Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-04-07
q FAsH1oSABLE WOMEN.
startling Revelation of Toilet Mys-
teries-Triumph of Art over Ma


From Woodruff and Clafiin's Weekly.l
We premise that fashionable woman
in q state of nature is no more than any
other women--often not 1.-THE as beau
tiful as many thousands Of other women
although she does look so like juno
and Venus, and the rest of the pretty
goddesses, when she has put on her best
set-offs, and goes blazing with jewels into
society. 1t is dreadful for bachelor Ii
think what humbugs these women are
Here is lady Of questionable age--say
twenty-seven; she is in her morning
wrapper, although it is past high noon
and she is going to a great evening party
She looks into the glass and sees there .
yellow, brow-wrinkled bull-eyed face; :
mouth full Of gums, and no teeth; infall
ing cheeks; thin, doleful hair; neck nC
more like the Tower of Lebanon thar
II like Hercules, but thin, scraggy, anC
! not to be named where beauty is Tht
sight is anything but agreeable and the
cost of remedying it is very expensive
and she wishes she were really the pretty
gay woman that she is taken for in thu
glare of the chandeliers.
But, as wishing availeth nothing, sht
rings the BELL orders her carriage, ant
drives to the Turkish baths Here SHE
is boiled for half an hour in steam, anC
when well done she is douched with colo
water until her skin assumes something
like the glow and color of health. In
another hour-after dressing, and ther
drinking cup OF coffee and smoking .
cigarette, as she lay at full length upot
tempting sofa-she resumes her seat
in the carriage, and then drives to No
= Broadway, where that handsome
chiropodist's store is who enamels us SC
beautifully; and in a few minutes she
is in the presence of this nice young man
whom she halls of course as an old and
most intimate friend, who knows her ex
teriors, even the most sacred of them
like a book. She has come this time, as
she informs him, TO be done thoroughly
1t is such a nuisance, she says, to be
compelled to go through all that weary
process of enameling once week; and
so she has made up her mind to have
| her face and bust done for six months.
Then there is good deal of chaffering
about the price. Our handsome chiro-
podist insists. npen his full fee Of three
hundred dollars. If the lady had been
pretty. why he would have thrown of
Something to make her still prettier; but
as this particular lady is anything but
good looking, he will not abate dime
of his charge. ~ ss say .aae. er
So my lady agrees, and retires into an
elegant parlor, where there are long
large mirrors set into the walls, with an
easy chair opposite the largest of them
and in position where the light is full
est. AS there is no need of any display
of modesty in this purely business affair
she unrobes herself to the waist, regard
less of the gentleman artists presence
and gets him to help her, first of all tc
weed out Of her productive skin the
stubble of hair which has shot up since
the last wedding time, which done, the
superhuous hairs are plucked out by the
roots; and then she clips the soft hair
around the temples and forehead to give
to the latter an arched appearance, and
not being quite satisfied with her own
handiwork, she gets her gentleman
whose hands. drop with perfumes, to
shave over the parts where she had been
with her scissors.
Allvbeing ready, the serious business
begins. The artist appliesa a very pow
erful magnifying glass to all the beauties
of her face. neck, arms, shoulders, and
alack, alackl her bust, also down to hel
waist If he finds any hair there OF
gossamer fuzz, he excises it with washes
soaps. liniments or tweezers. Strange
to say. the artists hands very rarely
tre1nbles over his work; he is not af'
ficted by any shortness of breath, palpi-
tation of the heart or shivering OF the
nerves; and it seems to us that be must
be a particularly enameled man himself
with a cutice as thick as q rhinoceros
hide, or that he is a wax man, and has
no flesh and blood in his composition.
All being now ready, he begins to over
lay the skin that nature gave to her with
a skin of his own composing he api
plies the enamel to her yellow face and
then to her bust The enamel consists
chiefly Of white lead or arsenic, made
into semi-liquid paste. 1t requires a
COON deal of skill to lay it on so that It
shall be smooth, and not wrinkled; and
two or three hours, and sometimes a
much longer time, are consumed in
making good job of is.
In this instance the lady was very ex-
acting, for she had to pay three hundred
dollars for the artists work, and it was
long time before she was completely
satisfied. But presently she rose from
her making-place in all the glory Of her
regenerated body, and, again looking
into the glass, she beheld vision of such
surprising loveliness-compared with
the old body underneath the arsenic
cuticle, that she fell upon the artist $
neck and kissed him in the exqberance
of her gratitude. M n 81