clean. — Dis- tilled Water for Every Use. — Substitute for Stills. — Vapor and Sulphur Baths. — Bran Baths. — Oatmeal for the Hands. — Frequency of Baths. — Remedies for Hepatic Spots 1 G5
CHAPTER XVII.
The Banting System. — A Quaint Author.— Trials of Corpu- lency,— :Result of Living on Sixpence a Day. — Indifference of Doctors. — A Wise Surgeon. — Relation of Glucose to Obesity. — Diet for Stout People. — No Starch, no Sugar. — Losing Flesh at the Rate of a Pound a Week. — " Human Beans." — Humors of Banting's Tract. — His Gratitude. — Honors to Dr. Harvey. — One Day with Dives, the Next with Lazarus. — Bromide of Ammonia 175
CHAPTER XVIII.
A Letter. — Trials of a Plain Woman. — The Best Husband in the World. — Burdock Wash for the Hair. — For Chil- dren's Hair. — Oil of Mace as a Stimulant. — To Restore Color to the Hair. — Sperm-oil a Powerful I lair Restorer. — The Cheapest Hair-Dye. — Cure for Chilblains. — Loose Shoes the Cause of Corns. — Pyroligneous Acid for Corns. — Turpentine and Carbolic Acid for Soft Corns 185
CHAPTER XIX.
A Talk about Complexions. — Delicate Lotion. — Cause of Rough Faces. — Sun Painting and Bleaching. — Court
VI CONTENTS.
Ladies Refusing to Wash their Faces. — Experiments with Olive-tar. — Consumption and Clear Faces. — Rev. W. H. H. Murray on Olive-tar. — Porcelain Women. — Drawing Humors to the Surface. — What is to be Done for the Weak Women ? Page \ 92
CHAPTER XX.
Sulphur Baths. — Bleaching Old Faces. — Experiments in Bathing. — Cautions. — Need of Public Baths. — Their Proper Prices. — Method of Giving Sulphur Vapor-baths. — Hot Baths for Hot Weather.— Russian Baths at Home. — Improvements Needed in Public Baths. — What they Should be. — What they Are. — The Russian Vapor- bath. — After -Sensations. — Brightness and Lightness of Health. — Reverence for the Physical. — Influence of Bathing on the Nerves and Passions. — Necessity of Public Baths. ." 1(J8
CHAPTER XXI.
xJovices of Uneasy- Age. — Bread Paste and Court-plaster to Conceal Wrinkles. — Accepting the Situation. — Plain Women and Agreeable Toilets. — Examples. — The Rec- tor's Daughter. — Dressing on .Two Hundred a Year.— Ecru Linen and White Nansook. — A Senator's Wife. — A Washington Success. — Dull, Thin Faces. — Hay-colored Hair. — Advantages of Lining Rooms with Mirrors. . . 212
CHAPTER XXII.
Physical Education of Girls. — A Woman's Value in the World. — High-bred Figures. — Antique Races. — Inspira- tion of Art not Vanity. — The Trying Age. — Dress, Food, and Bathing for Young Girls. — A Veto on Close Study. — Braces and Backboards. — Never Talk of Girls' Feelings. — Exercise for the Arms. — Singing Scales with Corsets off. — Development of the Bust. — Open-work Cor- sets the Best. — The Bayaderes of India and their Forms.
CONTENTS. Vll
— The Delicacy due Young Girls.— A Frank but Needeu Caution. — Care of the Figure after Nursing Page 224
CHAPTER XXIII.
Hands and Complexions. — Preparing fur Parties. — Kenning Hough Faces. — Carbolic Baths. — Chalk and Cascarilla. — Glycerine Wash. — School-girls' Flushed Hands and Faces. — To Soften the Hands. — Red Noses. — Secrets cf Making-up. — Cologne for the Eyes. — Cosmetic Gloves. — To Impart a Brilliant Complexion 238
CHAPTER XXIV.
Women's Looks and Nerves. — A Low-toned Generation. — Children and their Ways. — Brief Madness.— Women in the Woods. — Singing. — Work well done the Easiest. — Sleep the Remedy for Temper. — Hours for Sleep. — The Great Medicines — Sunshine, Music, Work, and Sleep, 24:7
CHAPTER XXV.
Changing Wigs and Chignons. — Matching Braids. — Friz- zing the Hair. — Crimping-pins. — Blonde Hair-pins. — WThat Colors Hair. — Bleaching Tresses. — Sulphur Paste. — Foxy Locks. — Freshening Switches 257
CHAPTER XXVI.
Hair and Complexion. — Black Dyes. — Persian Blue-Black. — Peroxide of Hydrogen. — Chloride of Gold. — Transient Dyes ". . . . 1 2G7
THE UGLY-GIRL PAPERS.
CHAPTER I.
Woman's Business to be Beautiful. — How to Acquire a Clear Complexion. — Regimen for Purity of the Blood. —Carbon- ate of Ammonia and Powdered Charcoal. — Stippled Skins. — Face Masks. — Oily Complexions. — Irritations of the Skin. — Lettuce as a Cosmetic. — Cooling Drinks. — Sun Baths. — Bread and Molasses.
THE first requisite in a woman toward pleas- ing others is that she should be pleased with herself. In no other way can she attain that self-poise, that satisfaction, which leaves her at liberty to devote herself successfully to others.
I appeal to the ugly sisterhood to know if this is not so. Could a woman be made to believe herself beautiful, it would go far to-
10
THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
ward making her so. Those hopeless, shrink- ing souls, alive with devotion and imagination, with hearts as fit to make passionate and wor- shiped lovers, or steadfast and inspiring hero- ines, as the fairest Venus of the sex, need not for an instant believe there is no alleviation for their ease, no chance of making face and figure more attractive and truer exponents of the spirit within.
There is scarcely any thing in the history of women more touching than the homage paid to beauty by those who have it not. No slave among her throng of adorers appreciated more keenly the beauty of Eecamier than the skeleton-like, irritable Madame De Chateau- briand. The loveliness of a rival eats into a girl's heart like corrosion ; every fair curling hair, every grace of outline, is traced in lines of fire on the mind of the plainer one, and re- produced with microscopic fidelity. It is a woman's business to be beautiful. She rec- ommends every virtue and heroism by the grace which sets them forth. Women of gen
11
ius are the first to lay the crown of wom- anhood on the head of the most beautiful. Mere fashion of face and form are not meant by beauty, but that symmetry and brightness which come of physical and spirit- ual refinement. Such are the heroines of Scott, Disraeli, and Bulwer, as inspiring as they are rare. Toward such ideals all women yearn.
Who will say that this most natural feeling of the feminine heart may not have some ful- fillment in the first thirty years of life ? This limit is given because the latest authorities in social science assert that woman's prime of youth is twenty -six, moving the barriers a good ten years ahead from the old standard of the novelist, whose heroines are always in the dew of sixteen. In the very first place, one may boldly say that beauty, or rather fas- cination, is not a matter of youth, and no woman ought to sigh over her years till she feels the frost creeping into her heart. Men
of the world understand well that a woman's
2
12 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
wit is finest, and her heart yields the richest wealth, when experience has formed the fair and colorless material of youth. A sweet girl of seventeen and a high-bred beauty of thirty, if well preserved, may dispute the palm. I do not mean to decry rose-buds and dew. One hardly knows which to love them for most — their loveliness or their briefness. But women who look their thirties in the face should not lay down the sceptre of life, or fancy that its delights for them are over. They are young while they seem young.
Then we may boldly set about renovating the outward form, sure that Nature will re- spond to our efforts. The essence of beauty is health ; but all apparently healthy people are not fair. The type of the system must be considered in treatment. The brunette is usu- ally built up of much iron, and the bilious ^cretion is sluggish. The blonde is apt to be dyspeptic, and subject to disturbances of the blood. From these causes result freckles, pimples, and that coarse, indented skin
LIMIT OF APPETITE. 13
pled with punctures, like the tissue of pig- skin — a fault of many otherwise clear complex- ions.
The fairest skins belong to people in the earliest stage of consumption, or those of a scrofulous nature. This miraculous clearness and brilliance is due to the constant purgation which wastes the consumptive, or to the issue which relieves the system of impurities by one outlet. We must secure purity of the blood by less exhaustive methods. The diet should be regulated according to the habit of the person. If stout, she should eat as little as will satisfy her appetite ; never allowing her- self, however, to rise from the table hungry. A few days' resolute denial will show how much really is needed to keep up the strength. When recovering from severe nervous prostra- tion, years ago, the writer found her appetite gone. The least morsel satisfied hunger, and more produced a repugnance she never tried
to overcome. She resumed study six hours a
•
day and walked two miles every day from the
14 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
suburbs to the centre of the city, and back again. Breakfast usually was a small saucer of strawberries and one Graham cracker, and was not infrequently dispensed with altogether. Lunch was half an orange — for the burden of eating the other half was not to be thought of; and at six o'clock a handful of cherries formed a plentiful dinner. Once a week she did crave something like beef -steak or soup, and took it. But, guiding herself wholly by appetite, she found with surprise that her strength remained steady, her nerves grew calm, and her ability to study was never bet- ter. This is no rule for any one, farther than to say persons of well - developed physique need not fear any limitation of diet for a time which does not tell on the strength and is approved by appetite. Never eat too much ; never go hungry.
For weak digestion nothing is so relished or strengthens so much as the rich beef tea, or rather gravy, prepared from the beef-jelly sold by first-rate grocers. Tins is very different
DIFFERENCE IN DIET. 15
from the extracts of beef made by chemists. The condensed beef prepared by the same companies which send out the condensed milk is preferable, in all respects, as to taste and nourishment. A table - spoonful of this jelly, dissolved by pouring a cup of boiling water on it, and drank when cool, will give as much strength as three fourths of ^i pound of beef-steak broiled. For singers and students, who need a light but strengthening diet, noth- ing is so admirable.
Nervous people, and sanguine ones, should adopt a diet of eggs, fish, soups, and salads, with fruit. This cools the blood, and leaves the strength to supply the nerves instead of taxing them to digest heavy preparations. Lymphatic people should especially prefer such lively salads as cress, pepper-grass, horse- radish, and mustard. These are nature's cor- rectives, and should appear on the table from March to November, to be eaten not merely as relishes, but as stimulating and beneficial food. They stir the blood, and clear the eye
16 THE UGLY-GIEL PAPERS.
and brain from the humors of spring. Nerv- ous people should be more sparing of these fiery delights, and eat abundantly of golden lettuce, which contains opium in its most deli- cate and least injurious state. The question of fat meat does not seem satisfactorily set- tled. I should compound by using rich soups which contain the essence of meats, and sup- ply carbon by salad oil and a free use of nuts or cream. Plump, fair people may let oily matters of all kinds carefully alone. Thin ones should eat vegetables — if they can find a cook who knows how to make them palatable. It is strange that in this country, which pro- duces the finest vegetables, fit for the envy of foreign cooks, not one out of a hundred knows how to prepare them properly. People who are anxious to be rid of flesh should choose acids, lemons, limes, and tamarinds, eat spar- ingly of dry meats, with crackers instead of bread, and follow strictly the advice now given.
To clear the complexion or reduce the size,
TONICS INEFFECTUAL. 17
the blood must be carefully cleansed. Two simple chemicals should appear on every toi- let-table— the carbonate of ammonia and pow- dered charcoal. No cosmetic has more fre- quent nses than these. The ammonia must be kept in glass, with a glass stopper, from the air. French charcoal is preferred by phy- sicians, as it is more finely ground, and a large bottle of it should be kept on hand. In cases of debility and all wasting disorders it is val- uable. To clear the complexion, take a tea- spoonful of charcoal well mixed in water or honey for three nights, then use a simple pur- gative to remove it from the system. It acts like calomel, with no bad effects, purifying the blood more effectually than any thing else. But some simple aperient must not be omit- ted, or the charcoal will remain in the system, a mass of festering poison, wTith all the impuri- ties it absorbs. After this course of purifica- tion, tonics may be used. Many people seem not to know that protoxide of iron, medicated wine, and "bracing" medicines are useless
18
THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
when the impurities remain in the blood. The use of charcoal is daily better understood by our best physicians, and it is powerful, and simple enough to be handled by every house- hold. The purifying process, unless the health is unusually good, must be repeated every three months. We* absorb in bad food and air more unprofitable matter than nature can throw off in that time. If diet and atmos- phere were perfect, no such aid would be needed; but it is the choice between a verv great and a small evil in existing conditions. A free use of tomatoes and figs is, by the way, recommended, to maintain a healthy condition of the stomach, and the seeds of either should not be discarded.
The most troublesome task is to refine a stippled skin whose oil-glands are large and coarse. There may not be a pimple or freckle on the face, and the temples may be smooth, but the nose and cheeks look like a pin-cush- ion from which the pins have just been drawn. Patience and many applications are
LETTUCE FOR THE FACE. 19
necessary ^ for one must, in fact, renew the skin.
The worst face may be softened by wearing a mask of quilted cotton wet in cold water at night. Roman ladies used poultices of bread and asses' milk for the same purpose ; but water, and especially distilled water, is all that is needful. A small dose of taraxacum every other night will assist in refining the skin. But it will be at least a six weeks' work to effect the desired change ; and it will be a zealous girl who submits to the discom- fort of the mask for that length of time. The result pays. The compress acts like a mild but imperceptible blister, and leaves a new skin, soft as an infant's. Bathing oily skins with camphor dries the oil somewhat, when the camphor would parch nice complexions. The opium found in the stalks of flowering lettuce refines the skin singularly, and may be used clear, instead of the soap which sells so high. Rub the milky juice collected from broken stems of coarse garden lettuce over the face
20 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
at night, and wash with a solution of ammonia in the morning.
Blondes who are unbeautiful are apt to have divers irritations of the skin, which their darker neighbors do not know. People of this type also have a tendency to acid stom- achs, the antidote for which is a dose of am- monia, say one quarter of a spoonful in half a glass of water, taken every night and morning. This also prevents decay of the teeth and sweetens the breath, and is less injurious than the soda and magnesia many ladies use for acid stomachs. In summer the system should be kept cool by bathing at night and morning, and by tart drinks containing cream of tartar. Small quantities of nitre, prescribed by the physician, may be taken by very sanguine per- sons who suffer with heat ; but pale complex- ions should seek the sun when its power is not too great, and be careful, of all things, to avoid a chill. This deadens the skin, paints blue cir- cles round the eyes, and leaves the hands an uncertain color.
MAGNOLIA COMPLEXIONS. 21
These precautions may seem burdensome, but they all have been practiced by those who prize beauty. Nothing is so attractive, so sug- gestive of purity of mind and excellence of body, as a clear, fine-grained skin. Strong color is not desirable. Tints, rather than col- ors, best please the refined eye in the com- plexion. Some mothers are so anxious to se- cure this grace for their daughters that they are kept on the strictest diet from childhood. The most dazzling Parian could not be more beautiful than the cheek of a child I once saw who was kept on oat-meal porridge for this effect. At a boarding-school, I remember, a fashionable mother gave strict injunctions that her daughter should touch nothing but brown bread and syrup. This wras hard fare ; but the carmine lips and magnolia brow of the young lady were the envy of her school- mates, who, however, were not courageous enough to attempt such a regime for them- selves.
THIS UGLY -GIRL PAPERS,
CHAPTER II.
Care of the Hair. — Children's Hair. —When to Cut ifc — Ammonia Washes. — Glycerine and Ammonia. — Po- mades. — How to Brush the Hair. — Cutting the Ends. — German Method of Treating the Hair. — Southernwood Pomade.— Hair-Dyes.— Dyeing the Eyebrows and Eye- lashes. — Superfluous Hair. — Depilatories. — Washes for the Eyelashes and Eyebrows.
ST. PAUL approved himself no less a con- noisseur of female beauty than a censor of de- corum when he wrote, " If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her." This is in no wise inconsistent with the other apostolic passage which discourages ornate hair - dressing, for abundant shining hair needs less care to ar- range than a scanty crop that must be dis- posed to the best advantage. The woman whose magnificent chevelure reaches to her waist, thick as one's wrist when tightly bound, needs no braid nor cataract, finger-puff nor
WOMEN'S DOWRY OF IIAIK. 23
snow-curl, nor band of gold or amber to crown herself. Every girl ought to have such hair. Mothers should remember that such gifts of nature form a dowry which has no little weight in the incidents of a woman's life, and should cultivate assiduously the locks of their daughters. It is not best to keep them closely cut: after five years they should never be touched by scissors, save to clip the ends once a month, as hereafter explained, but should be smoothly braided in long Marguerite plaits, the most convenient style, unless the mother is ambitious of seeing her pet's hair in curls. Hardly any locks will resist good discipline, if taken in the downy stage of infancy and submitted to papillotes. It is a mistaken no- tion that a luxuriant growth of hair in child- hood weakens the head. Nature is not in the habit of providing superfluities. The Breton women are noted for their magnificent hair, which is allowed to grow from childhood. The barbarity of the fine comb should be abolished in civilized nurseries, and a daily or
24:
THE UG-LY-GIRL PAPERS.
semi-weekly wash with ammonia or soap sub- stituted, with a thorough brushing afterward. A child's head is too tender for any rasping; process; even knotted snarls should be cut rather than pulled out. Send tow-headed chil- dren into the snn as much as possible, that its rays may affect every particle of the iron in the blood, and change the flaxen colors to more agreeable shades.
When the hair has been neglected, cut it to an even length, and wash the scalp nightly with soft water into which ammonia has been poured. This may be as strong as possible at first, so that it does not burn the skin. Afterward the proportions may be three large spoonfuls of ammonia to a basin of water. Apply with a brush, stirring the hair well while the head is partially immersed. Do this at night, so that it may have a chance to dry, for nothing is so disagreeable as hair put up wet and turned musty. Wring and wipe it thorough- ly, then comb and shake out the tresses in a draft of air till nearly dry, when it may be
STIMULUS FOE THE 1IAIK. 25
done up in a cotton net. Night-caps heat the head and injure hair. Ammonia is the most healthful and efficient stimulus known for the hair, and quickens its growth when nothing else will do so. A healthy system will supply oil enough for the hair if the head is kept clean. If the scalp is unnaturally dry, a mixt- ure of half an ounce of carbonate of am- monia in a pint of sweet-oil makes the most esteemed hair invigorator. Glycerine and am- monia make a delicate dressing for the hair, and will not soil the nicest bonnet. Pomades of all kinds are voted vulgar, and justly. The only excuse for their use is just before enter- ing a sea bath, when a thorough oiling of the hair prevents injury from salt water. It should be speedily washed off with a dilution of ammonia.
When a growth of young hair is established, it ought to lengthen at least eight inches a year in a vigorous subject. Hair is an index of vitality. The women of the tropics, with their abounding health, have luxuriant cheve-
26 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
lures. Among Spanish and South American women hair a yard long, in a coil as thick as the wrist, is the rule, and not the exception. The warmth of those latitudes favors the se- cretions, and stimulates every organ to its full- est development. To obtain like results, we must try to obtain the same conditions of lux- uriant health. A good circulation is essential to fineness and pleasing color of the hair. The scalp must be stimulated by frequent brushing, as well as by the ammonia bath. A lady of fashion decreed one hundred strokes of the brush to be given her celebrated locks daily, and those who have tried the experi- ment find that it is not at all too much. Giv- en quickly, this number occupies three min- utes in bestowing, and surely this is little enough time to give a fine head of hair. Once a month the ends of the hair should be cut, to remove the forked ends, which stop its growth. The patrons of a certain New York school of high repute will remember the young daugh- ter of an Albany gentleman, whose wonderful
VEILED IN A FLOOD OF HAIR. 27
hair was the pride of the establishment. The child was about ten years old, and her heavy tresses reached literally to the floor. She was not unfrequently shown to visitors as a phe- nomenon, veiled in this flood of hair. On in- quiry, it was found that no peculiar treatment was given it beyond cutting the ends regular- ly every month for years.
