The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1854-09-20
Eaoies' department,
ENGLISH VS.. AMERICAN BEAUTY

-
Mrs. STowE's new work, Sunny
Memories of Foreign Lands" is attract
ing very general attention, and is re-
ceived with much favor by the Ameri-
can press and people. The following
extract will be worth a little reflection
on the part of our American ladies. 1t
is really apractical question of great i'm
portance to us, to settle satisfactorily
the reason why American women SO soon
fade, and lose their personal beauty, in
comparison with the ladies of England
and indeed of Europe generally. But,
it
"a lady asked me this evening what
1 thought of the beauty of the ladies of
the English aristocracy; she was a
Scotch lady, by the by, so the question
was a fair one. 1 replied, that certain
" report had not exaggerated their
charms. Then came home question
how the ladies of England compared
with the ladies of America. Now for
it, patriotism said l to myself; and,
invoking to my aid certain fair saints of
my own country, whose faces L distinct
ly remembered, 1 assured her that L had
never seen more beautiful women than
1 had in America. Grieved was [ to be
| obliged to add, but your ladies keep
their beauty much later and longer
| This fact stares one in the face in every
company; one meets ladies past fifty,
glowing, radient and blooming, with a
freshness of complexion and fullness of
outline refreshing to contemplate
What can be the reason? Tell us,
Muses. and Graces, what can it be Is
it the conservative power of sea-fogs and
coal-smoke-the same cause that keeps
the turf green, and makes the holly and
ivy flourish?
How comes it that our married ladies
dwindle, fade and grow thin-that their
noses incline to sharpness, and their ell
bows to angularity, just at the time of
life when their island sisters round out
into a comfortable and becoming am
plitude and fullness? If it is the fog
and the ~sea-coal, why, then, 1 am afraid
we shall never come up with them
But perhaps there may be other auses
why a country which starts some of the
most beautiful girls in the world produce
so few beautiful women. Have not our
close-heated stoye-rooms something to
do with it? Have not the immense
amount of hot biscuits, hot corn cakes,
and other compounds got up with the
acrid poison of saleratus, something TO
do with it +? Above all, has not our eli
mate, with its alternate extremes ofheat
and cold, a tendency to induce habits of
indoor Incidence? Climate, certainly,
has a great deal to do with it ours is
evidently more trying and more x
hausting; and because it is so, we should
not pile upon it's back errors of dress
and diet which are avoided by our
neighbors. They keep their beauty be-
cause they keep their health. 1t has
been as remarkable as anything to me,
since 1 have been here, that I do not
constantly, as at home, hear n and an
other spoken of as in miserable health,
as very delicate, &c. Health seems to
be the rule, and not the exception. For
my part, 1 must say, the most favorable
omen that I knew of for female beauty
in America is the multiplication of wa
establishments, where u ladies,
if they get nothing else, do gain some
idea as to the necessity of fresh air, reg
ular EXERCISE s~imPle-diet, and the laws
of hygiene in general"