New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-04-11

Dull, dui beyond all hopes or fears
My heart is thawed-my brain relieved
The tears gush round my thirsty eyes,
And my parched throat is cooled with sighs
vow never, never erieved.
Female Beauty In oed and New England
1t is generally allowed that there ia more Of
what is called chiseled beauty in America than
in Europe pe-tbat the features of the women are
finer, and the head more classical But here
ends the triumphs Of our sisterr of the West
their busts are far inferior to those we admire
at home, and certain attenuation in the whole
figure gives the idea of fragility and decay
And this idea is correct. What they want is
Of constitution; and in consequence
of the want, their finely cut faces, taken gener.
ally, are pale instead Of fair, and sallow when
they should be rosy. In this country, woman
is in the prime Of her attractions, at thirty five
and she frequently remains almost stationary
till fifty, or else declines gradually and grace
fully, like beautiful day melting into lovely
evening. In America, twenty five is the fare
well line of beauty in woman, beyond which
comes decay; at thirty five, she. looks weary
and worn, her fat chest symbolizing the collap
sed heart within; and st forty, you see in her
thin and haggard features all the marks Of pre-
matureage
1t is customary to regard this as the effect OF
climate; but some think it folly to GO to an ult
innate cause, when the whole system Of artificial
life in America offers direct defiance, as they
assert, to the known hygienic laws. This view
is supported with great intrepidity by woman's
journal in Providence, called the Una-not
lady's Magazine, fair reader, but regular
broad sheet written by and for women, whose
leading articles are on women's rights, and
whose advertisements are from women-doctors,
women professors, women lecturers, women
everything Una admits the heeting character oi
her countrywomen's charms, and contrasts more
especially Old England with New England,
yielding frankly the pas in beauty to the for-
mer. She hints, We must own, at some very
problematical causes of the early loss of female
charms in America, such as g the bounding OF
life's horizon by the petty cares that wait on
meat, drink and raiment; the absence Of genial
and improving intercourse, and of earnest inter
est in the hopes and fortunes of the race; and
the little rivalries and little aspirations on
which, for lack Of better objects, SO many soul
is fain to waste its energies
All this is very we'll to the philosophic Una,
who pays her taxes under protest. since she had
no voice in laying them on but the implied no
ton that our pretty countrywomen have no petty
cares connected with their food no little rival
ries and little aspirations but plenty Of earnest
interest in the destinies of the race, isvery COM
| plimentaFy. After hourishing little, however,
| about these grievances, which, we fear, is no,
tohoily unknown to our English beauties, she
proceeds to the main point what" she asks
sis the diet of New England generally Hol
biscuit, fat pork, and tea these are the staples
They are varied with preserves, made pound for
pound, and endless variety Of cake, and the in
evitable pie. Pastry, which most children i'll
New England are not allowed to touch until
they get their long frocks or tailed coats on, is
here the every day food of young and old. Salt
pork ischeap--that is, greasy fulsomeness makes
it pail sooner on the appetite than any other
| meat, asd so it forms the piece de resistance at
| almost all, tables, except those whose own
ers are we'll to do in the world. Tea is the grea,
panacea for all fatigue. low spirits, dampness
coldness, pains in the head and in the back, and
in Short for nearly ali the ills that flesh is heii
| to-; the quantity taken by middle aged and eld,
/ erly women almost surpasses belief Certainly
| to put the average at six OF eight cups day
| would be setting it low enough. "
| What mere human beauty could stand thes,
| horrors Fancy Miss Angelina, dressed for hel
first ball, and sitting down. before she gees fortl
| conquering and to conquer, to keep up the sta
1 nina with Just little snack of fat pork, goose
berry jam and pumpkin pie! Is it any wonder
that this young lady should wither at twenty
i FIVE? Yet fat pork has its advocates. Goblet
was delighted with the fondness of the Ameri
4 cans for ssextreme unction," and on his return
to this country, did every thing in his power tt
force the greasy dish upon the English palate
affirming that dislike to fat pork was deci
ded symptom of insanity. We may allude
/ likewise, to the Important part played by hog'
/ lard in the comH6siton of cosmetics The thou
/ sand and one kinds Of paste and pomatum 70
the skin and hair are all of this substance, onl,
differing a little in the color and perfume; am
i in nineteen cases out of twenty hogs lard il
bear grease Why should.a substance improv
/ beauty when absorbed by the skin, and destro,
4 it when taken into the stomach This is ,
question we leave to be settled between Una an,
i the chemists.
Another cause of the unhappy condition 0
female beauty in America is stated by the out
spoken Una to be--the dirtiness of the fair sex
This is dreadful. Not one woman in ten, sh
asserts, permits cold water to touch her Who'll
person every day, and not one in five perform
4 the same abluton once n week; 6 while, if tn
truth could be at once flashed forth from it
hiding place, it would show still longer intervals
! from the bare thought of which imagination
i shrinksa We do not know what is the case i
this respect as regards the majority of our ow
countrywomen and, to say truth. we are afrai
to ask
/ The wrath of Una falls next upon the sleep
ing accommodations. Three quarters Of Nel
England she tells U.S. sleep in slightly en-
larged collins" and in our opinion, capita
plan it is, for if the fourth quarter were stowe
with the rest, the people might as we'll be i
their graves at once. These coffins are cnlle
bed rooms, for no other reason than that the
are large enough to hold bed, light-stand
and wash. stand and s' they are often ren
dered redolent of sweetness by thiekets of coat,
pantaloons. dresses, and petticoats hung on th
WALL This is so faithful sketch of the bee
rooms of the middle class Londoners, that OF
might fancy Una to be speaking, by mistak
on the wrong side of the question, till we hes
that the dens described are purified by Il
4 perfumes of the adjoining kitchen, and the dea
dry heat of its red-hot stove. Here spa, m
and the baby with now and then a brace
small fry in a s trundle- bed, seethe and swelt
through the winter nights, and fit themselv
admirably for facing the nor -wester in ii
morning. Here, when one of the family is sel
/ he is pretty sure to die; because fever almo
inevitably takes the typhoid form from the feti
atmosphere around, and the struggling current
of health are sent stagnating back to the bul
: dened heart and lungs
/ Up to this point, Una makes out no cas-
. specially against her countrywomen and If tf
. argument ended here, we should have to brin
in Nature guilty Of what is laid to the chars