An old authority gives the following as the German method of treating the hair. The women of that country are known to have re- markably luxuriant locks : Once in two weeks wash the head with a quart of soft water in which a handful of bran has been boiled and a little white soap dissolved. Next rub the yolk of an egg slightly beaten into the roots of the hair; let it remain a few minutes, and wash it off thoroughly with pure water, rinsing the head well. Wipe and rub the hair dry with a towel, and comb it up from the head, parting it with the lingers. In winter do all this near the flre. Have ready some soft po- matum of beef marrow, boiled with a little
28 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
almond or olive oil, flavored with mild per- fume. Eub a small quantity of this on the skin of the head after it has been washed as above. This may be efficient, but in this age women prefer the cleanlier method of stimu- lating the hair without pomade.
If any ladies are as fond of stirring up cos- metics and washes as were the wife and daugh- ters of the Vicar of Waketield, they may try these highly recommended recipes :
The following is said to be an excellent curl- ing fluid : Put two pounds of common soap cut small into three pints of spirits of wine, and melt together, stirring with a clean piece of wood ; add essence of ambergris, citron, and neroli, about a quarter of an ounce of each.
Eowland's Macassar Oil for the hair : Take a quarter of an ounce of the clippings of alka- net root, tie this in a bit of coarse muslin, and suspend it in a jar containing eight ounces of sweet-oil for a week, covering from the dust, Add to this sixty drops of the tincture of can- tharides, ten drops of oil of rose, neroli and
INNOXIOUS HAIR-DYES. 29
lemon each sixty drops. Let these stand three weeks closely corked, and you will have one of the most powerful stimulants for the growth of the hair ever known.
Take a pound and a half of southernwood and boil it, slightly bruised, in a quart of old olive-oil, with half a pint of port-wine or spir- it. When thoroughly boiled, strain the oil carefully through a linen cloth. Repeat the operation three times with fresh southernwood, and add two ounces of bear's grease or fresh lard. Apply twice a week to the hair, and brush it in well.
Where a hair-dye is deemed essential, the deplorable want may be met by this recipe, which lias the merit of being less harmful than most of the nostrums in use : Boil equal parts of vinegar, lemon-juice, and powdered litharge for half an hour, over a slow fire, in a porcelain-lined vessel. Wet the hair with this decoction, and in a short time it will turn black.
Lola Montez gives a hair-dye which is said
30 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
to be instantaneous, and as harmless as any mineral dye used. It is made from gallic acid, ten grains; acetic acid, one ounce; tinc- ture of sesquichloride of iron, one ounce. Dis- solve tlie gallic acid in the sesquichloride, and add the acetic acid. Wash the hair with soap and water, and apply the dye by dipping a fine comb in it and drawing through the hair so as to color the roots thoroughly. Let it dry ; oil and brush.
White lashes and eyebrows are so disagree- ably suggestive that one can not blame their possessor for disguising them by a harmless device. A decoction of walnut-juice should be made in the season, and kept in a bottle for use the year round. It is to be applied with a small hair pencil to the brows and lashes, turnin^ them to a rich brown, which harmon-
e5
izes with fair hair. It may be applied to the edo-e of the hair about the face and neck, when
o
that is paler than the rest. Let me repeat that the best remedy for ill-used tresses is strict care ; glossy, vitalized tresses, kept in or-
HOW TO WEAR RED HAIR. 31
der by constant brushing, assume by degrees a better color. It is a mistake to soak red hair with oil in the hope of making it darker; it should be kept wavy and light as possible, to show off the rich lights and shadows with which it abounds. The sun has a good effect on obnoxious shades, of hair if it is otherwise well attended to, and red or white locks should be worn in floating masses, waved by fine plait- ing at night, or by crimping-pins, which do not injure hair unless worn too tight. Pale hair shows a want of iron in the system, and this is to be supplied by a free use of beef-steaks, soups, pure beef gravies, and red wines. Salt- water bathing strengthens the system, and acts favorably on the hair. As to color, hardly any shade is unlovely when luxuriant and in a live- ly condition. It is only when diseased or un- cared for that any color appears disagreeable. Sandy hair, when well brushed and kept glossy with the natural oil of the scalp, changes to a warm golden tinge. I have seen a most ob- noxious head of this color so changed by a
32 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
few years' care that it became the admiration of the owner's friends, and could hardly be recognized as the withered, fiery locks once worn.
Superfluous hair is as troublesome to those who have it as baldness is to others. There is no way to remove it but by dilute acids or caustics, patiently applied time after time, as the hair makes its appearance. The mildest depilatories known are parsley water, acacia- juice, and the gum of ivy. It is said that nut- oil will prevent the hair from growing. The juice of the milk-thistle, mixed with oil, ac- cording to medical authority, prevents the hair from growing too low on the forehead, or straggling on the nape of the neck. As Wil- lis says, Nature often slights this part of her masterpiece. Muriatic acid, very slightly re- duced, applied with a sable pencil, will destroy the hair; and, to prevent its growing, the part may be often bathed with strong camphor or clear ammonia. The latter will serve as a de- pilatory, but causes great pain, and must be
DEPILATORIES. 33
quickly washed off. The depilatories sold in the shops are strong caustics, and leave the skin very hard and unpleasant. Bathe the upper lip, or other feature afflicted with su- perfluous hair, with ammonia or camphor, as strong as can be borne, and the hair will die out in a few weeks. Moles, with long hairs in them, should be touched with lunar caustic repeatedly. A large, dark mole on a lady's neck was reduced to an unnoticeable white spot, but the nitrate of silver caused a sore for a week in place of the mole. Care should be taken to brush the back hair upward from childhood, to prevent the disfiguring growth of weak, loose hairs on the neck. Fine clean wood-ashes, mixed writh a little water to form a paste, makes a tolerable depilatory for weak hair, without any pain. Strong pearlash washes also kill out poor hair.
A clever scientific man suggested that the growth of hair might be hastened by frequent- ly applying electric currents to it, or bathing it in electrical water. Similar experiments
34: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
have been made on vital tissues with remark- able success. But this theory must be left for further development.
The eyelashes may be improved by delicate- ly cutting off their forked and gossamer points, and anointing with a salve of two drachms of ointment of nitric oxide of mercury and one drachm of lard. Mix the lard and ointment well, and anoint the edges of the eyelids night and morning, washing after each time with warm milk and water. This, it is said, will restore the lashes when lost by disease. The effect of black lashes is to deepen the color of gray eyes. They may be darkened for theat- ricals by taking the black of frankincense, resin, and mastic burned together. This will not come off with perspiration.
EDUCATION IN MANNERS. 35
CHAPTER III.
Elegance of Manner. — Grace of the Latin Races. — The Secret of Grace. — Gliding Movement. — Calisthenics. — Erectness of Figure. — Shoulder Braces. — How to ac- quire Sloping Shoulders. — Care of the Feet. — The Art of Walking. — Picturesque Carriage of Southern Women.
WAS it not Madame de Genlis who de- scribed the education in manners under the old regime of France? In her memoirs she speaks of hating Paris, when she came from the provinces, for the ordeal she underwent there to fit her for polite society. She was taught, what she fancied she knew already, how to walk, and was placed in the stocks two or three hours a day to teach her the right po- sition of her feet in standing. A corset and back-board were provided to form an erect habit. Whether in her day or later ones, the elegancies of manner are not cultivated with- out sincere pains. Nature, indeed, creates
36 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
some models of such refined proportions and such informing spirit that they fall at once into the curves of grace ; but these are meant for models, and happily nothing forbids those of lesser merit to attempt the same lesson. Are not some born masters of the piano, full-flown at once over the first difficulties of music? But does this hinder any pupil from six hours' daily drill, if need be, to grasp the same diffi- culties ? The one end is to be attained, wheth- er instantly or not; and in some cases the most laborious is by all means the most de- lightful player. Courage, then. The same thing is true of other efforts than those of the key-board ; and it is quite as certain that the woman who trains herself to be graceful will be so, as that the clumsy young pedant at the scales will, in time, rush victoriously through the "Shower of Pearls," the "Cascade of Roses," or any other drawing-room favorite of gelatinized octaves.
For the first comfort, it must be owned that American women have the least natural grace
SPANISH GIRL IN THE SENATE. 37
of any nation in the world. English women are usually well trained in a sort of martinet propriety of attitude which suits their solid contours ; but neither Anglo-Saxon race knows an approach to those lengthened curves, those bends of every slender joint and supple mus- cle, which fill the eye in looking at a woman of Latin race. I watched a Spanish-American girl in the gallery of the United States Sen- ate one night, in order to seize, if possible, her charm of gesture. She was rounded, yet fine in figure, and seemed to be, as I can best phrase it, all muscle. No one could think of her bones as having any more stiffness than the pliant sprays of an elm. She leaned on the railing of the balcony, not straight forward as even the elegant and delicate diplomatic English ladies did, but lengthwise, as if reclin- ing; and the bend of her supple wrist, with the black and gold fan, was simply inimitable to an American woman. Those in transferable curves bewitched the eye even to pain ; but something was gained in that five minutes'
38 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
study which I reduce to two points: Side- way movements and attitudes please more than those either forward or backward. The secret of grace is to teach every joint of the body to bend all that it can.
Take the last point first, and you have all that you need to teach the finest grace. To the dumb-bells, to the calisthenic exercises and work as if you were qualifying yourself to be a contortionist at a circus. Vitalize every fibre, as the hot-blooded Southerner is vitalized, and the body will play into grace of itself.
The first thing is the hardest — to stand straight. Most people are satisfied indeed to attain this point of physical and polite culture, and never get beyond it. Erect stiffness is better than crookedness. To be admirable, the figure must be perfectly flat in the shoulders. ISTo projecting shoulder-blades, no curves are al- lowed here, however pleasing they may be else- where. A stout figure can hardly be unre- fined if it is flat behind. A pair of inelastic shoulder-braces must be called into requisi-
INELASTIC SHOULDER-BRACES. 39
tion ; and these should be made of coutille, or satin jean, two inches wide, and corded at the edge. Make them barely long enough to reach the belt of the skirts worn, and button on them. Set the shoulders perfectly flat against the wall, and find the distance between their blades; fasten a broad strap the same length — not more than two inches, very likely — by sewing it to the straps behind even with the lower edge of the scapula. This is the best, as well as the cheapest shoulder-brace to be found. If well proportioned, and all the meas- ure taken scant, it can not fail to draw the shoulders into place. Excellent teachers of physical training say that the will alone should be used to force one's self to stand straight. This is true of a person in perfect health. But round -shoulders often result from weak- ness or sedentary pursuits, against whose in- fluence it is useless to struggle ; and I would not debar any half-invalid from the luxury of the support given by a strict pair of braces. They relieve the heart and lungs by throwing
40 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
the weight of the chest on the back, where it belongs, instead of crowding it down on the breast. To correct the ugly rise of the shoul- ders which always accompanies curvature, and sometimes exists without it, weights must be used. Nothing is more nnfeminine than the straight line of shoulder, which properly be- longs to a cuirassier or an athlete. Some mothers make their young folks walk the floor with a pail of water in each hand, to give their shoulders a graceful droop. A substitute may be worn in one's room while at work, in the shape of an outside brace of triple gray linen, having two extra straps buckling round the tip of each shoulder, one long end reaching the belt, with a wedge-shaped lead or iron weight hooked on it. This is heroic practice, but ef- fectual ; and its pains are amply compensated by lines of figure which are the surest expo- nents of high breeding.
The position of the feet is not to be neg- lected in the lesson of standing. The toes should be widely turned out, to balance well ;
DISFIGUREMENTS. 41
and if the foot is inclined to turn in, this may be remedied by having the boot heels made higher on the inside. This will throw th* foot into a position to develop the arched in' step. A crooked leg is a matter for surgical treatment; and in these days of curative in- genuity, with steel braces it will be but the work of a few months to bring the most awk- ward limb into shape. Those who have seen the wonders wrought with deformed children who have crooked limbs and bodies will con- sider it a simple matter to bring a partial dis- figuration under control. As to the size of the feet, sensible people will never be persuaded that any degree of pressure which can be borne without suffering is injurious. Nature knows how to protect herself. A clever old shoe-dealer gave as his experience that people wrho always wear tight shoes never have corns. It is the alternation of tight and loose shoes that gives rise to these torments.
The great-toe joint ought not to project be- yond the line of the foot. I know a zealous
42 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
young girl who regularly screwed her bare foot up in a linen bandage before going to bed, to keep it in shape. For painful swelling of the feet in warm weather, no remedy is as effectual as an ice-cold foot-bath for live min- utes in the evening or when they are most troublesome. This, however, must never be taken without first wetting the head plenti- fully with ice-water, and keeping a cold band- age on it all the while. It is good to soak the feet for fifteen minutes in warm water at least twice a week. This keeps them elastic, and in delicate, pliant condition.
An elegant carriage is the patent of nat- ure's nobility, and appears of itself when the body is held into proper attitudes, and made properly elastic by exercise. The great cause of all stiffness is want of exertion — a general rustiness of all the limbs. To the slender child of the South the climate supplies a de- gree of relaxation and suppleness which dis- penses with the need of action. The womei. of South American colonies seldom walk for
GKACE OF CAERIAGE. 43
exercise, yet their movements are full of grace. The stimulus of thorough circulation, so potent and softening, can only be gained in our colder latitude by exertion. A lazy woman may be picturesque in a room or in a carriage, but never on foot. Americans have one-sided ideas of grace in walking. A wom- an as straight as a dart, who moves without any perceptible movement of the hips or limbs, is considered an excellent walker. But this unvarying rectitude is far from the poetry of motion. Watch the slight lialancement of a graceful French woman, and you will see an ease, a spontaneity, and variety of motion which set the former by comparison in the light of a bodkin out for a " constitutional." A fine walk is an affair of proper balance.
A clever friend, who has spent more time in the study of women's ways and manners in different countries than one can think profitable, lias some unique views on the sub- ject of their walking. He says the haugh- ty wTornen of Old Spain carry their weight
44 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
mainly on the hips, which gives an inde- scribable stiffness of demeanor. Americans do the same, throwing the weight a little more on the thigh, without bending the knee. French women cany the weight on the calf of the leg, and the knee bends very much at each step, while the body is carried with the least ~balancement of the shoulders, and the head, so far from being held like a cockade, or the head of tongs, is easy. La tete degagee, les epaides tomlante is the rule for a good style. Try the difference of contracting the muscles in the calf of the leg in walking, with the knee bent sensibly at each step. The body involuntarily throws itself back, and a lightness of motion is the result, which is im- possible with the usual swing of the leg from the hips in the stiff walk of Saxon women. The same authority says that the far-famed serpentine glide of the Creole, which travelers admire and vainly try to describe, comes from a peculiar movement of the hips. The weight of the figure is thrown on the loins, and half
UNDULATING WALK. 45
of the body moves alternately at each step, not in a wriggle, as it is caricatured at the North, out with a soft turn of the shoulders corre- sponding, and a smoothness which betrays the sensuous temperament and luxurious physique. Such is the walk of the women of Venezuela, Bogota, and La Plata. Such a gait, however, would hardly be accepted in the Champs Ely- Bees as suggestive of high refinement. The women of Alabama and Georgia have traits enough of this walk to make them among the most graceful in the world, as far as carriage goes. The Creoles of the Gulf have this sinuous glide, betraying a flexibility of limb which we can scarcely imagine. To gain this pliancy, twisting movements of gymnastics are espe- cially suitable. Gyrations of each limb, the head and body, produce, in a few weeks' prac- tice, an enviable degree of elasticity, which gives the carriage something more than the up and down, forward and back, straight lines of motion with which ladies ordinarily favor us. A smooth, long step, the weight of
46 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
the body on the loins, where nature intend ed it should be, and the legs propelled from thence, without stiffness at the knee or ob- trusive motion of the hips, is, probably, the ideal of walking ; such as one finds both in a highly trained woman and in the untaught perfection of a South Sea Islander.
I have spoken at length on the topic of walking, because its importance as an art of grace can not be overrated, and because it has a still deeper bearing on women's health. The training which secures an elegant car- riage is precisely that which counteracts the tendency to a dozen fatal relaxations at differ- ent points of the frame, and prevents their appearance. ISTo one ought to say that walk- ing brings on the disorders which blanch and wither feminine life. The cause is the fatal, inherited weakness of constitution, shown by either undue redness or pallor, by indolence or excitability, which is a slow decay from its first breath, and poisons the hopes and the loveliness of so many women. These doomed
WALKING VerSUS WEAKNESS. 47
beings must work out their own salvation, and make themselves anew in the effort. The weaknesses would develop whether they walk- ed or not. The care should be to adjust ex- ercise and nourishment, stimulus and rest, in due proportion. But the weak woman must have separate counsel, for she by no means comes under the head of these unpremeditated consultations.
48 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
CHAPTER IV.
N. P. Willis as a Critic of Beauty.— The Perfume of the Presence. — Charm of Good Circulation. — Chills are In- cipient Congestion. — Paper Clothing. — Luxuries of the Bath.— A Substitute for Sea-Baths.— To Secure Fra- grant Breath. — Delicate Dentifrices.— Fine Cologne. — A List of Fragrance.
WHEN Willis died, American society lost its great personal critic. No other writer shows such insight into the subtile elements of wom- en's beauty, or speaks so assuredly on points of mere outward attraction. That gentle and gracious critic who blesses the order of Old Bachelors dissects feminine manner with zest, but is not given to that mention of ear-locks and finger-tips which made " People I have Met" such a conserve of hints for the dress- ing-table. It is a pity such a connoisseur of feminine graces could not have taken half a hundred distinguished specimens into his train-
PERSONAL PERFUME. 49
ing to show the world such women as fill the ideal of a refined man of the world. Willis was susceptible to beauty wherever he found it : a perfect ear on the head of a plain coun- try girl would not miss the glance of this art- ist, and he betrays what single charms may rivet the regard of a man of taste a dozen times in those glorious sketches we never hope to see excelled.
You remember one of his heroines was re- markable for the perfume wThich exhaled from her person. We are not to suppose that this most fascinating gift was due to Coudray's sachets, or to hedyosima on her hair. From repeated experience, verified by that of very discerning and sensitive persons, it is af- firmed that certain people of fine organism and perfect health have a fragrance belong- ing to their presence like scent to a flower. One of the most powerful feminine novelists of the day said that she always knew when a favorite brother had been in a room by the slight indefinable perfume that followed him.
50 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
His pillow breathed it, and his easy-chair, and it was perceived even by comparative stran- gers. I have known persons innocent of using perfume, whose fragrant presence was recog- nized by every one who came near them. In all cases this was accompanied by a bodily condition of perfect health and much mag- netic attraction. This may be named the first in that list of subtile personal properties which constitute the strongest and most enduring of physical charms, and which are not discussed with any proportion to their potency. We do not stop to ask what pleases us ; refinement attracts, sweetness detains us, and we are only too glad to lie under the spell.
May a plain woman reach her hand for these gifts of pleasing ? Surely. They were meant to be nature's compensation for the lack of chiseled features and ruffled tresses. To reach this subtile refinement re- quires such preparation as the virgins under- went for the court of Ahasuerus : " Six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sw^et odors" — if not in kind, yet in care.
