The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-08
the WORLD OF FASHION.
SICKLE DAME IN ANCIENT TINES.
The Ton of Old Times.


for their action in the world. Men and women
exist for each other; and women in the DAYS oil
the Roman emperors, as TO-DAY, used all ther
faculties and all their ingenuity SIMPLY TO please
men. We beg literary women not to take
ofense at our statement. for u will bear dis
passionate examination. The girls OF Boston or
New York are not more beautiful or fresh than
were the girls Of Pompeii; but are they not Just
as eager TO look beautiful?
We have vet to learn the A B of Nature, and
we believe that she is lar wiser than any of the
philosophers, moTallsts, priests, or theOlogians
OF our pious nineteenth century. She know ws
what she ls about and guards well the secret OF
her enchantments. And she teaches women to
be women, as she teaches girls how to be those
fEail, delicate, untouched buds of loveliness,
which, like the succeeding springs of the earth,
year after year, make fresh under our eyes the
Nnginity OF Beauty
dressing-room OF any wealthy, fashionable
Pompeian woman, we shall neither feel nor
show more surprise at what we see there, than
ii we we're the privlledged intruder allowed to
look at, touch, and tumble the nameess knick-
knacks and fancy articles that fill the dressing
room Of our modern bellies; since to-day, as cen
turies ago, shon, with all its implements, is
but the accredited accOmplce OF Nature, and
serves her best when most successfully 1t lends
It's aid to complete In a woman's face or figure
what Nature capriciOusy left imperfect.
Our social forms being different from those OF
the days OF Pompeii the positit n of woman in
society is also different, and 'cessarily gives
her much more influence. We have literary
women, like the daughter OF Ovid, for instance,
whose sweetness of character was not marred
by any Pngulauty or harsh pedantic tone or
spirit. Our literary women, by Eome unex-
planned conjunction oil personal needs or losses,
are too often too Indifferent to the graces OF
womanhood, and free from all the sweet necessi'
ties of the womannature, to be agreeable. To
please does not seem to be the uppermost am.
bition OF their natuIe-to be loved and admired
the end of their best efforts. Tuey have entered
as competitors with men IN the world of
letters, and insist upon sharing the publicity
and the reputation OF men. But those women
who are satisfied in simply being what women
can naturally be, and who, without iretful scorn
Tor what they cannot attain, or helpless vanity
in what they feebly initiate. accept their mere
womanliness as containing the infinite posi-
bilities of their influence, will take interest in
finding out with us the points of resemblance
between themselves and their sisters Of dead
centuries.
The women of Pompeii lived a life exclusively
devoted to pleasure. Every demand OF soul
and spirit. every requirement of the intellect
seems to have been sacrificed to achieving q
perfect blossoming of the senses. From what
we are allowed to witness with our eyes, in the
paintings and mosaics lately discovered, and
from what we must infer, not an inch OF time
was given to the soul and its imperous needs,
and no room made for it to expand in; but the
physical life the revelry of the flesh, the abso-
Lutte lntoXication of voluptuousness, tyrannized
over every moment and appropriated every hour
of a woman's life.
We must remember how different Is our do.
mestic economy from that OF those days. We
are not told that any OF the problems of that
veXed Bridget question: disturbed the placid
ease of the mistresses of houses. Servants
then were slaves, and, as such, unquestioning,
willing, competent ministers to the luxurious
habits OF wealthy women. Those servants were
sklltul waiting. maids filling around their mis-
tress the double Office OF con6dantes and SER
wants. And so admiral y adjusted were the sepa-
rate elements OF that system of home-servlce,
that not one OF the servants interfered with the
work OF the other or mistook her special duty,
but rather, by her own punctilious ro1tlne and
eXactuude, helped 10 render each returning da ?
a day oil untroubled ease, and every hour an hour
OF new delight, TO the queen woman, who thought
of nothing else but how to please her favorite
admirer.
Then, as now, women used adroit secresy in
making their persons objects Of special study and
critical examination. Every line, or mark, or
wrinkle, was attentively tracked with Jealous
eye, and most skiliully concealed. Rouges, pow
der, pant, washes, and ointments-all that art
eyer devised and combined to repair the DESTROY
ing touch of time-was used, as it is used no ".
Indeed, our Lubins and our Rimmels with their
World-renQwned delicious perfumes and essences,
fail to furnish us with such profusion OF lucent
oils and aromatic washes as formed then the
requisites for the toilets of women ol fashion.
The utmost value being set on smooth,
mllky-whte, satln-lIke skin, il became the chIet
endeavor OF every woman to preserve her CON-
pleXoD. To this end, bathing was constantly
Tesorted 10. What nobody ever omts doing
before leaving the bedroom-the wa, hing OF
not merely half hours or an hours work but
was the CHEF occupation of her M orning. She
bathed lXur1ouslV in warm, scented baths OF
asses milk. She batbed till her whole body
was as smoothly sot,-skinned az the petal of
Hover, and her hands, her arms, her BOSOM and
her limbs were made supple with excess of Ian.
guild Tenose. One cannot help seeing anew the
Venus Aphr"dI'e coming out OF the magic ioam
when reading about those fair women so fair
and so woman like!
It seems that the absence Of activity and labor
in The oauv 49,, 40 OF women chiefly, perhaps the
absence OF family responsIoIlu,r, O. " "'
dignity, made abundant room for 'Hc orotracted
performance OF dali" Toilet which. instead Of
an ai hoUi Il 80 every morning, occupied half the
-. For, on awakening the lady of fashion
called her slaves 10 her bedside, and had herself
more etfectuaily aroused hy various manipula.
tions and Applications, at which our implacable
individual independence would simply revolt.
First the lady must have her face carefully
washed, before any mans eye is allo we'd to
glance al her. Sleep alone has not so unhar.
mOniZed and disturbed the color amj DESTROYED
the IouDdness of those cheeks, or made Tho5e
eyehds hang so heavily over eyes not yet bril-
liant The paste OF bread and milk, which was
so carefully spread all over the face last night,
has 10 be removed in such a way that not the
slig htest redness or Irritation OF the skin shall
remain. When that is effected, the teeth are re
paced-for they had artificial teeth in those
days-the eyebrows are artisticaly pencilled
and the lips, and cheeks 1T necessary, stained
with the bloom of YOUTH
Roman ladies understood as well as oul
women, that the charm OF art is TO remain
unseen and unsupported. Therefore, none bu
their own personal attendants were allowed nea
them during the elaborate process OF the toilet
YET men would hnd out; men would know; meI
would see, what was intended TO be so we'll con
cealed. All the Roman poets become by tnrns
satirists and censors when writing about thei
women ana, Tor page after page, they writ