The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-17

1
said that cosmetics are in favor by which false
tints are given to the skin and TO the hair.
Not long since IL was the fashion to dye the
hair red and gold, and make the skin white
with paint, the checks pink with rouge, ana
the eyelids stained but now this caprioious
goddess, whom fine ladies worship with such
devotion, prefers dark hair and olive COM
plexions, and the rage is now for brown
washes as il used to be for white. The blue
! black hair and dark skin of the gipsy have
become the envy of the ladies of fashion, and
! they hope, by means of washes and dyes, to
make themselves "beautiful forever"
These freaks of fancy make us burn with
shame for our countrywomen. They SAVIOR too
much of the deni-monde, and are suggestive of
all that is coarse and sensual, and of those en-
Elements and tricks which ought to be un
known amongst gentlewomen. A prediction
Tor these false lights on the part of ladies of
fashion, and their submissive subservience To
their dressmakers, has introduced a habit of
low dressing which ought to be protested
against by all who have wives and children.
At has become quite habit with even young
girls to have their gowns cut so low that thew
positively offend against decency. It is, how
ever, very much the fashion for all ladies' to
wear their dresses too low--to be too decollet(e.
as the French term it.
Modesty is the greatest ornament woman
can have, and the demoralizing effect of the
present style of dress is that it DESTROYS that
modesty. We have heard it said by some
women, in excuse for themselves, that thew
dress in this Objectionable manner in order to
please their husbands. 1t sounds incredible:
and II 1t be so, we can only say that hus-
bands richly deserve whatever reprobation
may be in store for them if they are so ready
to expose the persons of their wives to the
public gaze. Men are very apt to be hard
upon women who err, to pass severe iudg-
ments upon them, and to allow no locus peai-
tentt@. But If they are so foolish as to encou-
rage them in immodest dressing, they should
be the last persons to quarrel with them for
following out their precepts to their natural
conclusion.
If we were called upon to say what is the
distinctive characteristic of the age in which
we live, we should be inclined to designate
it as an age of shams. Unreality
ereeps into everything. The gravest
matters are tainted with it. Even in re-
hgion, where unrealities should find no place.
there is contention about externals which are
devoid of any real meaning. Bishops and
clergy conte nd for pastoral stats and vest
ments when they no longer have the things
they symbolic. Language is made to con-
oeal the truth, and exaggeration distorts it.
Professions of friendship are hollow, and
treachery undermines the closest ties. In the
political world we hear it forever stated that
parties are betrayed by their chiefs, and that
principle is at discount. And in the smaller
stinets of nature rebelling against anything
that is unreal, there is an appetite for it; that
shams are in favor, and that every one is at
tracted by them rather than otherwise.
In the matter now before us we find
this to be especially the case. False
hair, false color, false ears, etc. etc. etc.,
are used without compunotion where they
are considered to be needed The consequence
is that woman has become an imposture,
and men have learned to fear that what they
most admire may be but successful art. Old
women have long since done all in their
power to repair the ravages of time. Wigs
and fronts, teeth paint, and rouge, have
always been made use of by those who know
not how to grow old. But they have not been
able to deceive the world, which takes them
at their real value, and can see behind the
screen of unrealities to which they have fled
for refuge from the print of years. We can
not resist quoting passage from well-known
writer on this subject in which she has de-
scribed the appearance of an old woman who
is not ashamed of and has no wish to hide
her age. "See the plated border, or the full
ruche of the cap, white as snow, circling
close round the face, as if jealous to preserve
the oval that age has lost; the hair peeping
from beneath, finer and more silken than ever,
but white as that border, or grey as the
shadow thrown by it; the complexion withered
and faded, yet, being relieved, as nature has
appointed it to be, by the still more faded tints
OF the hair, in certain degree delicate and
resh; the eyes with most of their former fire
extinguished, still surrounded only with the
chastened hues Of age, brighter than anything
else in the face; the face itself, lined with
deep wrinkles, but not one that the painter
would spare; the full handkerchief, or rich
bustling laces scrupulously covering neck
and throat, reminding us that the modesty
of her youth has survived, though not its
charms; some deep sober shawl or scarf which
the French rightly call le drapeau de UieiUe
femme, carefully concealing the outline of the
figure, though not its general feminine proper
tions-all brilliant contrasts, as all violent
passions, banished from the picture, and re-
placed by harmony which is worth them all"
The same writer, who has so admirably de-
pieted an old woman whom every one must
Venerate and love, goes on to speak of the
moral influence that such an one must have
over the society in which she lives. Having
gone through all the progressive periods Of
life, having passed through its sunshine and
its shade, she ''now casts them all aside" and
asserts her claim to our respect in the simple
fact of her age. She knows that "to all who
have eyes to see and hearts to feel her silver
locks are more precious than the most golden
tresses money could purchase-her pale cheek
more interesting than the finest bloom art
could simulate-her modest coverings more
attractive than the most wonderfully pre-
served remains of beauty she could exhibit
her whole venerable aspect of age more lovely
than the very best imitation of youth she
could possibly get up; who not only makes