THE LAW OF COMFORT. 51
The secret of lively spirits, even temper, and magnetic % presence can never be attained in the world without a perfect circulation of the blood. It may be out of season to say that people often keep themselves too cold; but lay the hint away till next October, when the weather changes, and mark the facts. Our seasons are two thirds cold or chilly ; our habits are sedentary, which tends to reduce the force of the system ; as a people we are not of excitable temperament ; and yet stout men and hearty doctors, who go rushing through their business all day, complain be- cause women sit in overheated rooms, and can not endure draughts in the halls. There is but one answer to this : Nature is her own guide, and it is one of her laws that no creature can be uncomfortable in any way without losing by it. If the tone of the system is so low that a woman feels chilly in a room at seventy degrees, put the heat at once up to eighty, or higher, till she feels lux- uriously warm. Chilliness is a symptom to
52 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
be most dreaded. When the blood forsakes the skin, it clogs the heart, the internal organs, and lays the train for those diseases of the time — neuralgia, paralysis, rheumatism, and congestion. In fact, every person who suffers from one of these stupid chills is in a state of incipient congestion. How hateful is the mis- erable economy which stints fires in the raw days of May and September, because the cal- endar of household routine decrees that it is not the season for stoves and grates! Not less irritating is it to sit with a circle half shivering in a large parlor, because the full- blooded, active master of the house has decid- ed that it is nonsense to turn the heat on. The slow tortures such unfeeling people inflict on their innocent victims will be witnesses against them some day, to their great surprise.
Even in summer many delicate persons find the skin always cold. Those who are so susceptible should never be without protec- tion. The most convenient is a sheet of tissue paper quilted in marcelline silk, and wrorn be-
PAPER FOR UNDER WEAK. 53
fcween the shoulders, the most sensitive point of the whole body for feeling cold. The com- fort of this slight device can hardly be imag- ined. Paper is a non-conductor of heat? but porous enough to admit air, so that it never leaves the dampness of rubber or oil-silk pro- tectors. Even in winter the warmth of these slender linings exceeds that of a sheet of wad- ding. In the change of the year, when it is not cold enough for flannel, and one can not be comfortable without some extra clothing, this is just what is wanted. A sheet of quilted paper should be worn for the back, and one for the chest, the arms cased in the legs cut from old silk or thread stockings, which cling to the flesh, and keep it from the air better than any other article. Thus equipped, a delicate wom- an may face the subtle chills of spring and autumn without a shiver. Added warmth is not necessary about the trunk of the body till extreme cold weatheiv Clothes fit closely there, and the vital centres always generate most heat, so that only the extremities and
54: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
the upper part of the chest need protec- tion.
The daily bath needs to be administered with some care. The value of hot bathing is hardly understood. In congested circulation nothing is so effective as a ten minutes' bath at eighty -five degrees, the water covering the body entirely, followed by a cold sponge-bath, quickly given, and immediate drying. Bath- towels are not half large enough as commonly made. They should be small sheets in size, like the real Turkish bath-towels used by the wom- en of Constantinople, which envelop the body, and dry it at once. A bath should never chill one, and the feelings may be safely trusted as guides in the matter. To a constitution strong enough to meet it, even though somewhat de- pressed at the time, nothing is so inviting as the stimulus of the cold bath, the instant's chill followed by the rush of warm blood all over the body. For weak systems an invig- orant is found, so simple and effective that the wonder is why it was not used long ago,
AMMONIA BATHS. 55
When the season or circumstances forbid a stay on the sea-coast, a substitute nearly if not quite as strengthening is found in an ammonia bath. A gill of liquid ammonia in a pail of water makes an invigorating solution, whose delightful effects can only be compared to a plunge in the surf. Weak persons will find this a luxury and a tonic beyond com- pare. It cleanses the skin, and stimulates it wonderfully. After such a bath the flesh feels firm and cool like marble. More than this, the ammonia purifies the body from all odor of perspiration. Those in whom the secretion is unpleasant will find relief by using a spoonful of the tincture in a basin of water, and wash- ing the armpits well with it every morning. The feet may be rid of odor in the same way. But what shall destroy that foe to senti- ment, that bane of all beauty, an offensive breath ? I can not imagine a woman could fall in love with Hyperion if he had this drawback. The suggestion of unrefinement and of physical disorder it gives would
56 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
weigh against all the moral and intellectual worth which might lie behind 'it. The anti- dote, happily, is as simple as the evil is pre- vailing. With attention to the health, and brushing the teeth at least night and morn- ing, all besides that is needed to secure a sweet breath is to dissolve a bit of licorice the size of a cent in the mouth after us- ing the tooth-brush. This will even counter- act the effects of indigestion, and does not convey the unpleasant suggestion of cachous and spice, that they are used to hide an offense. Licorice has no smell, but it sweetens the mouth and stomach. A stick of it should be chipped for nse, and kept in a box on the toilette.
A tincture which restores soundness to the gums is one ounce of coarsely powdered Pe- ruvian bark steeped in half a pint of brandy for a fortnight. Gargle the month night and morning with a teaspoonful of this tincture, diluted with an equal quantity of rose-water.
For decaying teeth make a balsam of two scruples of myrrh in fine powder, a scruple of
57
juniper gum, and ten grains of rock alum, mixed in honey, and apply often.
It is useful also to chew a bit of orris-root, which Browning says Florentine ladies love to use in mass-time ; or to wasli the mouth with the tincture of myrrh, or take a bit of myrrh the size of a hazel-nut at night, or a piece of burned alum.
A very agreeable dentifrice is made from an ounce of myrrh in fine powder and a little powdered green sage, mixed with two spoon- fuls of white honey. The teeth should be washed with it every night and morning.
To clean the teeth, rub them with the ashes of burned bread. It must be thoroughly burned, not charred.
Spite of all that is said against it, charcoal holds the highest place as a tooth-powder. It has the property, too, of opposing putrefac- tion, and destroying vices of the gums. It is most conveniently used when made into paste with honey.
A fine Cologne is prepared from one gal-
58 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
Ion of deodorized alcohol, or spirit obtained from the Catawba grape, which is nearly if not quite equal to the grape spirit which gives Farina Cologne its value. To this is add- ed one ounce of oil of lavender, one ounce of oil of orange, two drachms of oil of cedrat, one drachm of oil of neroli or orange flowers, one drachm of oil of rose, and one drachm of am- bergris. Mix well, and keep for three weeks in a cool place.
To this list of fragrance add a recipe for common Cologne to use as a toilet water. It is oil of bergamot, lavender, and lemon, each one drachm; oil of rose and jasmine, each ten drops ; essence of ambergris, ten drops ; spirits of wine, one pint. Mix and keep well closed in a cool place for two months, when it will be fit for use. Ladies will be grateful for this who have known what trouble it is to find a refreshing Cologne which does not smell like cooking extract with lemon or vanilla. If with these hints a woman can not keep her- self fragrant and lovely- in person, her case must need the help of the physician.
FAlli JEZEBEL. 59
CHAPTER V.
Morals of Paint and Powder. — Antique Toilet Arts. -••» Washington Ladies. — Making Up the Face. — Whitening the Arms. — Tints of Kouge. — To Make French Kouge. — Milk of Roses. — Greuze Tints. — Coarse Complexions Caused by Powder. — Color for the Lips. — Crystal and Gold Hair Powder. — Dyeing Blonde Wigs. — To Darken the Hair. — Champjigne and Black- Walnut Bark. — Doom of the Complexion Artist.
THE time has gone by when it was a matter of church discipline if a woman painted her face or wore powder. Nor is it any serious reflection on her moral character if she go abroad with her complexion made up in the forenoon, however it may call her taste in question. All who paint their faces and look forth at their windows are not visited with hard names, else the parlor of .every house on the side- streets of New York might have its
Jezebel waiting the dinner-hour and the re- 5
60 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
turn of masculine admirers. George declares he could never own a wife who used powder ; and yet Annie comes down, looking innocent in her pink bows, with a little white bloom on each temple, and a suspicious odor of Lubin's Violet floating round her. I don't think George meditates divorce on that account. There is something noble and ingenuous in the sight of an uncovered skin ; but we rec- oncile ourselves to the pearly falsehood, ac- cepting the situation with the false hair, not so gray as it is in front, and the, long, artificial- shaped nails, and the cramped feet. Every body knows they are inventions, and accepts them as such, like paste brilliants at a theatre. The arts of the toilet are as old as Thebes. The painted eye of desire, the burning cheek and dyed nails, were coeval witli the wisdom of Alexandria. Of old the Roman ladies used the fine dust of calcined shells and the juices of plants to restore their freshness of color. There is no end to the modern con- trivances for the same purpose. Crushed ge-
LADY WASHINGTON GERANIUMS. 01
ranium leaves, and the petals of artificial roses which contain carmine, friction with red flan- nel, and the juice of strawberries, are homely substitutes for rouge. The women of the South are more given to the use of cosmetics than their Northern sisters. Perhaps Washing- ton sets the example to all the states ; for no- where else is seen such liberal use of paint and powder, skillfully applied, as at the capital. There women paint for the breakfast-table, and carry the deception every where. The Span- ish-American ladies make the absurd mistake of supposing their rich complexions and dark eyes are not more enticing to Northern eyes than our own cold beauties ; so, by the help of toilet bottles, they present faces like Lady Washington geraniums from nine in the morn- ing till they ice themselves to frozen white- ness for the evenings. Whited sepulchres is the phrase forever ringing in one's head at sight of this folly. What indignation has seized one at sight of Madame - — , the witty and enviable, who had the weakness to mask
62 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
her lustrous, tropical, Murillo colors — which enchanted every Northern heart — with poor plaster of burned oyster-shells ! It was very well for the Treasury blondes, who looked like human peaches till one saw them close, to dab- ble in white and pink. It suited their style. For these superb Creoles and Sevillians, never !
Both from principle and preference, this book discountenances paint and powder. It believes that a woman needs no other cos- metics than fresh air, exercise, and pure wa- ter, which, if freely used, will impart a rud- dier glow and more pearly tint to the face than all the rouge and lily-white in Christen- dom.
But if she must resort to artificial beauty, let her be artistic about it, and not lay on paint as one would furniture polish, to be rub- bed in with rags. The best and cheapest powder is refined chalk in little pellets, each enough for an application. Powder is a pro- tection and comfort on long journeys or in the city dust. If the pores of the skin must
HOW TO USE POWDER. 65
be filled, one would prefer clean dust, to be- gin with. A layer of powder will prevent freckles and sun-burn when properly applied. It cools feverish skins, and its use can be condoned when it modifies the contrast be- tween red arms and white evening dresses. In amateur theatricals it is indispensable, the foot-lights throwing the worst construction on even good complexions. In all these cases it is worth while to know how to use it well. The skin should be as clean and cool as possi- ble, to begin. A pellet of chalk, without any poisonous bismuth in it, should be wrapped in coarse linen and crushed in water, grinding it well between the fingers. Then wash the face quickly with the linen, and the wet pow- der oozes in its finest state through the cloth, leaving a pure white deposit when dry. Press the face lightly with a damp handkerchief to remove superfluous powder, wiping the brows and nostrils free. This mode of using chalk is less easily detected than when it is dusted on dry,
64 THE UGLY -GIRL TAPERS.
The best foundation for Lubin's powder is gained by soaping the face well, and taking care not to rinse off all the smooth, glossy feel- ing it leaves. Dry the face without wiping, and the thinnest layer of oil is left, which holds the dry powder, without that mealy look which Lubin is apt to leave. To whiten the arms for theatricals, rub them first with glvc- erine, not letting the skin absorb it all, and apply chalk. The country practice is to sub- stitute a tallow candle for the glycerine; but 0111*8 is a progressive age. At least the moral feeling leads one to spare an escort's coat- sleeve.
Rouge needs consideration before rashly ap- plying. There are more tints of complexion than there are roses, and one can only be suc- crssful by observing the natural colors of a' beauty of her own type. Some cheeks have- a wine-like, purplish glow, others a transparent saffron tinge, like yellowish -pink porcelain: others still have clear, pale carmine; and the rarest of all, that suffused tint like apple bios-
THE BANE OF BISMUTH. 65
soms. By making her own rouge a lady can graduate her pallet — that is to say, her cheeks — at pleasure. The following preparations have the virtue, at least, of being harmless, which can not be said of most paints and pow- ders. Red-lead, bismuth, arsenic, and poison- ous vegetable compounds are used in the com- mon cosmetics. Bismuth is most frequent; and its least effect is to give the cheeks it has whitened a crop of purplish pimples, which would iridicate that the wearer was freely " dispoged" to the same tastes as Sairey Gamp. The hideously coarse complexion of many public singers is partly due to their use of bis- in.itli powder. An old dispensatory gives the following formula for a harmless cosmetic un- der the name of Almond Bloom : , Take of Brazil dust, one ounce ; water, three pints ; boil, strain, and add six drachms of isinglass, two of cochineal, three of borax, and an ounce of alum ; boil again, and strain through a fine cloth. Use as a liquid cos- metic.
66 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
Devoux French rouge is thus prepared: Carmine, half a drachm ; oil of almonds, one drachm ; French chalk, two ounces. Mix. This makes a dry rouge.
The milk of roses is made by mixing four ounces of oil of almonds, forty drops of oil of tartar, and half a pint of rose-water with car- mine to the proper shade. This is very sooth- ing to the skin. Different tinges may be given to the rouge by adding a few flakes of indigo for the deep black-rose crimson, or mixing a lit- tle pale yellow with less carmine for the soft Greuze tints. All preparations for darkening the eyebrows, eyelashes, etc., must be put on with a small hair-pencil. The "dirty-finger" effect is not good. A fine line of black round the rim of the eyelid, when properly done, should not be detected, and its effect in soften-, ing and enlarging the appearance of the eyes is well known by all amateur players. A smeared, blotchy look conveys an unpleasant idea of dissipation.
For the finger-tips, alkanet makes a good
CRYSTAL AND GOLD HAIR POWDER. 67
stain. An eighth of an ounce of clippings tied in coarse muslin, and soaked for a week in diluted alcohol, will give a tincture of love- ly dye. The finger - tips should be touched with jewelers' cotton dipped in this mixture.
Hair-powder is made from powdered starch, sifted through muslin, and scented with oil of roses in the proportion of twelve drops to the pound. Crystal powder is glass dust, ob- tained from factories, or powdered crystallized salts of different kinds. A golden powder may be procured by coloring a saturated so- lution of alum bright yellow with turmeric, then allowing it to crystallize, and reducing it to coarse powder. This certainly has the merit of cheapness.
Color for the lips is nothing more than cold cream, with a larger quantity of wax than usual melted in it, with a few drachms of car- mine. For vermilion tint use a strong in- fusion of alkanet instead of poisonous red- lead. Keep the chippings for- a week in the almond-oil of which the cold cream is made,
68 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
and afterward incorporate with wax and spermaceti. Always tie alkanet in muslin when it is used for coloring purposes.
When blonde wTigs are not attainable for theatricals, a switch of dark hair may be bleached by soaking in strong vinegar, and colored by an infusion of turmeric in Cham- pagne, or by the liquor obtained from the tops of potatoes ready to flower, mixed with water, suffering it to steep twenty-four hours. This is too poisonous ever to be used on the head with safety.
The walnut stain for skin or hair is made precisely like that for cloth, by boiling the bark — say an ounce to a pint of water — for an hour, slowly, and adding a lump of alum the size of a thimble to set the dye. Apply with a little brush, such as is used in water- colors, to the lashes and eyebrows, or with a sponge to the hair. Wrap the head in an old handkerchief when going to sleep, or the moist- ure of the hair will stain the pillow-cases.
But one tiling must be said : the woman
LOST BLOOM AND GLOSS. 69
who has once taken to painting and coloring must go on painting and coloring ; rarely, if ever, does the complexion regain its bloom, the skin its smoothness, or the hair its gloss. In most cases the operator must go on deep- ening the hue, and in no case can he or she be sure of the shade or tint which successive applications will produce.
70 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPKK9.
CHAPTER VI.
Recamier's Training. — Diana of Poitiers, Bath. — High Beauty of Maturity. — The Worth of Beauty. — George Eliot on Complexions. — Dr. Cazenave. — Barley Paste for the Face. — Prescriptions of the Roman Ladies. — To Re- move Pimples. — Cascarilla Wash. — Varnish for Wrinkles. — Acetic Acid for Comedones. — To Remove Mask. — Lady Mary Montagu. — Habit of Italian Ladies. — Wash of Vitriol.
THE motto that used to haunt our souls over copy-books, " Xo excellence without great labor/' is as true about personal improvement as any thing else. Few celebrated beauties have gained their fame without use of those arts which must be the earliest of all, since we have no record of their first teaching — the arts of the toilette. Madame Kecamier, who exercised more power by her beauty than any woman of modern times, was bred by a most careful mother, versed in all the mysteries of
KEFINED BEAUTY. 71
training. Her exceeding delicacy of com- plexion arose from the protection she gave it, never going out except in her carriage, and scarcely knowing what it was to set foot to the ground. Margaret of Anjou and Mary Stuart, in earlier times, were wise as ser- pents in the magic of the toilet, disdaining neither May clew nor less simple lotions for cheeks whereon the eye of the world was to dwell. Diana of Poitiers bequeathed a leg- acy of value to her sex in commending the use of the rain-water bath, which preserved her own beauty till, at the age of sixty -five, no one could be insensible to her. Ninon de 1'Enclos left the same testimony. It is intol- erable that women have not the ambition to preserve their health and charms to the latest date, and give up their cases so shamefully soon. An intelligent maturity chisels and re- fines the face to a high and feeling beauty; that is to the attractions of youth what the aristocratic head of Booth would be beside a pink-and-white lady-killer of society. This se-
72 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
rene and finished expression should find phys- ical favor to accompany it. K"or is this to be gained, as many say, by leading a passive, emo- tionless life. People of vivid feeling are the youngest. Their quick alterations of mood make the face clean cut, yet do not settle it in uniform furrows. Both grief and joy, yearn- ing passion and utter renunciation, are needed to sculpture finely the statues for remem- brance. Xo one professing the loftiest aims, who understands human nature, can despise the care of personal beauty when, combined with moral worth, its influence is so irresist- ible. Look at the portraits of those renowned as moral and intellectual heroes ; it will be found their greatness was rarely associated with physical repulsiveness, and though their faces in the conflicts of life grew seamed and worn, yet in youth they must have been more than ordinarily remarked for beauty of a high order — Columbus and Galileo and Whitefield will do for examples. And if the reader go through the range of feminine
VALUE OF A CLEAR COMPLEXION. 73
celebrities, from the poets to missionary biog- raphies, "with portrait of the original," not one face in ten will dispute what I have said.
Least of all let any woman heed smiling scorn of her weakness in taking pains to se- cure a good complexion — the real clearness and color, if she eschew the coarse pretense of powder and paint. George Eliot, with her masculine sense, bears witness to the irresisti- ble tendency to associate a pure soul with a lucent complexion. No woman can be disa~ greeable if she have this saving claim ; and there will be no apology for adding a few es- timable recipes for the purpose from the col- lection of a foreign physician, Dr. Cazenave. He recommends the following as a composi- tion for the face :
Three ounces of ground barley, one ounce of honey, and the* white of one egg, mixed to a paste, and spread thickly on the cheeks, nose,, and forehead, before going to bed. This must remain all night, protecting the face by a soft
THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
handkerchief, or bits of lawn laid over the parts on which the paste is applied. Wash it off with warm water, wetting the surface with a sponge, and letting it soften while dressing the hair or finishing one's bath. Repeat nightly till the skin grows perfectly fine and soft, which should be in three weeks, after which it will be enough to use it once a week. Always wash the face with warm water and mild soap, rubbing on a little cold cream when exposing one's self to the weather. This paste was used by the Romans. With this, care must be taken to bathe daily in warm water, using soap freely, toning the system with a cold plunge afterward, if one can bear it.
For pimples use this recipe : thirty-six grains of bicarbonate of soda, one drachm of glycer- ine, one ounce of spermaceti ointment. Hub on the face ; let it remain for a quarter of an hour, and wipe off all but a slight film with a soft cloth.
