Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1866-06-09
Toilet Of n Pompciian Lady of
Fashion.

| This was the subject of recent lecture
The lecturer began by saying that he remem
bered seeing picture, discovered in 1858
representing gentleman entering the toilet
room of Pompeiian lady He remembered
the story of the minister whom the people
liked because he pitched into old Nebucha-
nezzer for his sins, but said nothing of theirs;
so, If he should enter one of the toilet rooms
OF Pompeiian house, and should there see
an inlaid box containing white powder,
and if he should discover lady endeavoring
to place this powder upon her face by means
OF light feathery brush, it should not be
forgotten that he was speaking of 1900
years ago, and not of scenes of toe They
don't do such things now. If he should
discover lady endeavoring to conceal the
loss of her natural hair by means of the
manufactured article, remember this was
1900 years ago. They don't do such things
now. .
The lecturer then proceeded to his main
subject, and opened by saying that in all
ages the dress of woman is what makes her;
men and women exist for each other, and the
reason that women adorn themselves is to
please men,. Our girls of to-day are no less
eager to adorn themselves than were the
| girls of Pompeii but the position of women
among us is entirely different
| In the words of the apostle, the women
were made beautiful according to the flesh.
They used every exertion to conceal the ex-
| istence Of wr;nkles-there are none nova
days. They had many rouges, ETC., to destroy
| the marks of time, and in their endeavor to
preserve their complexion they we're wont to
bathe in luxuriously scented baths of asses
milk until the whole body became perfectly
smooth. Their toilette occupied an entire
fha pfth tho finn tha
servant came to the bedside to more
thoroughly awaken her mistress First her
face must be washed before any man was
permitted to see her. And not such a wash
ing as is undergone now, for the paste of
bread and milk, with which the face had
been thoroughly coveted the night previous,
was to be removed so carefully as not to
leave the slightest redness of countenance.
The teeth were then replaced, the eyebrows
penciled, and the complexion improved.
Notwithstanding the comparatively recent
discovery in dentistry, the teeth of Pompei-
ians were filled with gold.
Brown, yellow and even red hair being
scarce Ged hair-there is no such thing
nowadays, it is either gold or auburn
were considered fashionable then as we'll as
at the present time. A species of soap was
used to color black hair but when the hair
absolutely refused to change color it was
cut off and the head supplied with fash
ionable tint. This Is never done now.
The Roman ladies knew, with ours, that
secresy is one of the charms of their toilet.
Their beauty was not of the class to be
handled, taken apart, and put together
again by those whose eyes they desired to
please. Like the ladies of our time, they
attached value only to that which was for
eign, and no kind of wash or rouge could
be used unless it had foreign name.
When in grand toilet o Pompeiian lady of
fashion glittered in real gold-not Attlebo.
rough-and she had a great number of
jewels. Some of the canoes are SO delicate
ly engraved as to require lens to see the
design and how could these be engraved
unless the Romans had magnifying glassesa
| The lecturer, before closing, noticed sew
eral similarities between Pompeiian lady's
method of dressing the hair and those now
in vogue with us, and illustrated the same
with numerous drawings. One had rats
and mice skillfully arranged; another had q
| fine waterfall