Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-02-26
THE WONDERFUL SECRET.


THE WONDERFUL SECRET.
Every now and then we run across an
advertisement of some disinterested indi-
vidual who, for a marvelously small
compensation, is ready to communicate
the priceless secret of how to make your
self attractive In one case it is the Sc
cret of beauty. Buy this recipe and
your homeliness disappears as if by
magic, your squint is gone, your crooked
nose is straight, your high cheek bones
are lower, your freckles, moles, pimples,
and bad teeth vanish in a night. Some
times the secret is obligingly done up in
a lotion or cosmetic, and sold "by all
respectable apothecaries." Apply it
and your sallow, bilious complexion is
vanquished, your skin is of an ''alabas-
ter'-always alabaster-whiteness. It
forms an enamel proof even against cas-
tile-soap. Or now it is new hair-dye,
which can be applied in five minutes,
and which colors the hair magnifcently,
leaving it GLOSSY and natural" As it
is applied in five minutes, and contains
no deleterious ingredient Except lead,)
why should there be any more bald
heads ? Let us wipe out the traces of
age and be young again. The fountain
of youth is round the corner, on the
shelves of the druggist, just behind the
soda fountain. There are tooth powders,
and remedies for badness, and blooms
OF youth, and balms of ten thousand
flowers. What need of getting out of
repair? Here is the magic that shall
make us whole again.
And of what do these thousand flower
people, and these alabaster-enamel peo-
pie, and these Observation-Disclosures
people, and these mOle-and-freckle peo-
pie who advertise so largely, live? Of
the fools and greenhorns, you may say,
and with truth. And yet we are all
fools enough-we are all wise enough,
to wish to be attractive to others. Some
of us are too lazy to exert ourselves in
that direction; but all of us have some
desire to be attractive. And it 10 this
trait Of human nature that affords pas
turage for the wonderful-secret advertis-
ers.
But we can not do much for our COM
plexion. If we tamper with it, it grows
worse. Moles and freckles. are only
skin-deep, it is true; but they will not
leave for any cosmetic not sufficiently
strong to take the skin also Martha
Jane can no more use with safety de-
pilatory powder to remove the pale mus
tache from the corners of her mouth,
than William Henry can use an invigo-
rating lotion to promote the growth Of
his very Vulnerable whiskers. But We
can render ourselves more attractive
There are remedies for responsiveness
Moles and freckles are small matters
The art of being attractive is deeper thar
cosmetics go. After cleanliness anC
neatness have been attained, we can d(
little more to make the body attractive
But trite as the truth is, let US say i
over once more. There is that in in
ward temper can make the rudest exte
rior pleasant and even beautiful. w
once heard an eminent Senator remark
of the homeliest of our historic publ,
men, that though his exterior was 81
rude, ''the gentleman always shon,
through the cracks" And we shall no
say that 1t does not matter what sort o
body you have-for we know that i
does-but we shall say that it does no
much matter what sort of a body yo1
live in, if the real gentleman shine
through.
Do not be frightened. We shall no
give you a catalogue of the familia
graces that make the ugly face seer
beautiful. But we think they might b
included in one The most attractiv
virtue of all is helpfulness. The hand
that minister are always beautiful. Tn
unselfsh, the self-sacrifcing helpful
, soul is never without love. John How
ward, the great philanthropist, when bu
; twenty-five years old, was cared for in
7 sickness almost mortal by a woman twic
| his age. And her helpfulness so adorr
ed her that when Howard got up frol
= his illness he forgot all the young an
E handsome women that man in his pc
sition might have welded, and marie
: the motherly woman whose face was gil
rified by her goodness. And it was
!, similar gratitude that led Charles Jane
4 Fox to marry Mrs. Armistead. But NJ
in matters of matrimony only, but in a
] daily life the loyeliest people are tt
y most helpful.
a 1t seems little irreverent to concluC
n an article which starts off with adve
tisements of cosmetics among the false
f things in the world-with an allusion
; the truest and most sacred subject in ii
s world; but we can not refrain sayir
I that the Life which has moved and mol
: ed the world more than any other Ii
$ the world knows, was life of infini
t helpfulness From the wine Of Cana
d the conversation with the thief of Calv
ry, to the story of the gospels is an ep
of helpfulness.