The best wash for the complexion given is cascarilla powder, two grains; muriate of am-
WRINKLES AND VITRIOL. 75
monia, two grains ; emulsion of almonds, eight ounces : apply with fine linen. The frightful discoloration known as maslz is removed by a wash made from thirty grains of the chlorate of potash in eight ounces of rose-water. Wrin- kles are less apparent under a kind of varnish containing thirty-six grains of turpentine in three drachms of alcohol, allowed to dry on the face. The black worms called comedones call forth the simple specific of thirty-six grains of subcarbonate of soda in eight ounces of dis- tilled water, perfumed with six drachms of es- sence of roses. But I prefer the advice of a clever home physician, who lately told me that he removed comedones from the faces of girls who applied to him for the purpose by touch- ing the head of each with a fine hair-pencil dipped in acetic acid — a nice operation, as the acid must only touch the black spot, or it will eat the skin. Remembering that Lady Mary Wortley Montagu quoted the habit of Italian ladies to renew and refine their complexions
by a wash of vitriol, I begged to know how 6
76 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
such a heroic application could safely be made. The answer was that muriatic acid, sixty per cent, strong, diluted in twelve parts of water, might be used as a wash, and gradually eat away the coarse outer envelope of the skin, if any one had fortitude to bear a slow cautery like this. Lady Mary records that she had to shut herself up most of a week, and her face meantime was blistered shockingly ; but after- ward the Italian ladies assured her that her Complexion was vastly improved. On the whole, the typhoid fever is preferable as au agent for clearing the complexion, being per- haps less dangerous and more effective.
GHLNING PALLOR. 77
CHAPTER VII.
Shining Pallor. — Lustrous Faces. — Golden Freckles. — Ti- ger-Lily Spots. — Sun Photographs. — Nitre Removes Freckles.— Old English Prescription. — For Yachting. — Almond-Oil. — Buttermilk as a Cosmetic. — Rosemary and Glycerine. — Lotion for Prickly Heat. — For Musquitoes. — Protecting Hair from Sea Air. — Fashionable Gray Hair. — Dark Eyes and Silver Hair. — To Restore Dark Hair. — Bandoline. — Cold Cream. — Almond Pomade. — For Skin Diseases. — Sulphurous Acid.
THE summer heats, which make nature love- ly, are the bane of our fair-skinned Northern girls. Southern frames receive the glowing warmth, and grow paler and paler, because — giving a matter-of-fact explanation of a beau- tiful appearance — the surface of the skin is cooled by the perspiration, and the blood re- treats to the central veins. The " shining pal- lor'' which poets love on the faces of their favorite creations is the sign and effect of con- centrated passion of any kind in a quick, elec-
78 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPERS.
trie nature. I disbelieved in the expression a long time, classing it with the "marble flush" and such freaks of nature in novels ; but the peculiar look has come under my eye more than once. It is a very striking one, as if the light came from within — a lustrous, elevated expression, too ethereal and of the spirit to be merely high-bred. It is one of the refine- ments Nature gives to her ideal pieces of hu- manity, and nothing coarse lurks in the crea- tion of the one who presents it. The South- ern pallor is quite different — a dead but clear olive, very admirable when the skin is line. Northern paleness is relieved rather than dis- figured by a few golden freckles. They are more piquant than otherwise ; and girls with the pure complexion wrhich attends auburn, blonde, and brown hair ought to consider them as caprices of nature to blend the hues of bright, warm hair and snowy skin. When as large, and almost as dark as the patches on the tiger-lily, every one will find them something to get rid of with dispatch. Freckles indicate
ENGLISH CUCUMBER COSMETIC. 79
an excess of iron in the blood, the sun acting on the particles in the skin as it does on indel- ible ink, bringing out the color. A very sim- ple way of removing them is said to be as fol- lows:
Take finely powdered nitre (saltpetre), and apply it to the freckles by the finger moistened with water and dipped in the powder. When perfectly done and judiciously repeated, it will remove them effectually without trouble.
An old English prescription for the skin is to take half a pint of blue skim-milk, slice into it as much cucumber as it will cover, and let it stand an hour; then bathe the face and hands, washing them off with fair water when the cucumber extract is dry. The latter is said to stimulate the growth of hair where it is lacking, if well and fre- quently rubbed in. It would be worth while to apply it to high foreheads and bald crowns.
Rough skins, from exposure to the wind in riding, rowing, or yachting, trouble many la- dies, who will be glad to know that an appli-
80 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
cation of cold cream or glycerine at night, washed off with fine carbolic soap in the morn- ing, will render them presentable at the break- fast-table, without looking like women who follow the hounds, blowzy and burned. The simplest way to obviate the bad effects of too free sun and wind, which are apt on occasion to revenge themselves for the neglect too oft- en shown them by the fair sex, is to rnb the face, throat, and arms well with cold cream or pure almond-oil before going out. With this precaution one may come home from a berry- party or a sail without a trace of that ginger- bread effect too apt to follow those pleasures. Cold cream made from almond-oil, with no lard or tallow about it, will answer every end proposed by the use of buttermilk, a favorite country prescription, but one which young la- dies can hardly prefer as a cosmetic on ac- count of its odor.
A delicate and effective preparation for rough skins, eruptive diseases, cuts, or ulcers is found in a mixture of one ounce of glycerine,
CAKBOLIC BALM. 81
half an ounce of rosemary-water, and twenty drops of carbolic acid. In those dreaded irri- tations of the skin occurring in summer, such as hives or prickly heat, this wash gives sooth- ing relief. The carbolic acid neutralizes the poison of the blood, purifies and disinfects the eruption, and heals it rapidly. A solution of this acid, say fifty drops to an ounce of the glycerine, applied at night, forms a protection from musquitoes. Though many people con- sider the remedy equal to the disease, constant use very soon reconciles one to the creosotic odor of the carbolic acid, especially if the pure crystallized form is used, which is far less over- powering in its fragrance than the common sort. Those who dislike it too much to use it at night, will find the sting of the bites al- most miraculously cured and the blotches re- moved by touching them with the mixture in the morning. This is penned with grateful recollection of its efficiency after the bites of Jersey musquitoes a few nights ago. Babies and children should be touched with it in re-
THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
duced form, to relieve the pain they feel from insect bites, but do not know how to express except by worrying. Two or three drops of attar of roses in the preparation disguises the smell so as to render it tolerable to human be- ings, though not so to musquitoes.
Ladies who find that sea air turns their hair gray, or who are fearful of such a result, should keep it carefully oiled with some vegetable oil ; not glycerine, as that combines with water too readily to protect the locks. The recipe for cold cream made with more of the almond-oil, so as to form a salve, is not a bad sea-dressing for the hair, and the spermaceti and wax ren- der it less greasy than ordinary preparations. Animal pomades grow rancid, and make the head most unpleasant to touch and smell.
Many preparations are given to restore the color to dark hair when it is lost through ill health or over-study. The fashionables to- day, with true taste, admire gray hair when in profusion, and deem it distinguished when ac- companied by dark eyes, to which the contrast
TRAGACANTH AND ROSE-WATER. 83
adds a piercing lustre. But those who consider themselves defrauded of their natural tints may use this recipe : Tincture of acetate of iron, one ounce ; water, one pint ; glycerine, half an ounce; sulphuret of potassium, five grains. Mix well, and let the bottle remain uncovered to pass out the foul smell arising from the po- tassium. Afterward add a few drops of am- bergris or attar of roses. Rub a little of this daily into the hair, which it will restore to its original color, and benefit the health of the scalp.
Ladies are annoyed by the tendency of their hair to come out of crimp or curl while boat- ing or horseback-riding. The only help is to apply the following bandoline before putting the hair in papers or irons : A quarter of an ounce of gurn-tragacantli, one pint of rose-wa- ter, five drops of glycerine ; mix and let stand overnight. If the tragacanth is not dissolved, let it be half a day longer; if too thick, add more rose-water, and let it be for some hours. When it is a smooth solution, nearly as thin as
84 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
glycerine, it is fit to use. This is excellent foi making the hair curl. Moisten a lock of hair with it, not too wet, and brush round a warm curling-iron, or put up in papillotes. If the curl come out harsh and stiff, brush it round a cold iron or curling-stick with a very little of the cosmetic for keeping stray hair in place, or cold cream. To the recipe given in the last chapter another is added, of perhaps finer pro- portions: Oil of sweet almonds, five parts; spermaceti, three parts ; white wax, half a part ; attar of roses, three to five drops. Melt togeth- er in a shallow dish, over hot water, strain through a piece of muslin when melted, and as it begins to cool beat it with a silver spoon till quite cold and of a snowy whiteness. It is well to rub it smooth on a slab of marble or porcelain before putting in glass boxes to keep. For the hair use seven parts of almond- oil to the other proportions named. The se- cret of making tine cold cream lies in stirring and beating it well all the time it is cooling. Those who have the misfortune to contract
THE LAST EESORT. 85
cutaneous disorders arising from exposure to the contact of the low and degraded — and charitable persons sometimes run narrow risks of this kind — or from scorbutic affections or the fumes of certain medicines, each and any of which are liable to produce roughness and in- flammation of the skin, will be glad of a speedy and certain cure for their affliction. It is a wash of sulphurous acid (not sulphuric), diluted in the proportion of three parts of soft water to one of the acid, and used three or four times a day till relieved. I knew a young lady whose fine complexion was ruined by the fumes of medicine she administered to her grandmother, whom she tended with, religious care ; and, thinking there may be others in like case, hasten to give this prescription. Sufi rosa — all parasites on furniture, human beings, or pets are quickly destroyed by this applica- tion.
86 THE UGLY-GIEt, PAPERS.
CHAPTER VIII.
Service of Beauty. — Not for Vanity, but Perfection. — Eye- brows of Petrarch's Laura. — Fashionable Baths. — Trim- ming the Eyelashes. — Luxury of the Toilet. — Its Magnet- ic Influence. — A Safe Stimulant. — Amateurs of the Toi- let.—Cosmetic Gloves.— To Refine the Skin of the Shoul- ders and Arms. — Sulphate of Quinine for the Hair. — For the Eyebrows and Eyelashes. — A Harmless Dye. — To Re- move Sallowness. — A Hint for Stout People. — Perfumed Bathing-powder.
IT is a wonder that so few educated people address themselves to the service of beauty in the human form. It is refined to study dra- peries or design costumes for the adornment of the body, but not to develop the perfection of the body itself. Hair-dressers, perfumers, and tailors find ample consolation for being the ninth part of men, or something less, in public estimation, since the world finds their- work a necessity, and amply repays it. Who make fortunes faster among the working-classes
LUXURIOUS BATHS. 87
than those who minister to the desire for beauty, let. us call it, rather than the severer name of vanity? The arts of the toilet are advanced to the rank of a profession abroad. English fashion journals declare this in their advertisements. Establishments in London and at fashionable watering-places offer bright- ly furnished parlors where one may enjoy the luxurious soothing of every appliance of the toilet in succession. The warm bath, in all the appealing pleasure of marble, porcelain, and gold, instead of dingy oil - cloths and reeking zinc basins, gives place to the deft hands of the hair-bather and the chiropodist, and these to the dresser, who arranges the locks, quickly and artificially dried, in the most elegantly simple style. Then comes the cosmetic artist, who removes blotches and specks from the face with quick acids, laves it with soothing washes, or applies emollient pastes which leave soft freshness behind. The vulgarity of paint and enamel is not allowed in these establishments, though the operators
88 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
have good knowledge of all secrets of their art. Innoxious dyes are used as novices never can apply them, superfluous hairs are removed, and eyebrows and eyelashes are cared for by the most skillful hands. The former have ev- ery unnecessary hair removed, and are thinned to the penciled line they form in the portraits of Venetian ladies, who secured this peculiar charm in the same way. If I could only find out how Petrarch's Laura trimmed her eye- brows, and give the method to my readers !
With a pair of fairy-like scissors the lashes are trimmed a hair-breadth, and brushed with sable pencils conveying an ointment which in- creases their growth. The nails are polished, and the hands indued with soft and perfumed oils which leave no trace. Picture the luxury of such a place and such attention, instead of the frowzy rooms and careless servants of a common hair-dressing saloon ! The magnetic benefit of such operations ought to count for much in elegant physical culture. It. unmis- takably soothes the system, and freshens its
GIKLS HELPING EACH OTHER. 89
powers better than any narcotic stimulant. More than one of the most brilliant writers of the time is in the habit of bathing and mak- ing a full toilet before composition, feeling its magic influence on the mind in rendering one's thoughts bright and happy.
But blessed water and simples, chemicals and strokings, do their work in stone-ware and top bedrooms as well as in baths lined with porcelain behind the portiere of a Pompadour dressing-room. Clever girls can do much for each other in these matters ; and let me hope no one will have to ask more than sixteen peo- ple before finding a friend with nerve enough to trim her eyelashes for her, as an ambitious maiden once did. A fresh handful of pre- scriptions for these amateurs is taken from Paris authorities.
Cosmetic gloves for which there is such demand are spread inside with the following preparation : The yolks of two fresh eggs beaten with two teaspoonfuls of the oil of sweet almonds^ one ounce of rose-water, and
90 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPEK8.
thirty-six drops of tincture of benzoin. Make a paste of this, and either anoint the gloves with it, or spread it freely on the hands and draw the gloves on afterward. Of course there is no virtue in the gloves save as they protect the hands from drying or soiling the bed-linen.
A paste for the skin of the shoulders and arms is made from the whites of four eggs boiled in rose-water, with the addition of a grain or two of alum, beaten till thick. Spread this on the skin and cover with old linen. Wear it overnight, or all the afternoon before a party where one desires to appear in full dress. This cosmetic gives great firmness and purity to the skin, and may be used to ad- vantage by persons having soft, flabby flesh.
A wash to stimulate the growth of hair in case of baldness is made from equal parts of the tincture of sulphate of quinine and aro- matic tincture.
For causing the eyebrows to grow when lost by fire, use the sulphate of quinine — five grains in an ounce of alcohol.
HARMLESS HAIR DYE. 91
For the eyelashes, five grains of the sulphate in an ounce of sweet almond-oil is the best prescription ; put on the roots of the lashes with the finest sable pencil. This must be lightly applied, for it irritates the eye to fin- ger it.
The best dye is this French recipe, which is seen to be harmless at a glance : Melt togeth- er, in a bowl set in boiling water, four ounces of white wax in nine ounces of olive-oil, stir- ring in, when melted and mixed, two ounces of burned cork in powder. This will not take the dull bluish tinge of metallic dyes, but gives a lustrous blackness to the hair like life. To apply it, put on old gloves, cover the shoul- ders carefully to protect the dress, and spread the salvy preparation like pomade on the head, brushing it well in and through the hair. It changes the color instantly, as it is a black dressing rather than a dye. A brown tint may be given by steeping an ounce of walnut bark, tied in coarse close muslin, in the oil for a week before boiling. The bark is to be had
92 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPI^RS.
at any large drug-store, for about thirty cents an ounce.
The recipes which follow will be of special value in the warm days of early spring. The first contains nearly all the vegetable medi- cines in common use for purifying the blood, and will prevent the lassitude and bilious symptoms which overcloud many a sweet spring day. When made by one's own hand, so that the purity and excellence of the ingre- dients can be insured, the mixture is far bet- ter than most of the blood-purifiers and tonics prescribed by the faculty. It is given here because it removes the sallowness and un- healthy iris hues of the complexion at a sea- son when a girl's cheek should wear its bright- est, clearest flame.
Half an ounce each of spruce, hemlock, and sarsaparilla bark, dandelion, burdock, and yel- low dock, in one gallon of water ; boil half an hour, strain hot, and add ten drops of oil of spruce and sassafras mixed. When cold, add half a pound of brown sugar and half a cup
SASSAFRAS FOR EMBONPOINT. 93
of yeast, Let it stand twelve hours in a jar covered tight, and bottle. Use this freely as an iced drink. This is a good recipe for the root beer which New - Yorkers like to taste during warm months.
People inclined- to embonpoint feel the bur- den of mortality oppressive during the first heats of the calendar. They will be glad to hear from a hill-country doctor, whose praise is in many households, that a strong decoction of sassafras drank frequently will reduce the flesh as rapidly as any remedy known. Take it either iced or hot, as fancied, with sugar if preferred. It is not advisable, however, to take this tea in certain states of health, and the family physician should be consulted be- fore taking it. A strong infusion is made at the rate of an ounce of sassafras to a quart of water. Boil it half an hour very slowly, and let it stand till cold, heating again if desired, and keeping it from the air.
A trouble scarcely to be named among re- fined persons is profuse perspiration, which
94 THE UGLY - GIRI/ PAPERS.
ruins clothing and comfort alike. For this it is recommended to bathe the feet, hands, and parts of the body where the secretion is great- est with cold infusion of rosemary, sage, or thyme, and afterward dust the stockings and under-garinents with a mixture of two and a half drachms of camphor, four ounces of orris-root, and sixteen ounces of starch, the whole reduced to impalpable powder. Tie it in a coarse muslin bag, and shake it over the clothes. This makes a very fine bathing-pow- der.
TRANSFORMATION OF PLAIN WOMEN. 95
CHAPTER IX.
Hope for Homely People.— Two Vital Charms.— The Way to Live. — Sunrise and Open Air. — Bleached by the Dawn. — Live at Sunny Windows. — In Balconies and Parks. — Christiana's Breakfast. — Brown Steak and Good-humor. — True Bread. — Device for Stiff Shoulders. — Corsets and Girdles. — The Latter more Needed. — How to be Pleased with One's Self.
Is there such a being as a hopelessly home- ly woman ? In the light of modern appliances, study the faces and figures one meets on a journey from the sea-board to the interior, and confess that there are few fatally ugly women. On the railway I often amuse my- self, in default of better things, by consider- ing how hygiene, cosmetics, and good taste in dress would transform the common-looking women about one into charming and even striking personages. In most of them, all that is wanting is strength of expression and a clear
96 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
complexion, two tilings with which no woman can be wholly unattractive. The one is the sign of mental, the other of physical health. No wonder nature makes them so winning. To show what I mean, let ns mention some common faults, and their antidotes. Nothing- is more delightful than pulling our neighbors to pieces, with a good motive for it.
Christiana is over thirty — no reason in the least why she should not be as admired as a three days' rose, for one of the most beautiful women in New York, whom every one is in- fatuated with, is over sixty. Yet nobody thinks of Christiana's looks, for the simple reason that she has given np thinking of them her- self— believing her poor skin can not be im- proved, nor the stiff, high carriage of her shoulders be changed. The depth of her eyes and her really good color are lost with these defects. To judge how the remedies should be applied, scrutinize her entire mode of liv- ing. Sunrise, in January or June, and she is not np! This will never serve a candidate
OPEN AIR AT SUNKISE. 97
for beauty. The first rays of the sun, the purity of early air, have as potent an effect on the complexion as the noon* rays on the webs of linen in the bleaching -ground. By all means, if one must rob daylight for sleep, take the hours from ten to three, but see the fires in the east from out-of-doors, even if your head touched the pillow only two hours be- fore. I don't believe in any special morality in getting up early, but I do know its benefits on nerves and circulation of the blood. There is a tonic in the dew-cool air, a lingering of wight's romance, that stirs while it soothes the blood like a fine magnetic hand.
But getting up and staying in the house won't improve one's complexion. How much of her rose-and-lily face the English peasant \voiiwn owes to her walk to the reaping-field at daybreak is well known. After the first soft days of February and March there is noth- ing to hinder Christiana from reading her prayer-book or morning paper on the porch in the sunlight, if she choose to do this rather
98 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
than rake the dead leaves from the grass, sweep the steps, or do something to stir her laggard blood. If it is cold, let her plant her- self at the sunniest window, sew, run her ma- chine, lounge, and eat there, till she is no more afraid of sunshine than of any other blood re- lation. Our women want to imitate French sense, and sit in the balconies and parks to do their work. When they lose the detestable vice of self-consciousness that saps American well-being in all ways, they will be able to live at their casements, sewing, singing, read- ing, as thoughtless and unnoticed as the white doves soaring above them where the sunshine is widest. It is matter of custom merely.
