Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-06-07
stop Knots, Come DOwn!o

THERE is hardly anything in the world
so beautiful as the head of beautiful
woman, or even of pretty woman, or
fine well-formed woman. The firm pure
curves, the poise upon the neck, the
gentle sweep of cheek and chin, the fine
air of womanhood that there is i'm it al
most always, even in those cases in which
the face and the figure, the limbs and the
extremities, are not beautiful-all these
make it one of the most truly admirable
things In nature. And yet it seems to be
one of the prime objects of woman in
dressing, one of the chief ends of her ex-
istence, to destry all that she can of the
beauty of her form, to conceal the grace
of its movement, and to deprive it of all
that Characteristic expression which is its
indefinable glory. 1t Is one of those
things the simple and absolute beauty OF
which cannot be enhanced by any adj
dition, and any modification of which is
deterioration. Yet Except during the
best days of Greece. since the dispersion
at Babel, she has been beset with the de-
sire to put some m0nstrous or ridiculous
things upon it, or so to arrange her hair
that, for all its beauty OF form and move
ment, her head might as well be cocoa
nut. She regards it merely as block
upon which she can put something that
will attract attention, not to her head,
but to ITSELF Heaven has made her head
a crown of beauty, If not of glory, and
she, in her miserable vanity, covers it
with bushel of false hair or of finery.
One chief beauty of her head is that it is
small whereupon she does all that she
can to make It look as large as possible.
Its outlines, from the forehead backward,
whether over the crown or from the
temples, are among the most beautiful
curves in nature, and they are distinctive
of her sex whereupOn she, with perverse
and inexhaustible ingenuity, hides these
lines by q chaotic and fOrmless mass of
ringlets and twists and frizzes and rats
and switches, and nameless abomiRations.
ANYTHING but to have her head look
simply like woman's head What could
be more beautiful than the mingled dainti-
ness and dignity of its poise upon the
neck, what more graceful than the curves
by which the junction is imperceptibly
| effected? But all this 1t seems the cher
ished purpose of her life to hide.
For years past sack of hair has hung
down between her ears upon ner should
ers, ma king her look as if she were carry
| ing a burden, not upon her head, as she
might with grace, but hitched on behind
| it. Walking behind woman for con-
siderable part of the last decade, one could
not be sure whether she had any neck, or
whether there were not some hideous
reason for its concealment. To the
great Joy of all who take delight in
women's beauty. it was announced that
the fiat had gone forth in Paris that
this monstrosity was to be abated, and
that artificial chignons were to be con.
signed to dust-heaps and oblivion. And
when we were told that the hair was to
be drawn together in knot, we rejoiccd
in the hope of seeing a womaD's head
again. Vain hope! We did not know
the sex that is not content to have even
its own beauty admired for its own sake
We looked for change from extrava'
gance to simplicity, from artifice to ma
ture. When it came, IL was merely
change from one extravaganza to another
| the substitution of q monstrous thing
upon the head for a monstrous thing be
hind 1t. Whereas before load was car
| ried upon the nape of the neck, now a
bundle is carried upon the top of the head
Where before the s'back hair'' was sill VIC
lently dragged down, it is now all VIC.
lently dragged up, strained in tight
straight lines to the top of the head, anC
there. by such fiendish Continuance as hair
dressers can master, twisted into q shape
less something that looks like cannon
wad or a demoralized mop; and, wher
she has accomplished this, every woman
goes about with virtuous air, exhaline
an odor of irreproachability. The result
| is that the end so much desired of woman
the destruction and utter abOlishmen
Of the natural beauty of her heads
again perfectly attained.
1 There is but one way to dress full
grown woman's hair without destroying
some of the beauty of her head-that is, t.
part 1t in front and draw 1t simply, ant
without ornament or torture Of any kind
| ina knot behind the ears. and just above
the nape of the neck. Were autocrat
that would bethe one sumptuary law tina
would enact; and thereupon all The
men in the country would rise up ant
call me blessed. But If the penalty for 8
violation of the law were that the woman
should be beheaded, fear that l should
soon reign over q nation of headless
women. For do verify believe that a
woman would rather be without head
than forego the privilege of making 1t
look like something other and uglier thai
it is.-Cor. N. Y. Graphic.
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