Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-05-23
From Harper's Eazar.
FOR THE UGLY GIRLS

]
Leonetta writes for advice. She is
| twenty-seven years old, five feet five
inches high, weighing one hundred
and five pounds-not at all desirable
proportions. Though her brow is
clear, the corners of her eyes begin
to show marks of time. and the skin
of her face looks fraction too loose.
This was owing to sickness during
the larger part of her life, but on
going to better climate her health
grew tolerably good. 1t is her habit
to take daily baths with soap, but
she finds the pores of her face coarse,
and her looks unsatisfactory. She
wishes to know what she shall do
to recover the lost youth of which
she has been defrauded.
A young person shows courage in
opening such a suit, for time is q
rapacious and hard-hearted creditor,
from whom il is not easy to replevin
looks and spirits. But even time IS
no match for woman's wit, and if
Leonetta uses her share OF 1t, she
may yet scoff at the spoiler for
more years than he has kept her
out of her own.
Half sadly she asks whether she
is to class herself as young or
middle-aged, for the burden of i'll
health, more than experience, makes
one feel old. She is not to call her.
self middle-aged for ten years to
come-or shall it be said till forty?
One certainly is not to be called old
till sixty. The bloom on both cheek
and spirit is what makes youth, and
till this is gone one does not seem
old to any but children.
A person whose height is five feet
ought to weigh one hundred and
twenty-five pounds at least, and twen-
ty-fve more would not be too much
for gracefully rounded lines. The
skin hangs loosely when there is no
flesh under 1t, of course. Possibly
Leonetta's thinness and her coarse
complexion proceed from the same
cause-improper food and imperfect
digestion. It is not the amount she
eats, but what she digests, that tells
on her condition.
Now the digestion-that is, the
good that food does-depends on
quantity, quality, and variety. Some
food is excellent of its kind, but is
not what the body needs aud the ap-
petite Graves. Boiled beef and light
pot-pie and corn-starch pudding may
be very nice in themselves, but when
a nervous, overwrought system longs
for cooling acids to allay the feverish-
ness within, and for the strong juices
of roast meat well savored with herbs
and condiments that gently soothe
and stimulate, this wholesome dinner
ha.
good it will do. The American, with
a cool climate and constant work,
needs the best feeding IN the world to
supply force to brain and hand. The
complaint most people make OF their
/ food is that it lacks seasoning, which
shows that precisely those elements
are left out which feed the nerves,
correct the bile, and strengthen the
blood. Indigestion springs not so
much from things that taste good,
the fiavors with lemon, white wine.
| tarragon, thyme, bay leaf, and Glove,
| from the brown rOasts and piquant
/ fish dressing, the salads and dress
| ings, which nightly feed and devel-
op both brain and heart, as it does
from the coupcon Of sourness in the
black backed loaf, from the watery
potato ready in the warmth of the
stomach to ferment like yeast, from
the tough or dry meat, and the indif-
ferent pastry. Things taste good be-
cause they are good for the body,
and the appetite in nine cases out OF
ten is an unerring purveyor. So LIE
onetta must provide herself with
plenty of the most tempting food,
and coax he: appetite with what il
likes best Perhaps she will fancy
one particular relish, and nothing
else. If so, let her make her living
of it, no matter if it is coddled apples
mince, pie, grape jam, giblet soup, OF
chicken dressing. Very likely she
needs the acids, or the oils, or the
spice to correct
SOME MORBID SECRETION,
and when things are set right the ap-
petite Wilt with new vigor to 9th
er food. Some kind of diet produce
fat sooner than others-brown bread
and milk, for instance, or baked pO'
tatoes and broiled steak. Sweet
things, if there is n liking for them
readily induce flesh, but no mortal
ever was known to gain either flesh oI
strength ON unpalatable food.
Hygienic diet is either the best OF
the worst in the world. The Hotten'
tot, with baked locust, is preferable
rs a host to the semi-dyspeptic Will
his stewed apples and Graham muf
fins. Nothing is so nice and difficult
L