But Christiana's breakfast is ready by this time, and we will see what she eats. Coffee : well, housekeepers buy the ready-ground cof- fee now, and it is mixed trash, wanting the heartiness of a good pure cup, but no great harm at worst. Meat: do you call that bit the width of two fingers, crisped, greased at one end, raw and bleeding at the other, fit
MATERIALS OF BEAUTY. 99
tenance for a woman who is to grow, work, walk, dance, and sing to-day ? She is made to live neither on leather nor raw meat. Cook a slice of thick beef -steak as quickly as possible till the color is changed all the way through without drying any of the juice. The albu- men of the blood must be coagulated before meat is fit for human stomachs, and proper cooking means something more than mere warming through, and a great deal less than crisping. Now let at least a quarter of a pound of this browned and fragrant sacrifice be cut for this young woman — better if she eat half a pound — to be converted into ener- getic work and Christian good-humor in the course of the day. One, two, three, four slices of fried potato withered in fat ! And this is what some people call nourishment ! Put on her plate two baked potatoes of unimpeachable quality — poor potatoes are poison — and let each be the size of her small fist. "Where are the tomatoes, the celery, the artichokes, salads and sauces ? She has tomatoes, three bits in
100 TOE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
a tiny saucerette, as if it held some East In- dian condiment. There ought to be a saucer piled with them, or some savory vegetable del- icately cooked ; for breakfast ought to be next to the heartiest meal of the day. It is far the best way to take coffee and bread on rising, and eat the meal later when one has worked into an appetite for it. Those who find it im- possible to alter their habits enough for this visually have duties which ought to call them up long enough before to be quite hungry by seven or eight o'clock, the usual hours in this country for breakfast.
Take away that thin slip of toast; it makes one turn invalid to see it. What do you call this gray, broad-celled, pallid stuff? Bread — good yeast bread? If there is any thing in- tolerable, it is what the makers of it commonly call good home-made bread. It is mealy, or bitter, or gray and coarse-grained, sad-looking, with white crust, as if the owners were too poor to afford fire to bake it thoroughly. Give me poor bread, and I can eat it in a spirit of
THE RICHEST BREAD. 101
resignation ; but this domestic hypocrisy of good bread libels the wheat that made it, and arraigns the taste of those who eat it. Were it ever so good, there is something better yet — • the crisp, unbolted cake that lingers with nutty richness on the palate, once tasting of which weans one from the impoverished gentility of white bread forever. It is not urged on the score of being wholesome. The phrase has been so much abused that the cry of "health- ful food " invariably suggests something which doesn't taste good. But the strength and richness and coloring of wheat-cake recom- mend it to any breakfast fancier. There is no use aiming at fine-grained complexions without the use of coarse bread at every meal, A slice of Graham bread at breakfast will not counteract the evil tendencies of incorrect diet the rest of the day. When you get your coarse bread, two or three slices will not be too much at a meal. Such ought to be the breakfast of a young lady who wishes to have roundness of contour, unfailing spirits, and self-
102 THE UGLY-GIEL PAPERS.
command, with ready strength for walking, working, or study. Brain- work takes food as much as bodily labor. Between Mrs. OTla- herty in the laundry and the faithful lady editor of a newspaper, it is probable that the former has the easiest time of it, and uses less strength. The women worth any thing are built and sustained by hearty feeding. It is so that sing- ers and dancers eat, and lecturers and authors — Grisi and Jenny Lind, Mrs. Kemble and Ristori, Mrs. Edwards, the novelist, and with her nearly every writer of note at this day. They are well-nourished women, whose appe- tites would embarrass the candy-loving sylphs whose usefulness amounts to nothing more than that of cheap porcelain. Women who exercise little, of course eat little ; in the end they can do nothing, because they are not sufficiently fed. There is no grossness in eat- ing largely if one work well enough to con- sume the strength afforded. The best engines are best fed. The grossness lies in eating and being idle. A woman who limits her exer-
WOMEN OF THE COAST. 103
tions to a walk around the squares daily may confine herself to a slice of toast and a strip of meat. She will grow thin and watery-look- ing, nervous and " high-strung," to pay for it. To know what charm there is in womanhood, go among the girls brought up in villages along the coast. The well-poised shoulders that have a will of their own, the round arms and necks, the profusion of hair, the strength and nerve combined in their movements, give one the idea of walking statuary. The poor drooping figures, the stiff shoulders we com- plain of, come from one cause — lack of nutri- tion. Their muscles are not strong enough to hold them erect, and their nerves are not fed enough to stimulate the weak muscles to ac- tivity. How many times must it be said over? Want of sunshine and nourishing food gives the coarse, uninteresting look to most Ameri- can women.
If Christiana would invoke mechanical aid to bring down her high shoulders and put flex- ibility into her chest muscles, after thirty years
104 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
of abuse, it is easily done. Walking with a pail of water in each hand is rather dull work unless there is a call for domestic help. A homely but very effectual way of educating the muscles is to wear weights fastened to the shoulders. A shawl-strap answers every pur- pose, buckled on the shoulders with the handle between them on the back, and fastening a flat-iron of five or six pounds' weight to the straps which hang under the arms. An extra buckle may be sewed half-way down each strap, to fasten the iron on the end by a second loop. The weights may be worn while read- ing or writing for hours, and will be found rather agreeable to balance the stooping pro- pensity by throwing the stress on fresh mus- cles. With or without it, nine tenths of women from eighteen years old upward will need an- other simple support to relieve the muscles of the trunk below the waist. It matters little what causes this feebleness, whether too hard work, the weight of skirts, or degeneration of the muscular fibre from want of exercise and
LINEN GIRDLES. 105
lack of fresh air. Its relief is imperative to preserve bloom and life of any kind worth calling life. If any girl or woman can not dalice, run up stairs, take long walks, or stand about the house-work, no matter how slight the fatigue, support must be provided. Wom- en wear corsets, and say they can not exist without them, when the demand for aid of the relaxed muscles of the hips and back, though far more imperative, is neglected. The means are very simple : a bandage of linen toweling, soft and cool, buckled, tied, or pin- ned, as tight as will be comfortable, and so arranged as to relieve every muscle that feels fatigue. This is worth all the manufactured appliances in the market, and its prompt use averts a hundred distressing consequences. At the first approach of debility these girdles should be worn, as they have been from an- cient times among Greek and Jewish women. It is not sure that their office of prevention is not more essential than that of cure. Tight corsets are an abomination, for they interfere
106 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
with flexibility, and so with that constant ex- ercise of the trunk muscles which alone can keep them in tone — keep them from degenera- tion and atrophy. As to the muscles of the back and abdomen affected by the girdle, a degree of support just sufficient to encour- age them to their work, and prevent their giving it up in fatigue and despair, will exer- cise and strengthen them. A bandage tighter than is needed for this will do harm, not only by keeping the muscles idle, and so weakening them, but by compressing the ab- dominal viscera, and thus producing numer- ous evils.
There is a game children play called "wring the towel," in which two clasp hands and whirl their arms over their heads without losing hold, that every woman ought to practice to keep her muscles flexible. Hardly any exer- cise could be devised which would give play to so many muscles at once. A woman ought to be as lithe from head to heel as a willow wand, not for the sake of beauty only, but
BEAUTY THE REWARD OF HEALTH. 107
for the varied duties and functions she must perform.
It would be an artistic feat to take Chris- tiana through a course of baths, diet, suri-su> tings, and open-air walks, to show her to her- self. The oleander glow on firm cheeks, the eye of light, the tread of Diana, the buoyancy of body that fosters buoyancy of mind and spirits, would please her with herself.
How dexterously Nature inserts the reward of beauty before the self-denials needed to gain health! A thoroughly healthy woman never is unbeautif nl. She is full of life, and vivacity shines in her face and manner, while her magnetism attracts every creature who comes within its influence.
108 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPEES.
CHAPTEE 5.
The Bonniest Kate in Christendom. — A Word to Mothers and Aunts. — Different Vanities. — The Sorrows of Ugly Women. — Recipes of an Ancient Beauty. — Sand Wash. — Color for the Nails. — Embrocation for the Hands. — Soap to Bleach the Arms. — Freckle Lotions. — Artistic Enthusiasm at the Toilet.
WAS the last chapter too much of a sermon on Christiana's breakfast? You think so, Kate, who are longing -to learn some art that may make you the bonniest Kate in Christen- dom. You say your hands are rough and un- sightly, your hair grows where you do not want it, and is none too thick where it ought to be. Your eyebrows are" bushy — a most un~ feminine trait, that makes you look fierce as a lamb with mustaches. You don't seern lovely to yourself, and this consciousness makes you stiff and shy in your manner. . Somebody is to blame for this state of things. Either your
LOST DOWER. 109
mother, or your aunt, or the lady principal of the school where you studied, ought to have taken you in hand before you were fourteen, and showed you the remedies for these defects that were to affect your spirits and comfort in after-life. A girl should be taught to take care of her skin and hair just as she is to hold her dress out of the dust, and not to crumple her sash when she sits down. One thing will not make her vain more than another. There are many vanities to be found in women's character. One is vain of knowing three languages, one of her Sunday-school devotion, another of her pattern temper, and one of her pretty face. Of all these errors, the last is most endurable. Every attraction filched from a girl by neglect or design is so much stolen from her dowry that never can be replaced.
Victor Hugo says that he who would know suffering should learn the sorrows of women. Let him say of ugly women, and he will touch the depth of bitterness. What tears the plain ones shed on silent pillows, shrinking even
110 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
from the pale, beautiful moonshine that con- trasts so fatally with their homeliness. They would give years of life to win one of beauty. This regret is natural, irresistible, and not to be forbidden. Better let the grief have its way till the busy period of life takes a wom- an's thoughts off herself, and she forgets to care whether she is beautiful or not. Dam up the sluices of any sorrow, and it deepens and grows wider. Is this treating a peculiarly feminine regret over-tenderly ? This is writ- ten in remembrance of a girl who thought her- self so homely that she absolutely prayed that she might die and go to be perfect in heaven. More than one girl makes such a wish this night before small mirrors in cottage or man- sion chambers, with no eye but her own to scan her hopeless features. Why doesn't some one open a school of fine arts, literally des beaux-arts^ and make a greater success than Worth, by improving wearers instead of cos- tumes ?
Till that time comes, let us make the best of
DELICATE HANDS. Ill
present resources, and consider these recipes, unearthed from an ancient book-shelf belong- ing to a maiden lady who was once, if tradi- tion may be credited, a beauty of no mean or- der. There is one thing to console us, Kate : you and I will never have to cry for our lost beauty. Your hands are to be pitied, for soft, sensitive lingers are what a woman can least afford to lose. They are needed to nurse sick folks, and do quick sewing, and handle chil- dren with. So we are glad to learn something of this kind.
To soften the hands, fill a wash-basin half full of fine white sand and soap-suds as hot as can be borne. Wash the hands in this five minutes at a time, brushing and rubbing them in the sand. The best is fiint sand, or the white powdered quartz sold for filters. It may be used repeatedly by pouring the water away after each washing, and adding fresh to keep it from blowing about. Rinse in warm lather of fine soap, and after drying rub them in dry bran or corn meal. Dust them, and finish
112 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPKKS.
witli rubbing cold cream well into the skin. This effectually removes the roughness caused by house-work, and should be used every day, first removing ink or vegetable stains with acid.
Always rub the spot with cold cream or oil after using acid on the fingers. The cream supplies the place of the natural oil of the skin, which the acid removes with the stain.
To give a fine color to the nails, the hands and fingers must be \vell lathered and washed with scented soap ; then the nails must be rubbed with equal parts of cinnabar and em- ery, followed by oil of bitter almonds. To take white specks from the nails, melt equal parts of pitch and turpentine in a small cup ; add to it vinegar and powdered sulphur. Rub this on the nails, and the specks will soon dis- appear. Pitch and myrrh melted together may be used with the same results.
An embrocation for whitening and soften ing the hands and arms, which dates far back, possibly to King James's times, is made from
POWERFUL APPLICATIONS. 113
myrrh, one ounce ; honey, four ounces ; yel- low wax, two ounces ; rose-water, six ounces. Mix the whole in one w^ell-blended mass for use, melting the wax, rose-water, and honey together in a dish over boiling water, and add- ing the myrrh while hot. Rub this thickly over the skin before going to bed. It is good for chapped surfaces, and would make an ex- cellent mask for the face.
To improve the skin of the hands and arms, the following old English recipe is given, the principle of which is now revived in different cosmetic combinations. Take two ounces of fine hard soap — old Windsor or almond soap — and dissolve it in two ounces of lemon juice. Add one ounce of the oil of bitter almonds, and as much oil of tartar. Mix the whole, and stir \vell till it is like soap, and use it to wash the hands. This contains the most powerful agents which can safely be applied to the skin, and it should not be used on scratches or chap- ped hands. For the latter a delicate ointment is made from three ounces of oil of sweet al
114: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
rnonds, an ounce of spermaceti, and half an ounce of rice flour. Melt these over a slow lire, keep stirring till cold, and add a few drops of rose-oil. This makes a good color for the lips by mixing a little alkanet powder with it, and may be used to tinge the finger-tips. It is at least harmless.
Oil of almonds, spermaceti, white wax, and white sugar-candy, in equal parts, melted to- gether, form a good white salve for the lips and cheeks in cold weather. A fine cold cream, much pleasanter to use than the mixtures of lard and tallow commonly sold under that name, is thus made :
Melt together two ounces of oil of almonds and one drachm each of white wax and sperm- aceti ; while warm add two ounces of rose-wa- ter, and orange-flower water half an ounce. Nothing better than this will be found in the range of toilet salves.
A wash " for removing tan, freckles, blotch- es, and pimples," as the high-sounding preface ' assures us, is made from two gallons of strong
FRECKLE LOTION. 115
soap-suds, to which are added one pint of al- cohol and a quarter of a pound of rosemary. Apply with a linen rag. This is better when kept in a close jar overnight.
Freckle lotion, for the cure of freckles, tan, or sunburned face and hands — something which I would prefer to the rosemary wash be- fore given, is thus made : Take half a pound of clear ox gall, half a drachm each of cam- phor and burned alum, one drachm of borax, two ounces of rock-salt, and the same of rock- candy. This should be mixed and shaken wrell several times a day for three weeks, until the gall becomes transparent ; then strain it very carefully through filtering-paper, which may be had of the druggists. Apply to the face dur- ing the day, and wash it off at night.
Now, Kate, do you see your way clear to the use and benefit of these mixtures? All these articles are to be found at any large druggist's, or, if not, he will tell you where to find them. The rosemary and honey may be found in that still fragrant store-room of your aunt's, in the
116 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
country, unless she lias taken to writing very poor serial articles, and let the herb garden and the bees run out. To save trouble, take the recipes and have them made up at once by the druggist, who understands such things; but it is pleasant to dabble in washes and lotions one's self, like the Vicar of Wakeh'eld's young ladies. Then have you patience to persevere in their use ? For making one's self beautiful is a work of time and perseverance as much as being an artist, or a student, or a Christian. I wish I were with you, and could keep you up to your preparations, brush your eyebrows, trim your eyelashes, and do the dozen different offices of sympathy and \yomanly kindness. I should feel that I was the artist putting the touches on something more valuable than any statue ever moulded. Can you feel so your- self ? For if you can once get hold of that artistic impulse, you have the secret of all these toilet interferences.
WITCIICEAFT FROM THE WOODS. 117
CHAPTER XL
A. Dark Potion.— Olive-oil and Tar for the Face.— Olive- tar for Inhalation. — Carbolic Lotion for Pimples. — Cure for Musquito Bites. — Pale Blondes. — A French Marquise. -—Deepening Colors by Sunlight. — Seductive Cosmetics. — Nose-machine. — Finger Thimbles.
NEITHER distilled waters perfumed like May, nor embrocation smoother than velvet, are this time to be offered you. The compound in its ugliness is more like a witch's potion, and the odor is generally liked by those only who are used to it. But its merits are equal to its ug- liness— nay, so firmly am I persuaded of its ef- fectiveness that before sundown I doubt not its virtues will be in active test within this household. Sea winds will roughen the face, and miscellaneous food deteriorate the soft- est skins. There are wrinkles, too, showing their first faint daring on the brow before
118 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
the glass — wrinkles which had no busi- ness there for ten years to come, at any rate. u What hand shall soothe" their trace away ?
It is a hunter's prescription that comes in use. You will hear of it along the Sara- nac, or lip in the Franconia region, where the pines and spruces yield fresh resins for its making. It is popular there for its efficacy in keeping the black-flies and musquitoes away ; yet even hunters bear witness to its excellence in leaving the skin fair and innocent. Thus runs the formula, simple enough, in all con- science, yet how few will have the boldness to try it : Mix one spoonful of the best tar in a pint of pure olive or almond oil, by heating the two together in a tin cup set in boiling water. Stir till completely mixed and smooth, putting in more oil if the compound is too thick to run easily. Rub this on the face when going to bed, and lay patches of soft old cloth on the cheeks and forehead to keep the tar from rubbing off. The bed linen must be protected
A SYLVAN KECIPE. 119
by old sheets folded and thrown over the pil- lows. The odor, when mixed with oil, is not strong enough to be unpleasant — some people fancy its suggestion of aromatic pine breath -—and the black, unpleasant mask washes off easily with warm water and soap. The skin comes out, after several applications, soft, moist, and tinted like a baby's. Certainly this wood ointment is preferable to the household rem- edy for coarse skins of wetting in buttermilk. Further, it effaces incipient wrinkles by soften- ing and refining the skin. The French have long used turpentine to efface the marks of age, but the olive - tar is pleasanter. A pint of best olive-oil costs about forty cents at the grocer's; for the tar apply to the druggist, who keeps it on hand for inhaling. A spoon- ful of the mixture put in the water vase of a stove gives a faint pine odor to the air of a room, which is very soothing to weak lungs. Physicians often recommend it.
What is to be done witli the malignant lit- tle red pimples that crop out aiuioyingly at
120 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
the close of warm weather ? The cause is very plain. When cool days check the perspira- tion, the system must send out matter by some other outlet before it can adjust itself to the new state of things. Nothing is better for the
O o
irritable face than bathing with a dilution of carbolic acid — one teaspoonful of the com- mon acid to a pint of rose-water. The acid, as usually sold in solution, is about one half the strength of really pure acid, which is very hard to find. The recipe given above was furnished by a regular physician, and was used on a baby, to soothe eruptions caused by heat, with the happiest results. Care must be taken not to let the wash get into the eyes, as it certainly will smart, though it may not be strong enough to do further harm. Xo more purifying, healing lotion is known to medical skill, and its work is speedy. Poor baby was not beautiful with his face of unaccustomed spots and blotches, when the laving with the fluid began at night, but next morning they were hardly visible. I commend this again to
121
mothers as a specific against those irritations with which children suffer. For soothing rrms- quito bites alone it is worth all the camphor, soda washes, and hartshorn that ever were tried.
