Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-02-09
@iseella,1eous.
From the Springfield Republican.
Mysteries OF the TOilet.-Are Women OF
Men the More False and Delusiye?

Mysteries OF the Toilet.-Are Women or
Men the More False and Delusive?
With your kind permission have few
words to say to that Boston girl who asks
the following questions of other girls:
Gould you love a man who wore false
hair on his head when he had enough of
his own? Who painted his face and inn
proved his form as you improve(p) yours
Who pinched his feet with small shoes,
his hands with small gloves, his waist
with corsets, and then, as if he had already
deformed himself enough. tied huge bus
tie to his back, and thrust tiny mountains
of wire into his BOSOM"
am disgusted with you, Boston, you,
or any other girl, who follows the fashions,
and then rails about them, for therejs not
doubt that you are the very personifca-
ton OF style, from the jute switch that sur
mounts your Uranium to the dainty French
boots which torture your tiny feet. hold
that it is everybody's duty to look as well
as they can, or as their circumstances will
admit of; and what would be said of any
girl or woman who did not arrange her
hair after the prevailing style, although
there are plenty of ladies who Go that,
with only their own luxuriant tresses,
without getting any credit for it as every
one says: ''What a splendid switch -
whose boots and gloves did not set neatly,
who wore ill-fitting dresses and, suppos.
ing we do wear bustles, when they are
properly adjusted, instead of being de-
formity they are very becoming. There
is nothing injurious about them, and we
must have some variety. Women dress
to please the men, and there is not man
| in Christendom, who has the moral cour-
age to appear in public with lady dress
ed, however modestly and sensibly, if in
disregard of the prevailing fashion.
And when you come right down to the
nicely of the point, and talk about getting
ones self up to look pretty, the men use
quite as much deception for that purpose
as the women, anil quite as much time and
money. Your gentleman pays a barber
by the week to keep his hair and whiskers
in order, and to brush and clean and fix
him up, and turn him out in the morning,
fit for his place of business, and at night
presentable for the evening; and tailor
by the year to keep him well dressed.
And you just go to these tailors, to the
'artist tailors' in the Temple place, in
your city for instance, and see what they
will tell you, if you can persuade them to
tell, OF stays, and corsets, padded chests,
shoulders, and even legs, and to which the
Tiny mountains of Wire" which perhaps,
some ladies wear although for my part,
l never saw such thing-are not cir
cumstance.
Men quite rs often use cosmetics as
women. They wash in borax and lemon
juice, use endless quantities of glycerine
and sweet oil-and can tell the girls secrets
about sleeping in kid gloves and poulti-
cling hands and face to make them white.
Perhaps you have not big brother.
have, and big cousin, both of whom de-
light in looking as irresistible as possible,
and some of the mysteries of the toilet
into which these same lords of creation
have initiated us girls would astonish YOU.
Why, bless you, Boston, we didn't even
know there was such. thing as pearl
tina" until they told u.s. Most all the
students use it" says Cousin Tom, who
is at Amherst; ''can't get along without
it, it makes them so fair" And then
brother Jack tells who buys cosmetics at
his drug store, and il is not the girls
| know for certainty of more men that
paint their faces than do women--really
paint, pink and white; and you can't find
one lady in five hundred that does that
Almost every lady sometimes uses little
innocent toilet powder. to counteract the
effect Of soap, and makes no secret of it,
but that is a very different thing from
poison paint. Do you say it is only young
clerks and students that are so vainp
You are mistaken. Vanity is not con-
fined to a class. have heard lady say,
who for years kept large boarding house
for gentlemen, and at different times num-
bered professional men, railroad officials,
insurance agents. drummers, mechanics,
&C., among her patrons, that nearly every
toilet table was supplied with paint, and
she knew they used it. And no harm in
it either, only this universal painting
makes one almost fancy that "Civiliza-
TONS failure, and the Caucasian played
out"
l like to see fair play. The men need
not blame the women for what they are
continually doing themselves. Gould
you love man who pinched his feet?" |
should just like to see Boston or any other
girl find a man to love who does not wear
boots full size too small for him. Did
you ever see mans bare foot P | wish
you could see brother Jacks. They look
about as much like ladys soft, white,
pretty, perfect-shaped feet as they do like
iuuu turtleS. SOrnS mere, ana ulSlOcatlOnS
there, bunions on the joints, and the toes
piled up one on top Of another, with the
ends turned under. And know by the
sly talk hear between him and his chulns
about ointments and corn plasters that he
is not an exception.
After making the few follies of the
gentler sex their own, in an exaggerated
degree, these male bipeds assert their
manliness by chewing tobacco, smoking
cigars, or worse. nasty pipe, by stagger-
ing home several times week the worse
for liquor, by keeping disreputable COM
pany Of the opposite sex as their own, in
dulging in fast horses, betting at races,
playing at billiards, and squandering THEN
money generally. And it is very little
appreciation the wives. mothers, daugh-
ters, and sisters get, for keeping them
selves nice, pure, dainty, and pretty, and
for doing everything in their power to
make home pleasant and attractive for
them. Boston had better let the men
| fight their own battles as they are quite