There is a wrord of comfort to-day for those most hopeless cases of unloveliness, tow-color- ed blondes. Light hair of the faintest shade, without a tinge of gold or auburn, is now fan- cied abroad. Chignons of pale hair, dressed in abundant frizzes, command nearly as high a price as those pure blondes dorees which have been worth so many times their weight in gold. Ladies of fashion in France dye their hair, or rather bleach it, to this colorless state ; and the effect is very piquant with dark eyes and complexion. At the fetes in Paris recent- ly a marchioness of daring taste attracted gen- eral admiration by her pale tresses, relieved by profuse black velvet trimmings. Indeed, the only wear for tres blondes is black, even if it is only black alpaca, with transparent ruches at the neck and wrists. Let such not fear to ex-
122 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
pose themselves to the fiercest sun to gain a shade or two of color in the face. If the fine- grained skin which accompanies such hair take on a pale, even brown, so much the better for artistic effect. Dark eyes will give brilliancy to the dullest face ; and dark they must be, if the harmless crayon can make them so by skillful shading about the light lashes. If ever art is a boon, it is when called in to change the sick- ly whiteness of too blonde brows and lashes. We can hardly expect that girls will carry their zeal for coloring so far as to feed for months on the meal from sorghum seed, which has the powerful effect of deepening the tint of the entire flesh — a phenomenon as true as strange ; but we must hope that they will live and work in the rays of that great beautifier, the sun, which brings out and perfects all un- developed tones in Nature's painting. Pale eyes darken in exercise out-of-doors, and pasty skins grow prismatic like mother-of-pearl, in that wonderful way which fascinated Monsieur Taine when he beheld the miraculous brow?
NOSE-MACHINE. '123
and shoulders of English ladies. The idea did not seem to suggest itself to the critical French- man, but it will to every woman, that these charms were not wholly due to Nature. It is bewildering to read the announcements of toilet preparations under seductive names — rosaline, blanc de perle, rose-leaf powder, mag- nolia, velvetine, can romaine tfor, and the rest. Think of the potent chemistry wThich waits outside our windows untried ! Among the list of "eyebrow pencils," "nail polishes," and lip salves, a foreign paper brings to notice one in- vention which might be of use — a nose-ma- chine, which, we are told, so directs the soft cartilage that an ill-formed nose is quickly shaped to perfection. No surgeon will deny that this is possible to a great degree. That it would be a boon nobody can doubt, seeing how many unfortunates walk the world whose noses have every appearance of having been sat upon, or made acquainted with the nether millstone. Long thimbles reaching to the sec- ond joint for shaping fingers are a new device.
124 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
though something of the kind was used by very particular beauties fifty years ago. The only thing women would not do to increase their comeliness is to put themselves on the rack, unless indeed it were to live healthily.
RESULTS OF HIGH LIVING. 125
CHAPTEE XI..
Removal of Superfluous Hair. — Effects of High Living.— Work of Typhoid Fever. — Roman Tweezers. Lola Mon- tez's Recipes. — Paste of Wood -ashes. — Bleaching Arms with Chloride. — Cautions about Depilatories. — Public Baths. — Improving Complexions by the Sulphur Vapor- bath. — How Arabian Women Perfume Themselves.— Profuse Hair, Sign of Nature's Bounty.
A CORRESPONDENT wishes to know what will remove superfluous hair, adding that she is an- noyed with such a growth of it on her face that she is the remark of her friends. These unfortunate cases are the result of morbid con- stitution, freaks of nature which are to be com- bated as one would eradicate leprosy or scrof- ula. The extreme growth of hair where it should not be comes from gross living, or is inherited by young persons from those whose blood was made of too rich materials. Living for two or three generations on overlarded
126 THE UGLY GIRL PAPERS.
meats, plenty of pastry, salt meats, ham, and fish, with good old pickles from brine — in short, what would be called high living among middle-class people — is pretty sure to leave its marks on lip and brow. Sometimes typhoid fever steps in and arrests the degeneration by a painful and searching process, which, as it were, burns out the vile particles, and, if the patient's strength endure, leaves her almost with a new body. The red, scaly skin peels off, and leaves a soft, fresh cuticle, pink as a child's; the dry hair comes out, and a fine, often curling suit succeeds it, while moles and feminine mustaches disappear and leave, no sign. But this fortunate end is not secured to order, and there are preferable ways of re- newing the habit of body.
For immediate removal of the afflicting shad- ows which mar a feminine face there are many methods. The Romans used tweezers, regu- larly as we do nail-brushes, to pull out stray hairs; and Lola Montez speaks of seeing vic- tims of a modern day sitting for hours before
DEPILATORIES, OLD AND NEW. 127
the mirror painfully pulling out the hairs on their faces. But this often makes the matter worse; for if the hairs are broken off, and riot pulled up by the roo's they are sure to grow coarser than before. Often one hair pulled out sends two or three to grow in its place. A paste of line wood-ashes left to dry on the skin is said to eat off hairs, and is probably as safe as any remedy. The authority on femi- nine matters quoted above recommends very highly a plaster which pulls the hairs out by the roots. Spread equal parts of galbanum and pitch plaster on a piece of thin leather, and apply to the place desired ; let it remain three minutes, and pull off suddenly, when it brings the hairs with it, and they are said not to grow again. * This will probably bring the tears into the eyes of any one who tries it. ; but the courage of damsels desiring a smooth face is not to be damped by such trifles as an instant's pain. If the plaster were left on more than three minutes, it would be apt to bring the skin with it in coming off. It is
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better to use daily a paste of ashes or caustic soda, left on as long as it can be borne, wash- ing with vinegar to take out the alkali, and rubbing on sweet-oil to soften the skin, which is left very hard by these applications. Ap- plied day after day, it would not fail to kill the hair in a month, when it would dry and rnb off. This may be used on the arms, which might be whitened and cleared of hair togeth- er by bathing them in a hot solution of chlo- ride of lime as strong as that used for bleaching cotton, say two table-spoonfuls to a quart of water. Bathe the arms daily in this, as hot as can be borne, for not over two minutes, wash- ing afterward in vinegar and water,, and rub- bing with almond or olive oil. This should be done in a warm room before an open window^ to avoid breathing the fumes of the chloride, which are both unpleasant and noxious. Strong soft-soap left to dry on the arms would in time eat away any hair. But the trouble is that these strong agents eat away the skin almost as soon as they do the hair, and nice care must
VIRTUES OF THE VAPO1M3AT1I. 129
be used to prevent dangerous results. If the blood should be in bad order, though not sus- pected by any one, least of all by the person interested, caustic of any sort might eat a hole in the flesh that would fester, and be a long time healing. I saw a frightful sore that a lady made on her neck, trying to remove a mole with lunar caustic, and should advise ev- ery one to be careful how they run such pain ful risks. It is not wise to endure pain hero- ically, thinking to have the matter over and done with at once. Better try the applications many times, leaving them to do their work gradually and surely.
To lay the foundation of true beauty, the system should be purified within as well as without. Nothing is of so much value in this respect as the vapor-bath. In all our large cities public establishments exist for taking these baths, and their virtues are well appre- ciated by those who once try them. At the largest bathing -houses in New York ladies attend regularly for the sole object of im-
130 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
proving their complexion. Perhaps the most successful form administered is the sulphur vapor-bath, which works wonders for neural- gia. It purifies and searches the blood, and I have seen a patient who had lost one of the loveliest complexions in the world, as ^he thought forever, come out of her bath day after day visibly whitened at each trial. For ladies past youth nothing restores such soft- ness and child-like freshness to the cheek or such suppleness to the figure. Of course these baths can only be taken at places for the pur- pose, where chemical means are not wanting. I only mention them to urge all ladies who have the chance of trying them not to fail of doing so, both for pleasure and benefit.
The vapor-bath, pure and simple, has stood for some time among household remedies for various ills, and is given by seating the un- dressed patient on a straw or flag chair over a saucer in which is a little lighted alcohol, and wrapping chair, patient, and all in large blank- ets. After a few minutes the perspiration
PERFUMING WITH MYRRH. 131
streams as if he were in a caldron of steam? and may be kept np any length of time. Fif- teen minutes are enough. A tepid bath should follow, if one is not chilled by it, and after that either a good sleep or exercise enough to keep one in a glow. Impurities are dis- charged from the system in this way which else might occasion fever. The hair, skin, and nails are insensibly renewed and refined by it. There is not the least danger of taking cold if the precautions are taken of rubbing dry, dressing quickly and warmly, and keep- ing the blood at its proper heat by work or fire — in short, by doing just those things which ought to be done should one never go near a vapor-bath.
Arabian women have a similar method of perfuming their bodies by sitting over coals on which are cast handf uls of myrrh and spices. The heat opens the pores, which receive the fumes, till the skin is impregnated with the odor, and the women come out smelling like a censer of incense. Twice a week is often
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enough for the vapor-bath; as for the fiimi* gation, some creature doubtless will be wild enough to try the experiment once, which wil) be sufficient for a lifetime. If she do, she will be very glad to know that ammonia bathing will destroy most traces of her adventurous caprice.
A profusion of hair, however, is a sign of nature's liberality, and this growth is found in connection with a strength and generosity of constitution that is capable of the best things when duly refined. South Americans, with their stipple bodies overflowing with vitality, have splendid tresses, and so have the Span- iards and Italians. Such people are quick and lasting in the dance, own deep tuneful voices, move with vigor and ease, and have a lux- uriance of blood and spirits, which is too precious to restrain or lose. Fasting, denial of pleasant food and plenty of it, till one is worn to an anchorite, may do for religious penance, but does not reach physical ends so well as moderate and satisfying indulgence,
WHAT TO EAT. 133
If any poor girl think, from reading this pa- per, that she ought to starve and waste herself by sweating because she has a pair of mus- taches and a coat of hair on her arms, she is vastly mistaken. If she want to know what she may eat, let her study Professor Blot's cookery-book. Whatever is there she may eat, as it is there, assured that all the delightful French seasoning will not do her blood half the injury of a season's course of pies made after good Yankee fashion — the crust half lard and half old butter, the filling strong with spice or drenched with essence, as the case may be.
134 THE UGLY-CIKI, PAPERS.
CHAPTER XIII.
Madame Celnart's Works of the Toilet. — Literature of Beauty. — Cares of the Toilet. — Arts of Coiffure and Lacing. — How to Hold a Needle Gracefully. — Iris Powdet for Tresses. — Arts of Italian Women. — Depilatory used in Harems. — Spirit of Pyretic. — Herbs used by Greek Women. — Mexican Pomade. — Dusky Perfumed Marbles. — Lost Perfumes. — Sultanas' Lotion. — Brilliant Paste for Neck and Arms. — Baking Enamel.
IF ever a woman deserved a seat in the French Academy for the value of her literary labors to her kind, it was Madame Celnart.
The works of this lively author on man- ners, dress, cosmetics, and kindred topics no less interesting to her sex, are found in eight small octavos in their native French. The lady was an industrious and brilliant writer on themes of the toilet, the household, and deportment, on which Mrs. Farrar, author of The Young Lady's Friend, of our mothers'
THE "EVANGELS OF COQUETRY." 13o
time, and Mrs. Beeton, the editor of The En* glishwomarfs Magazine, in our day, have suc- ceeded her with much adornment but hardlj equal scope. Madame Celnart talks — one can hardly imagine her holding a pen — like a Pa risian, with empressement, with drollery, pre~ cision, and inimitable sprightliness. Her lect- ures sound like those of a gentle old' beauty, secure in the charm of her finished manner against the loss of her earlier fascinations, tell- ing the secrets of her age to a younger gen- eration, with half a smile at their readiness to seize these arts, and seriously pointing out the most graceful or the most modest way of do- ing things, with the concern of one who is con- scious that grace and prudence do not come to all her sex by nature. Imagine the arch gentleness with which she opens her work on the toilet in such easy, sparkling guise as this: " Je viens defeuilleter les arts de plaire, les lir/res de beaute, et autres evangiles des courti- sane" which may be freely translated, " I come to speak of the arts of pleasing, the literature
136 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
of beauty, and other evangels of coquetry." She has a well-bred curl of disdain for " une allure bourgeoise mesquine;" but with the rev- erence of a true Frenchwoman, whose creed is her mirror, she pronounces her work " consacre a la toilette, et la conversation de la beaute" These duties she divides with serious precision into the " soins de la toilette" which include cosmetic arts, and " Part de se coiffer, lacer, et chausser" It was indeed an art, in the time of hundred-boned corsets without clasps, to lace one's self, and in the days of classic san- dals to put on one's shoes. She is as exact in all her details as a school-mistress, though one fancies a covert smile on her wise face as she rallies the young demoiselles who dreaded the bath — because it was so cold ? Oh no ; but because their modesty could not endure the baring of their person even to themselves. Such, she gravely advises, may save their "pu- deur" by bathing in a peignoir. One inevi- tably recalls Lola Montez's dedication of her famous Book of Beauty ', " To all men and
NEWBUKYPORT GENTLEWOMEN. 137
women who arc not afraid of themselves," on encountering these French demoiselles with their conventual susceptibility.
The graceful preceptress goes on with di- rections for sitting, for holding one's needle, for dancing, and holding one's petticoats out of the mud. Nobody will allow that these hints are superfluous who notices the varied awkwardness which women fall into who are habitually thoughtless on these points. Some of these nice customs may have been carried to our shores, possibly with Rochambeau's French ladies at Newport or Salem. I re- member hearing one of the fine Newburyport ladies, who answer to the description of gen- tlewomen still, maintain earnestly that it was most graceful to "sew with a long point" — that is, to push the needle nearly its whole length through at each stitch, instead of pull- ing it out, so to speak, by the nose. And she was right, as you can verify by the next sew- ing, you take up.
In the time of Madame Celnart, fine ladies
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used to powder their hair with the dust of Florentine iris, which gave their love-breath- ing tresses the violet odor of spring. A pleas- ant idea; but their iris, our orris root, must have been a trifle fresher than comes to this country. It makes us sure that the beauties of Titian's and Guido's times were real wom- en, to know that they steeped their tresses in bleaching liquids and dyes, and spread their locks in the sun for hours to gain the coveted golden tinge; and the hair of the Bella Donna herself might have caught part of its enchantment from the sprinkling of violet powder that lent its waves a soul. Those im- mortal beauties would have canonized Lubin had he been alive writh his pomades and per- fumes in their time. Celnart was a coura- geous advocate of cosmetics, or else she was wise enough to put the worst first, for one of her earliest recipes is this depilatory, which is not at all quoted by way of recommendation. It is the Oriental Rusma, a depilatory used in harems:
"OKIENTAL EUSMA." 139
Two ounces of quicklime, half an ounce of orpiment and red arsenic; boil in one pint of alkaline lye, and try with a feather to see when it is strong enough. Touch the parts to be rid of hair, and wash with cold water. When we say that orpiment and realgar are deadly poisons, and add Madame Celnart's re- mark that the mixture is of " line grande caus- ticite" often attacking the tissue of the skin, our readers will quite agree with her that it is only to be used with " la plus grande cir- conspeciion" or, still better, not at all. The Creine Parisienne depilatoire is harmless, and is given for what it is worth : One eighth of an ounce of rye starch, and the same of sul- phate of baryta (or heavy-spar), the juice of purslane, acacia, and milk-thistle, mixed with oil.
The high-sounding Paste of Venus, devised by a Parisian cosmetic artist, who shared the mythologic fancy which prevailed years ago, was spread over the skin to soften and per- fume it. Esther herself might have used it, 10
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for its conjugation of spices would delight an Oriental. It was made of fat, butter, honey, and aromatics — the more the better; but as none of our belles wish to try the anointing bodily, I spare them the list, and give instead the Esprit de pyretre. The pyrethrum, or Spanish pellitory, is an herb highly valued by cosmetic artists, and appears in several recipes of the French :
Powdered cinnamon, one drachm; corian- der, nineteen scruples ; vanilla, the same ; clove, eighteen grains; cochineal, mace, and saffron, the same ; simple spirit of pyrethrum, one li- tre (about seven eighths of a quart). Let these ingredients digest for fifteen days, and add orange-flower water, half an ounce; oil of an- ise, eighteen drops; citron, ditto; oils of lav- ender and thyme, each nine drops ; ambergris, three grains. Mix the ambergris with the pyretre, and put the two liquids together. Fil- ter after two days. Use as a toilet water.
No wonder French cosmetics are so high- ly valued, when their composition embraces
SAFFRON AND ROSES. 141
such a variety of pleasing ingredients. Thyme, anise, and saffron seem homely herbs for a woman's use, but they assisted at every toilet among the Greek women of old ; and Rhodora wove the crocus (meadow-saffron) with the rose, and fennel among her jasmines, without a thought such as these things give us of sick- teas and home-made dyes. Why should herbs of such excellent renown lose the poetry that belongs to them? Mingled in variety with ambergris and orange flowers, they give body to a perfume rich enough to have satisfied Cleopatra.
If this recipe is complicated, what will be said to the next, compounded by South Amer- ican women, and fashionable in Paris not so very long after the time of Josephine, who may have patronized, or, indeed, introduced this souvenir of Creole coquetry. Madame Celn art says of it, " Only the Tartuffes of coquetry could blame the Mexican pomade," whose proportions indicate that the formula came straight from the perfumer's hands, and
142 THE UGLY-GIRL PAPERS.
is therefore correct. Any one who wishes fr try it can reduce the measure to suit herself :
Extract of cocoa, sixty-four ounces; oil of noisette, thirty-two ounces ; oil of ben, thirty- two ounces; oil of vanilla, two ounces; white balsam of Peru, one drachm ; benzoin flowers, half a drachm; civet, ditto; neroli, one drachm; essence of rose, one drachm ; oil of clove flow- ers', one ounce; citron and bergamot waters, each half a pint. Steep the vanilla in the co- coa butter eight days in a hot place ; dissolve the balsam in half a glass of alcohol, with the benzoin and civet, and add the spirit of clove. Mix the essence of rose and neroli in the oils of ben and noisette, and beat the whole forci- bly together in a large marble or china bowl.
Creole women spread this paste on their smooth skins, which the oil of cocoa softens and moistens, while the delightful changing odor is absorbed, till their forms are like liv- ing, dusky, but perfumed marbles. These rec- ipes are given -not so much for imitation, or to contribute to the lore of perfumers this side
FRAGEANT WATEES. 143
tne water, as curiosities of national arts and feminine vanity. Where in our country would we find the ingredients of the celebrated Eau de Stahl, known to the Parisian chemists forty years ago ? Its compound wras as follows :
Alcohol, nine litres ; rose-water, three litres; the root of Spanish pellitory, five ounces ; gal- lingale root, three ounces ; tormentil, three ounces ; balsam of Peru, three ounces ; cinna- mon, five drachms ; rue, one ounce ; ratania, eight ounces. Powder the whole, and put in alcohol ; shake wrell, and leave to macerate six days. Pour off, and let it stand twenty-four hours to clear, after which add essential oil of mint, one and a half drachms; powdered coch- ineal, four drachms. Leave to infuse anew three days; filter through filtering-paper, and decant. Use for a tooth wash, for washing the face, or for baths.
Peruvian powder was a standard dentifrice of the same date, It is made of white sugar, half a drachm ; cream of tartar, one drachm ; magnesia, ditto ; cinnamon, six grains ; mace,
144: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
two grains ; sulphate of quinine, three grains ; carmine, five grains. Powder and mix care- fully, adding four drops of the oils of rose and mint.
The following cosmetic, called the SerJcis du Serail, is said to be a favorite lotion used by the Sultanas, for whom it is imported from Achaia — though this sounds more like one of those pleasant fictions which perfumers de- light to invent concerning their oils and po- mades than any thing we are obliged to be- lieve. This may be said in favor of the asser- tion— it is such a mixture of starch and oils as no one but an odalisque could endure to use. It is made of sweet- almond paste, ten livres ; rye and potato starch, each six livres ; oil of jasmine, eight ounces ; the same of oil of orange flowers and of roses ; black balsam of Peru, six ounces ; essence of rose and of cin- namon, each sixty grains. Mix the powders and essences separately in earthen vessels, then add the powder to the liquid little by little, bruise well together, and strain through musliu,
BRILLIANT ENAMEL. 145
An elegant preparation for whitening the face and neck is made of terebinth of Mecca, three grains ; oil of sweet almonds, four ounces ; spermaceti, two drachms ; flour of zinc, one drachm ; white wax, two drachms ; rose-water, six drachms. Mix in a water-bath, and melt together. The harmless mineral white is fixed in the pomade, or what we would call cold cream, and is applied with the greatest ease and effect. It must be to some preparation of this subtle sort that the lustrous whiteness of certain much-admired fashionable complex- ions is due. It is a cheap enamel, without the supposed necessity of baking, which, by the way, is such a blunder that I wonder people of sense persist in speaking of it as if it could be a fact
146 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Last of the Rose. — Weighing in the Balances. — To Love and to be Loved. — The Enigma of Love. — Its Power over the Lot of Men. — Inspiration in the Looks. — The Land of Spring. — The Duchess of Devonshire. — Women at and after Thirty. — Training of Emotion. — Warming the Voice. — Crow's-feet at the Opera. — Bohemian Arsenic Waters. — Recipe from Madame Vestris. — Milk of Roses. — Sweet-oils. — Opera-dancers' Prescription for Restoring Suppleness.
FOR any woman, maid or matron, past youth, who hears the leaves begin to drop, and sees the roses curl in the warm summer of her life, this chapter is written. It is well that with the decay of bloom and outward charm there should be a lessening of feeling, an amiable indifference to the homage that youth covets eagerly. The woman of — who dares fill in the age? — the woman who finds the fai.nt lines on her cheek and the pallor creeping to
AN OLD SONG. 147
'her lip should have learned and tasted many tilings in her life — so many that she can ap- praise the value of all, and resign them con- tentedly, with a little sigh, not for what they were, but for wrhat they wrere not.
She should have loved, and, if possible, have won love in return, though that is less matter. The wisdom, the blessedness, come through loving, not through being loved.
It is well if she can accept the complement of her affection, and find out of what mutable elements it is made : its fervor and forgetful- ness ; its devotion, /)ften eclipsed and as often surprising with its fresh strength — weak where we trust it most, and standing proof where we surely expect it to fail.
Suclv is the love of man. It is a riddle, whose learning has cost gray hairs on tender temples, the roses from many cheeks.
It is the tradition that love makes or mars a woman's life ; but I have yet to learn that it does not exert an equal though silent power over the lot of men. Be that as it may, &
148 THE USLY-GIRL PAPERS.
woman in love is far more beautiful than one out of it. And this is true if the love last to threescore.
Let women, if they would remain charming, by all means keep their hold on love, their faith in romance. The power of feeling gives vitality arid interest to faces long after their first flush has passed. Speaking as matter of fact, this is the case, for emotion has a livelier power than the sun has over the blood, and the miracle of love in making a plain girl pretty is explained by the stimulating effects of happiness on the circulation. If you would preserve inspiration in your looks, beware how you repress emotion. Cultivate, not the signs of it, but emotion itself, for the two things are very distinct. Suffer yourself to be touched and swayed by noble music and passion. To do this, place yourself often under the best in- fluences within reach. There may be pathos enough in the rendering of a poor little girl's song at the piano to stir tenderly chords of feeling that were growing dull for want of
ANTIQUE BELLES. 149
use. The rose of morning, the perfume of spring, have rapt many a middle-aged woman away to divine regions of fancy, from which she came back with their dewy freshness and smell lingering about her. Youth has its day- long reveries while its hands are at work. We older ones need to reserve with jealous care our hours of solitude, in which the springs fill up.
The faces of old beauties have no charm be- yond that of feeling. Look at the women who were reputed the belles of our large cities twenty years ago. They may be well preserved ; but in most cases they are mere masks in discolored wax. The pearly teeth, the small Grecian features, the soft, fine hair and regular eyes are left, but the brow has learned neither to weep nor smile, the lips are composed, and might be mute for all the ex- pression that replaces their lost crimson. One could adore the wasted beauty of the Duchess of Devonshire, " worn by the agitations of a brilliant and romantic life," for the sake of
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the fire and kindness that lit even its death- pillow ; and the Josephine of Malmaison, with eyes always eloquent of tears, wins more devo- tion than the empress at Saint Cloud, confessed the loveliest woman of France. Let no wom- an fall into the mistake of preserving her beauty by refraining from emotion, for all she can keep by such costly pains will be the coffin- like shapeliness of flowers preserved in sand.
Laugh, weep, rejoice, or suffer as life pro- vides. Only feel something natural, worthy^ and vivid enough not to leave your face a blank.
There is a time between twenty-five and thirty-five when the struggle of life, mean or lofty as it may be, oppresses women sorely. Fret and care write crossing script on their faces, which grow yellow and pinched till they despair of comeliness. This is when they are learning to live. Ten years or so make the lesson easy, and it is one of the thankfulest things in the world to see such faces going back to the blossom and sunny sweetness of
151
their spring. Many a woman is handsomer at thirty-Dine than she was at thirty. Nature re- sponds wonderfully to the reliefs afforded her. The only counsel is to let Nature go free. Do not think, because trial has bent spirit and frame together, that they should stay so a mo- ment after the heavy hand is off. If you feel like singing, sing, not humming low, but joy- ful and clear as the larks, that would carol just as gayly at ninety, if larks lived so long, as the first summer they left their nests. The worst of English and American systems of manners is the constant repression they de- mand. It impairs even the physical powers, so that in training a singer the first thing great artists do is to teach her to feel, in order, as they say, to " warm up " the voice and give it fullness. Women need to culti- vate pleasure arid amusement far more after they are thirty than before it, I mean roman- tic pleasures, such as come from exquisite col- ors and sceneries in nature or their homes, from poetry and the loveliest music. They
152 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
are twice as impressible then as they are in youth, if they know how to get hold of the right notes. They leave themselves to fall out of tune, and forget to respond.
Yet, as a woman does not love to carry her thinned tresses and crow's-feet into the glare of the opera, or to talk poetry when rheu- matism twinges her middle finger, the craft of the toilet comes in most gratefully. The freshness of the skin is prolonged by a simple secret, the tepid bath in which bran is stirred, followed by long friction, till the flesh fairly shines. This keeps the blood at the surface, and has its effect in warding off wrinkles. Bohemian countesses over thirty may go to arsenic springs, as they were wont to do, for the benefit of their complexions; but the home bath-room is more efficacious than even the minute doses of quicksilver with which the ladies of George the First's court used to poison themselves — a primitive wTay of get- ting at the virtues of bine-pill.
The celebrated Madame Vestris slept with
ANOINTING WITH PERFUMES. 153
her face covered by a paste which gave firm- ness to a loose skin and prevented wrinkles. It was a recipe which the Spanish ladies are fond of using, which requires the whites of four eggs boiled in rose-water, to which is added half an ounce of alum, arid as much oil of sweet almonds, the whole beaten to a paste.
A favorite cosmetic of the time of Charles II. was the milk of roses, said to give a fair and youtlif ul appearance to faded cheeks. It was made by boiling gum-benzoin in the spir- its of wine till it formed a rich tincture, fifteen drops of which in a glass of water made a fra- grant milk, in which the face and arms were bathed, leaving the lotion to dry on. It ob- literates wrinkles as far as any thing can be- sides enamel.
To restore suppleness to the joints, the Oriental practice may be revived of anointing the body witli oil. The best sweet-oil or oil of almonds is used for this purpose, slightly perfumed with attar of roses or oil of violets.
154: THE UGLY-GIKL PAPEKS.
The joints of the knees, shoulders, and fingers are to be oiled daily, and the ointment well rubbed into the skin, till it leaves no gloss. The muscles of the back feel a sensible relief from this treatment, especially when strained with work or witli carrying children. The anointing should follow the bath, when the two are taken together. It is a pity this cus- tom has ever fallen into disuse among our people, who need it quite as much as the sen- suous Orientals.
Opera -dancers in Europe use an ointment which is thus given by Lola Montez : The fat of deer or stag, eight ounces ; olive-oil, six ounces; virgin wax, three ounces; white brandy, half a pint ; musk, one grain ; rose- water, four ounces. The fat, oil, and wax are melted together, and the rose-water stirred into the brandy, after which all are beaten together. It is used to give suppleness to the limbs in dancing, and relieves the stiffness ensuing on violent exercise. Ambergris would suit mod- ern taste better than musk in preparing this.
A CUKE FOE TOOTHACHE. 155
CHAPTER XV.
The Fearful Malady of which no one Dies. — Esprit Odon- talyique. — Gray Pastilles. — Important to Smokers. — Mouth Perfumes. — Care of the Breath. — Directions for Bathing. — Perfumes for the Bath. — Bazin's Pate. — Qual- ity of Soaps. — Bathing and Anointing the Feet. — Nicety of Stockings. — Delicate Shoe Linings. — Feet of Pauline Bonaparte.
AMONG the recipes, more or less valuable, which come to light in old collections, one for the toothache, by Boerhaave, is too useful to be lost. Even beauties have the toothache some- times, especially after going home from the Academy of Music on a snowy night with a tulle scarf folded about their heads, or after sitting with their backs to the window in a half-warmed parlor during a ceremonious call. Use before beauty, mademoiselles ; and with no more excuse is proffered the Esprit Odon- talgique, which should be kept in the dressing-
150 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
room, ready for the slightest signs of that most terrible malady, from which nobody dies.
Alcohol of thirty-three degrees, one ounce; camphor, four grains; opium in powder, twen- ty grains ; oil of cloves, eighty drops. The ef- ficacy of this lotion will be seen at a glance, and no other authority for its use is needed than that of the learned and excellent physi- cian who gave it its name.
Very properly follow the gray pastilles for purifying the breath. They do so, not by dis- guising it, but by reaching the root of the dif- ficulty, arresting decay in the teeth, and neu- tralizing acidity of the stomach. The mixt- ure is very simple : Chlorate of lime, seven drachms ; vanilla sugar, three drachms ; gum- arabic, five drachms — to be mixed with warm water to a stiff paste, rolled, and cut into loz- enges.
Madame Celnart archly advises all good wives to let their spouses know that these loz- enges entirely remove the traces of tobacco in the breath. As a good wife will hardly inter-
"EAU ANGELIQUE." 157
fere with a favorite habit of her husband who is fond of smoking, the least any gentleman can do is to render his presence acceptable after the indulgence.
Another pastille, preferable on some ac- counts to the above, but owing its value to the same principle, is made from chlorate of so- dium, twenty - four grains ; powdered sugar, one ounce ; guin-adraganth, twenty grains ; perfumer's essential oil, two drachms. Pow- der the chlorate in a glass mortar; put the powder in a cup, and pour in a little water; let it settle, and pour off. Repeat the process three times with fresh water, filtering what is poured off each time, and mix the gum and sugar with it, adding the perfume last.
A gargle for the mouth which combines all the virtues of Eau Angelique, and every other wash of heavenly name, is made of the chlorate of lime in powder, three drachms; distilled water, two ounces. Reduce the chlo- rate with a glass pestle in a glass mortar, add a third of the water, stir, and pour off, as di-
158 THE UGLY-GIKL PAPERS.
rected before, till all is added. To this add two ounces of alcohol, in \vhich is dissolved four drops of the volatile oil of roses and four drops of perfumer's essential oil. Half a tea- spoonful of the solution in a wine-glass of wa- ter is to be used at a time as a tooth- wash and gargle for the mouth and gums.
With the best intentions as to physical neat- ness, many persons are unable to make the im- pression of their company wholly agreeable. They may remember with advantage that rinsing the mouth with this fluid six times a day is not too much pains in order to make themselves acceptable to others. There is no surer passport to esteem than an innocent, taintless person, which wins upon one before moral virtues have time to make their way. If you think this truth is repeated too often, study the impression made by the respectable people you meet for the next month. The re- sult will satisfy you that those who are as neat as white cats are as one to fifteen of the care- less, easily satisfied sort.
DIRECTIONS FOR TOILET WATERS. 159
Slight disorders of the system make them- selv,es known by the sickly odor of the perspi- ration, quite sensible to others, though the per- son most interested is the last to become con- scious of it. The least care, even in cold weather, for those who would make their phys- ical as sure as their moral purity, is to bathe with hot water and soap twice a week from head to foot. Carbolic toilet soap is the best for common use, as it heals and removes all roughness and "breakings out" not of the gravest sort. Ladies whose rough complex- ions were a continual mortification have found them entirely cleared by the use of this soap. The slight unpleasant odor of the acid present soon disappears after washing, and it may be overcome by using a few spoonfuls of perfume in the water.
An excellent preparation for bathing is Bacheville's Eau des Odalisques. The French recommend it highly for frictions, lotions, and baths. It is made in quantity for free use aft- er this recipe: Two pints of alcohol, one of
160 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
rose-water, half a drachm of Mexican cochineal, four ounces of soluble cream of tartar, £ve drachms of liquid balsam of Peru, five drachms of dry balsam of the same ; vanilla, one drachm ; pellitory root, one and a half ounces; storax, one and a half ounces; galanga, one ounce; root of galanga, one and a half ounces; dried orange peel, two drachms ; cinnamon, essence of mint, root of Bohemian angelica, and dill seed, each one drachm. Infuse eight days, and filter. For lotions, add one spoonful of this to six of water. It is also useful for freshening the mouth, adding twenty-four drops of it to four teaspoonfuls of tepid water. For dis- eased gums, double the dose, and gargle with it several times a day.
The Pate Axerasive of Bazin, the celebrated perfumer, has the distinction of being* highly commended by the French Royal Academy of Medicine. It is better for toilet use than soaps which contain so much alkali. Take powder of bitter almonds, eight ounces; oil of the same, twelve ounces; savon vert of
DANGER OF USING POOR SOAPS. 161
the perfumers, eight ounces ; spermaceti, four ounces ; soap powder, four ounces ; cinnabar, two drachms ; essence of rose, one drachm, Melt the soap and spermaceti with the oil in a water -bath, add the powder, and mix the whole in a marble mortar. It forms a kind of paste, which softens and whitens the skin better than any soap known.
Make toilet waters and pastes of this kind in quantity,- as they improve with age. It costs about one fourth as much to prepare them as to buy the same quantity at the perfumer's, and one has the advantage of a finer article. Do not use cheap soap for the toilet. Such is almost always made of rancid or half -putrid fat, combined w^ith strong alkalies, which dry and crack the skin, sometimes causing danger- ous sores by the poisonous matter they in- troduce from vile grease. Never allow such soap to touch the flesh of an infant. To do so is little better than absolute cruel tjr. White soaps are the safest, as they are only made of purified fat.
162 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
The feet should be washed every night and morning as regularly as the hands. It pre- serves their strength and elasticity, and helps to keep their shape. What person of refine- ment can take any pleasure in looking at her own feet presenting the common appearance of distortion by shoes too tight in the wrong place, and tiie dry, hardened skin of partial neglect ? One's foot is as proper an object of pride and complacency as a shapely hand. But where in a thousand would a sculptor find one that was a pleasure to contemplate, like that of the Princess Pauline Bonaparte, whose lovely foot was modeled in marble for the de- light of all the world who have seen it ?
As nice care should be given to feet as to hands, beginning witli a bath of fifteen min- utes in hot soap and water, followed by scrap- ing with an ivory knife, and rubbing with a ball of sand-stone, which will be found most useful for a dozen toilet purposes. The nails may be left to take care of themselves, with constant bathing and well-fitting shoes, un-
CARE OF THE FEET. 163
less they have begun to grow into the flesh, when all to be done is to scrape a groove lengthwise in each corner of the nail. The whole foot should be anointed with purified olive-oil or oil of sweet almonds after such a bath. A pair of stockings should be drawn on at night to preserve the bedclothes from grease- spots. The oil will soak off the old skin, and wear away the scaly tissue about the nails, while it renders the soles as soft and pliant as those of a young child.
A daily change of stockings is as desirable for those who walk out as a fresh handker- chief every morning — but how many people consider it necessary? It may sound auda- cious to suggest that when laundry- work is an item, a lady would show her ingrain refine- ment by washing her own Balbriggan hose as truly as by stinting herself to two pair a week on account of washer-women's bills. As for the vulgarity of wearing colored stockings "because they show dirt less," it is to be re- pudiated, save in the case of children, who
164 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
are quite capable of going through with a box of white stockings in a day, and looking none the cleaner for it at the end. Our boot- makers are in fault about the lining of shoes, which ought to be changeable when soiled. Soiled, indeed ! When are common shoes ever clean within ? Our manufacturers are the op- posite of the French, whose workmen wear fresh linen aprons, and wash their hands every hour, for fear of soiling the white kid linings at which they sew. The time will come when we will find it as shocking to our ideas to wear out a pair of boots without putting in new lin- ing as we think the habits of George the First's time, when maids of honor went without wash- ing their faces for a week, and people wore out '.heir linen without the aid of a laundress. Cleanliness means health in every case, and a plea must be offered for those neglected mem- bers, that only find favor in our eyes by mak- ing themselves as diminutive as possible.
A HOME ALTAK-PIECE. 165
CHAPTEE XVI.
"The Leaves are Full of Joy." — Nobility of the Body. — Its Possibilities. — Brain and Heart Dependent on it. — Physical Culture Imperative in America. — Our Contempt of Health. — Easier to be Magnificent than Clean. — Dis- tilled Water for Every Use.— Substitute for Stills.— Vapor and Sulphur Baths. — Bran Baths. — Oatmeal for the Hands. — Frequency of Baths. — Remedies for Hepatic Spots.
How lusty and delicate the young leaves grow on their steins in their nook of sunshine! What could be lovelier in its way than the three geranium leaves starting from the mould in the window-box where the sun strikes across the "corner of the sill? They are so firmly poised, yet glancing; each full of green juice that the sun turns to jewel-light, with spots of darker tint where the feathered edges overlie — a subtle piece of color wrought by sun and soil for no eye to see but by chance, yet ecstatic
166 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
in its delight, as if meant for the centre trefoil of an altar window. So the sun does all his work. So leaves grow by myriads in the gar- den and the forest. So the forces of nature bring forth every thing perfect if left free to their impulses.
There is something like the leaves in our frames, that would grow springy and strong, soft-colored and brilliant, upright and joyous, if it were suffered to. It appeals for sun- shine and gayety, for abundant food and ease, for copious watering, tendance, and freedom. Give it these, and the body, under present conditions, is as far beyond its common dull- ness and weakness as it is below the saints in light; for heavenly bodies can not be very dif- ferent from ours unless they cease to be bodies.
The mortal frame is noble enough as it is. No harp ever vibrates like it with emotion and pleasure ; no star shines so fair or so wise as the face of man. God made it, and God loves it, which is the reason it wins so closely upon us, and is so dear. There is no wisdom
HONORING THE FLESH. 167
in despising the body or its sensations. It is crudity to uphold that the mental part of us should absorb all the rest. Brain and heart are dependent on the body, and it was meant, not for the slave — as men seem never weary of preaching — but for the interpreter and companion of both.
Honor is due the body, and thanks for its pleasures, which should be enjoyed with in- telligence and leisure. They are no more low or debasing than mental pursuits may be when pursued to the exclusion of all others. The sensualist is no more intolerable in the order of nature than the pedant or pretender in literature, and does little more harm in the long-rim. The former ruins himself; the lat- ter, by a false philosophy, may lead thousands astray. Give the body its due — its thirds witli the mind and the soul. Neither is the better for having more than its share.
The need of physical culture grows more and more urgent in this country. Here most unlike races mix sullen and mercurial blood
1G8 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
together in the most variable of climates. They interchange habits as well, though the only one peculiar to Americans as such is a tolerable contempt for the conditions of health — a contempt inherited through half a dozen generations. The climate is not in fault, but the people are. It is much easier in this country to be magnificent than to be clean. At any hotel there is enough of useless up- holstery, as a matter of course, but a bath is an extra, often not to be had on any terms. This is the case even in the metropolis, where at least a better idea of civilization ought to prevail. For the rest, there is not much to be said for the intelligent culture of any family who have carpets before their bath-room is fitted up.
When refinement has reached a step beyond faucets and water-pipes, each house wrill have its distilling apparatus to provide the purest water for drinking and bathing. Xobody will any more think of drinking undistilled water than they do now of eating brown sugar when
DISTILLATION MADE EASY. 169
they can get white. Her Majesty the Queen of England uses nothing but distilled water for her toilet, and the luxury and softness of such a bath are so great that no one used to its indulgence will consent to forego it. A small still costs five dollars, and would pro- vide all the water that is needed for family use. It should be kept in action all the time, and fill a close reservoir for bathing, while that for cooking and drinking should be freshly distilled each day. A simple substitute for a still is a tea-kettle, witli a close cover and a gutta-percha or lead pipe fastened to the spout, leading through a pail of cold water into a jar for holding the distilled water. The steam from .the boiling water goes off through the tube, condenses under the cold water, and runs off pure into the receiver. Where houses are heated by steam, I am told, they may be amply provided with distilled water by adding a pipe to one of the tubular heat- ers, that will carry steam into a cooler, from which pure water may run day and night.
170 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
Besides the distilled-water baths in a com* plete household, there should be facilities for the vapor bath at any time. This is invalua- ble in colds, rheumatism, congestions, and neu- ralgia. The readiest substitute is the rush- bottomed chair and lighted saucer of alcohol described in a former chapter. A sulphur bath requires a shallow pan of coals with a tin water -pan above it, and an elevated seat over the whole. Sulphur is thrown on the coals, which mingles with the steam, and en- ters the system by the pores, which are opened by the vapor. The patient, brazier, and chair must be enveloped with a water-proof cover- ing in the closest manner, leaving only the head exposed, so that no sulphurous vapor can possibly be breathed, as that would be suf- focation at once. In regular bathing estab- lishments the patient sits in a wooden box, having a cover and a water-proof collar which fits tight about the neck, leaving the head out. This box is tilled with steam by a pipe, and the vapor impregnated with sulphur from a
BKAN BATHS. 171
spoonful burning in one corner of the box, or from a generator outside with connecting tube. It is difficult, if not impossible, to ad- minister a sulphur bath without proper and special appliances.
The bran bath, recommended before, is taken with a peck of common bran, such as is used to stuff pincushions, stirred into a tub of warm water. The rubbing of the scaly particles of the bran cleanses the skin, while the gluten in it softens and strengthens the tissues. Oat- meal is even better, as it contains a small amount of oil that is good for the skin. For susceptible persons, the tepid bran bath is bet- Ur than a cold shower-bath. The friction of the loose bran calls the circulation to the sur- face. In France the bran is tied in a bag for the bath, but this gives only the benefit of the gluten, not that of the irritation.
The frequency of the bath should be deter- mined, after it has been taken for a week or two, by feeling. Take the refreshment as oft- en as the system desires it. The harm is done 12
172 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
not so much by bathing often as by staying in the water long at a time. A hot soap-suds bath once a week is beneficial to persons with moist and oily skins. Bay-rum and camphor may be used to advantage by such persons each time after washing the face. The hot suds bath should be taken thrice a week by those who wish to remove moth patches.
One of the best ways to make the hands soft and white is to wear at night large mit- tens of cloth filled with wet bran or oatmeal, and tied closely at the wrist. A lady who had the finest, softest hands in the county confessed that she had a great deal of house- work to do, but kept them white by wearing bran mittens every night.
Pastes and poultices for the face owe most of their efficacy to the moisture, which dis- solves the old coarse skin, and the protection they afford from the air, which allows the new skin to form tender and delicate. Oat^ meal paste is efficacious as any thing, though less agreeable than the pastes made with white
REGIMEN FOR HEPATIC SPOTS. 173
of egg, alum, and rose-water. The alum as- tringes the flesh, making it firm, while the egg keeps it> sufficiently soft, and the rose-water perfumes the mixture.
What are called indiscriminately moth, mask, morphew, and, by physicians, hepatic spots, are the sign of deep-seated disease of the liver. Taraxacum, the extract of dande- lion root, is the standing remedy for this, and the usual prescription is a large pill four nights in a week, sometimes for months. To this may be added the free use of tomatoes, iigs, mustard-seed, and all seedy fruits and vegetables, with light broiled meats, and no bread but that of coarse flour. Pastry, pud- dings of most sorts, and fried food of all kinds must be dispensed with by persons having a tendency to this disease. It may take six weeks, or even months, to make any visible impression on either the health or the moth patches, but success will come at last. One third of a teaspoonf ul of chlorate of soda in a wine-glass of water, taken in three doses,
174: THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
before meals, will aid the recovery by neutral- izing morbid matters in the stomach. There is no sure cosmetic that will reach tiie moth patches. Such treatment as described, such exercise as is tempting in itself, and gay so- ciety, will restore one to conditions of health in which the extinction of these blotches is certain.
SYSTEM OF REDUCING FLESH. 175
CHAPTER XVII.
The Banting System. — A Quaint Author.— Trials of Corpu- lency.— Result of Living on Sixpence a Day. — Indifference of Doctors. — A Wise Surgeon. — Relation of Glucose to Obesity. — Diet for Stout People. — No Starch, no Sugar. — Losing Flesh at the Rate of a Pound a Week. — " Human Beans." — Humors of Banting's Tract. — His Gratitude. — Honors to Dr. Harvey. — One Day with Dives, the Next with Lazarus. — Bromide of Ammonia.
BEQUEST is often made for the details of Mr. Banting's system of reducing flesh. The popular idea of the writer, whose modest pam- phlet has linked his name with the system he observed, is very like the caricature of the dry modern savant. The severe scientist who keeps his child for years without fire or clothes to demonstrate the superiority of human be- ings to cold, or who throws a new-born baby into a tub of water to prove that the race can swim by nature, should not be mentioned on
176 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
the same page with the kindly enthusiast of the letter on corpulency.
There is no evidence in its pages that the writer ever tried authorship before. He was over sixty-six years old, when, in a burst of gratitude for his relief from the burden of too much flesh, he took up his pen to tell his fel- low-creatures of help for those who suffer a like infliction. The quaintness of his pages reminds one of Izaak Walton, from his open- ing sentences, where he declares, " Of all the parasites that affect humanity, I do not know of, nor can I imagine, any more distressing than that of obesity " — an opinion with which all his fellow-sufferers will agree. He is fond of terming his grievance a parasite, and the name slips out with a frequency which is like the echo of objurgations hurled at his infirm- ity. Being called to account for it later, he meekly declares that the word is used wholly in a figurative sense. His state might have justified a stronger epithet. No parents on either side, to use his own phrase, ever showed
BUKDEN OF THE FLESH. 177
a tendency to corpulency, but between thirty and forty he found the habit growing upon him. His physician advised violent exercise, and he took to rowing. Finding his flesh in- crease, lie consulted "high orthodox authority (never any inferior adviser), tried sea air and bathing, took gallons of physic and liquor po- tassse, always by advice, rode horseback, drank the waters of Leamington, Cheltenham, and Harrowgate" — doses enough, we should think, to have disgusted him with life forever— u lived on sixpence a clay, and earned it, at least by hard labor, and used vapor baths and shampooing," without any help for his in- firmity.
The rich gentleman found his position, the good things of this life, his houses, horses, and friends, small enjoyment, save as they lessened the increasing burden life heaped upon him. He was obedient and intelligent in using every means of relief suggested, but his doctors were of very small use to him. As he pathetically says, " When a corpulent man eats, drinks, and
178 THE «UGLY- GIRL PAPERS.
sleeps well, has no pain and no organic dis- ease, the judgment of able men seems para- lyzed." His state was pitiable, and there are too many companions in distress who answer to the same picture. He could not tie his shoe, and often had to go down stairs slowly backward, to save the jar of increased weight on his ankles and knee-joints. Low living was prescribed, and he followed it so heartily that he brought his system into a low, irritable state, and broke out in boils and large car- buncles, for which he had to be treated and "toned tip" in a way that brought him into heavier condition than ever.
He speaks feelingly, yet with simple dignity, of the trials which stout people endure, being crowded in cars and stages, uncomfortable in warm theatres and lecture-rooms, besides find- ing themselves the butt of ridicule, or, at least, the object of remark. The last caused him for many years to give up public pleasures. Many persons, as they read, will have cause to reproach themselves, for those who are con-
TURKISH BATHS IN CORPULENCY. 179
siderate of every other species of human in- firmity fail to recognize the real suffering of those who carry a load of flesh. A sensitive person encumbered with adipose feels keenly the glances, if not the smiles, which follow his entrance into a public vehicle. It is a test of delicacy for others to appear unconscious of his infirmity.
When Turkish baths came into fashion, Mr. Banting tried them, with the result of six pounds' loss after taking fifty baths, which was not encouraging, though they have been of service in other like instances. In August, 1862, his case stood thus : He was nearly sixty- six years old, five feet five inches high, and weighed over two hundred pounds. He went to no excess in eating or drinking, his diet being chiefly bread, beer, milk, vegetables, and pastry. Flesh impeded his breathing, his eye-sight failed, and he lost his hearing, yet most of the doctors lie went to for relief con- sidered his trouble of no account, as one of the accompaniments of age, like wrinkles and gray
180 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
hairs. The faculty are to blame for overlook ing such a foe to human comfort.
Mr. William Harvey, Surgeon of the Koyal Dispensary for Diseases of the Ear, was the first person wise and considerate enough to prescribe a remedy. He reasoned from M. Bernard's accepted theory of the product of glucose as well as bile from the liver. Glu- cose is allied to starch and saccharine mat- ter, and is produced in the liver by ingest ion of sugar and starch. The substance is always present in excess both in diabetes and obesity, and it struck this eminent surgeon that the same dry diet which drains the excess of glu- cose in the former disease might be of service in the latter. Abstinence from food contain- ing starch and sugar reduces diabetes, and ac- cordingly he prescribed it for his patient. He was to leave off all bread, milk, butter, beer, sugar, and potatoes, besides other root vegeta- bles, as these contain the largest amount of fat material.
Yet the diet allowed was liberal. Breakfast
SPARE DIET. 181
Was four or five ounces of beef, mutton, kid- ney, broiled fish, and any cold meat except veal and pork; a large cup of tea without milk or sugar, a little biscuit — i. £., crackers — or an ounce of dry toast.
Dinner : five or six ounces of any fish ex- cept salmon, herring, and eels, which are too fat ; any vegetables but potatoes, beets, par- snips, carrots, or turnips, green vegetables be- ing especially good; an ounce of dry toast; the fruit of a pudding ; any poultry or game ; two or three glasses of good claret, sherry, or Madeira, but no champagne, port, or beer.
Tea : two or three ounces of fruit, a rusk or two, and a cup of tea without milk or sugar. Supper, at nine : three or four ounces of meat or fish, and a glass of claret. Before going to bed, if desired, a nightcap of grog without sug- ar was allowed, or a glass of claret or sherry.
This was comfortable compared to his for- mer diet, which was bread and milk for break- fast, or a pint of tea, with plenty of milk and sugar, and buttered toast; dinner of meat,
182 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
beer, bread, of which he ate a great deal, and pastry, of which he was fond, with fruit tart and bread and meat for supper. Yet on the liberal diet his flesh went down at the rate of more than a pound a week for thirty-five weeks.
He explains his belief that certain food is as bad for elderly people as beans are for horses, and thenceforth he calls the forbidden food "human beans." He suffers himself to make a little mirth over the enemy that held him in durance sp long. We can well believe he would "scrupulously avoid those beans, such as milk, beer, sugar, and potatoes," after he had groaned a score of years from " that dreadful tormenting parasite on health and comfort." He sensibly writes his opinion that " corpulence must naturally press with undue violence upon the bodily viscera, driving one part on another, and stopping the free action of all." He calls Mr. Harvey's system "the tram-road for obesity," and says, " The great charm and comfort of this system is that its
RESULTS OF CAREFUL DIET. 183
effects are palpable within one week of trial."
He protests that he found not the slight- est inconvenience in the probational remedy, which reduced his girth twelve inches and his weight thirty-eight pounds in thirty-five weeks. He could go up and down stairs naturally, and perform every necessary office for himself without the slightest trouble; his sight was restored, and his hearing unimpaired. In to- ken of his gratitude, he gave the doctor, be- sides his fees, the sum of £50, to be distrib- uted among the hospital patients. To prove the reality of his dedication of his letter "to the public simply and entirely from an ear- nest desire to benefit his fellow-creatures," the editions were distributed gratuitously in hopes of reaching his fellow-sufferers from flesh. He was eager that they should find the relief which to him was rapturous. It must have reached some cases, for more than 58,000 copies had been issued at the date of this edition. The author was urged to sell his work, even if the
184 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
proceeds were given to the poor; but with the sensitiveness of a man not used to appear in public, he says, " On reflection, I feared my motives might be mistaken/' In giving the credit of this system to Dr. Harvey, we are sure of obeying the wishes of the author, who speaks of his benefactor witli extreme grati- tude, and says, " He has since been told it is a remedy as old as the hills, but the application is of recent date." He thinks any one who suf- fers from obesity may " prudently mount guard over the enemy, if he is not a fool to himself." He was so far delivered from his malady as to indulge in the forbidden articles of food; but says, " I have to keep careful watch, so that if I choose to spend a day or two with Dives, I must not forget to devote the next to Lazarus."
No medicine was given with this diet save a volatile alkali draught in the morning dur- ing the first month. This was probably the bromide of ammonia, which is of great use in reducing an over-amount of flesh.
ONE OF THE UGLY GIRLS. 185
CHAPTER XVIII.
A Letter. — Trials of a Plain Woman. — The Best Husband in the World. — Burdock Wash for the Hair. — For Chil- dren's Hair. — Oil of Mace as a Stimulant. — To Restore Color to the Hair. — Sperm-oil a Powerful Hair Restorer. —The Cheapest Hair-Dye. — Cure for Chilblains. — Loose Shoes the Cause of Corns. — Pyroligneous Acid for Corns. — Turpentine and Carbolic Acid for Soft Corns.
AMONG inquiries not seldom repeated is an urgent demand for a prescription to keep the hair from coming out. The following letter will be acceptable to many readers.
"I was emphatically one of the 'ugly girls,' being of a very large figure, and inheriting thin hair ; otherwise I suited myself well enough. But oh ! the agonies I have suffered through my personal deficiencies. Now, with a happy home of my own and the best husband in the world, I can smile at the old distress. Yet it was no less real, and I can pity the ugly girls as nobody but one who has 'been there' can.
" My hair began coming out when I was just in my teens, and has always been the trial of my life. I have been up
186 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
and down the whole scale of restoratives, with all manner of recipes volunteered by sympathizing friends. Last fall, after returning from a two months' stay near Saratoga, where I had undergone a severe course of treatment for sundry phys- ical ills, my hair came out frightfully, till I was almost with- out any, and nothing seemed to check it. A relative, an old lady, told me to use burdock-root tea. I tried it, and it worked like a charm. My hair has never grown as it does now, and it has absolutely ceased coming out — something that has not been the case for fifteen years. Something of this may be due, as far as growth is concerned, to a receipt given me by a friend a month or so ago. It is a family re- ceipt, and something of a family secret. The ladies of the house, who use it, have magnificent hair, which they attrib- ute to this receipt. It is a queer conglomerate, as you see : One pound of yellow-dock root, boiled in five pints of water till reduced to one pint ; strain, and add an ounce of pulver- ized borax, half an ounce of coarse salt, three ounces of sweet- oil, a pint of New England rum, and the juice of three large red onions, perfumed at pleasure — (a quarter of an ounce o^ oil of lavender and ten grains of ambergris would be effica. cious in overcoming the powerful scent of the ingredients).
"My little girl has magnificent hair, but it troubles me by coming out this winter. As she is only five years old, I have hesitated about putting any thing on. I wish you would s( me time say if it is best to doctor a child's hair, or let nature take its course. I have learned that to shampoo the head with cold water every morning is an excellent thing,
OIL OF MAObi. (87
ws is an occasional thorough washing with soap-suas, not rins ing the soap out completely. I have sometimes checked the ^ill of hair by such means. The burdock root was also use^ yy steeping it in boiling water till a strong tea was madc^ and used as a wash two or three times a day, then at longer intervals."
In answer to the query in the excellent let- ter above, it may be said that it is always well to cure where there is disease. Simple rem- edies aid nature. A child's hair is too valu- able to lose. One teaspoonful of ammonia to a pint of warm water makes a wash that may be need on a child's head daily with safety. It does riot split the hair, as soap will do if left to dry in.
One of the most powerful stimulants and restoratives for the hair is the oil of mace. Those who want something to bring hair in
o o
again are advised to try it in preference to cantharides, which it is said to equal, if not to surpass, without the danger of the latter. A strong tincture for the hair is made by add ing half an ounce of the oil of mace to a
*>int of deodorized alcohol. Pour a spoonful 13
188 THE UGLY -GIRL PAPERS.
or two into a saucer; dip a small, stiff brush into it, and brush the hair smartly, rubbing the tincture well into the roots. On bald spots, if hair will start at all, it may be stim- ulated by friction with a piece of flannel till the skin looks red, and rubbing the tincture into the scalp. This process must be repeated three times a day for weeks. When the hair begins to grow, apply the tincture once a day till the growth is well established, bathing the head in cold water every morning, and briskly brushing it to bring the blood to the surface.
When the hair loses color, it may be re- stored by bathing the head in a weak solution of ammonia, an even teaspoonful of carbonate of ammonia to a quart of water, washing the head with a crash mitten, and brushing the hair thoroughly while wet. Bathing the head in a strong solution of rock-salt is said to re- store gray hair in some cases. Pour boiling water on rock-salt in the proportion of two heaping table-spoonfuls to a quart of water, and let it stand till cold before using.
A CHEAP IIAIE-DYE. 189
The old specific of bear's grease for the hair is hardly found now, and one can never be sure of getting the real article ;' but an equal- ly powerful application is discovered in pure sperm-oil, of the very freshest, finest quality. This forms the basis of successful hair restor- atives, and will not fail of effect if used alone. It is, however, procured in proper freshness only by special importation from the north coast of Europe.
In the list of hair-dyes, one agent has long been overlooked which is found in the hum- blest households. It is too common and hum- ble, indeed, to excite confidence at first ; but it is said that the water in which potatoes have been boiled with the skins on forms a speedy and harmless dye for the hair and eye- brows. The parings of potatoes before cook- ing may be boiled by themselves, and the wa- ter strained off for use. To apply it, the shoulders should be covered with cloths to protect the dress, and a fine comb dipped in the water drawn through the hair, wetting it
190 THE UGLY -GIRL TAPERS.
at each stroke, till the head is thoroughly soaked. Let the hair dry thoroughly before putting it up. If the result is not satisfactory the first time, repeat the wetting with a sponge, taking care not to discolor the skin of the brow and neck. Exposing the hair to the sun out-of-doors will darken and set this dye. Xo hesitation need be felt about trying this, for potato - water is a safe article used in the household pharmacopoeia in a variety of ways. It relieves chilblains if the feet are soaked in it while the water is hot, and is said to ease rheumatic gout.
Inquiries have been made after a cure for corns. It is not always the case that they come from wearing tight shoes. I have seen troublesome ones produced by wearing a loose cloth shoe that rubbed the sides of the foot. It is best always to wear a snugly fitting shoe of light, soft leather, not so tight as to be pain- ful, nor loose enough to allow the foot to spread. The muscles are grateful for a cer- tain amount of compression, which -helps them to do their work
APPLICATIONS FOE COENS. 191
When corns are troublesome, make a shield of buckskin leather an inch or two across, with a hole cut in the centre the size of the corn ; touch the exposed spot with pyroligneous acid, which will eat it away in a few applications. Eesides this, a strong mixture of carbolic acid and glycerine is good — say one half as much acid as glycerine. Of course, only a very small quantity will be needed, and it must be kept out of the way, for it is a burning poison. In default of these, turpentine may be used both for corns and bunions.