The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-12-22
GETTING UP COMPILATIONS.
The Matter Discussed by n slgnOra, Mad
anne and American.

anne and American.
Naples Correspondence OF the Inter ocean,
Glow do you American ladies get up your
complexionS so perfectly Z" asked q black
eyed signora yesterday. "You Americans
never show whatever may be upon your faces
but the English Dio miol how absurdly they
do manage their makeup. They must use
common chalk, | believe" and she laughed
lightly, revealing perfect teeth, looking like
yellow, old ivory by contrast with tho super
natural Wilderness of her face;
with cold water and soft towel; then,
perhaps, q slight dash Of rice powder to soft
en- any disagreeable polish" answered the
American.
Nonsense" sputtered the young signora,
IL know better. But Americans are like the
English, In this respect, that they never will
confess When an English woman gets her
self up she locks all the doors, hangs q towel
over the keyhole, and draws down the shades.
Then she covers her face with glycerine, and
when that has become sufficiently absorbed,
she takes huge wad Of soft cotton and with
it she daubs on the powder till she appears
as If looking through white sheet. Then
she will come out from her toilet and affect
metc, even to the denying broadly that she
ever made in her life What do English
women think. / wonder! That all the world
is powder -blind2 You Americans are more
clever; you have some secret OF the com
pleyion that We Neopolitans are dying TO
learn, yet you all deny having any,
"ShaIl / tell you miner" asked Nine la Pa
risienne, who sat near, looking wonderfully
amused at the conversation.
"YOu? You have nOne," ChOruSed the Ameri
can and the Italian together with such q
perfect skin as yours you need noner'
The Parisienne laughed, and taking tiny
powder puff in pink silk case from her
pocket, passed it lightly over her face before
she answered. Her eyes were very merry
even with the languorous, dreamy look their
Intense black lashes gave Them and the soft
rosebud tint about her complexion looked
almost infantle in spite Of the shadow upon
her upper lip which Is ever the fatal flaw in q
French woman's beauty, after all that Halter
ing Frenchmen have sung, said, and sighed
about the incompeteness OF unmOustached
feminine ovelnessl
"You are both foreigners to me- go back
to Paris tomorrow; therefore / will tell you
how | prepare myself every day to pass for
eight years younger than ! am First tell
me, however, how old you think am The
American was just about to speak with her
usual candor and say forty" when the guile
full little Italian spoke first, and said, with
ostentatous innocence, "twenty-two! and
so she answered -"ty two" The Parisienne
smiled graciously, and then continued: II
never permit even my husband to see me de-
faite, for, although my art is no secret to him,
! prefer that no one shall ever see me so much
IN neOiigc. always sit at my mirror. for the
process requires nearly an hour First l take
q bit OF finest flannel and pearl powder, and
softly polish Oh the CDIn cream WHICH mas
preserved my face from the air all night.
never put water on my face; have not
done SO for ten years. as it roughenS and
coarsens it exceedingly After the dust Of
the night and the cold cream are removed |
put upon cheeks and chin, with my fingers, an
extraordinary amount of rose-pink, till look
as II done with house paint. The rose must
be used thus profusely for the reason that the
| after-coating OF white covers it, and would
conceal entirely lesser quantity. When the
I'm, fn
little pot Of the lard Creme Emperatrice,
shaded the faintest pink. and rub small por
ton slowly, gradually, and with the utmost
care, into every pore OF my lace, neck, ana
ears. When that Is done, and cheeks and
chin thus reduced in color almost to their
| proper delicacy OF rose, | take the finest pos
| sible powder-puf lightly rubbed over a cake
of exceedingly expensive and delicate pre-
! paration arranged on q porcelain slab, which
! I can buy only in Paris, and then with light
touch, dust my face and neck till bring my
self to the softness of texture and pu-
rity OF tint which you admire so
much. Then my complexion is done.
! After having removed with a small
brush every atom of powder from my eye
brows, / take a fine camels hair brush and
| touch my eyelashes and lightly with the
same jet-black dye with which my husband
tintS his muStache All this time my hair
has been tied straight back q Ia ChinOise, Tor
friZzeS and curls interfere with the making
up of complexion. But now ! call Elise,
who carefully adds curls and bands, while |
take a hot pipe-Stem, heated in the gas, and,
| with the utmost precision, arrange all these
fluffy little face curls that look so natural and
careless and that have am convinced, quite
as much or more influence upon lady
looks than an artistic complexion. At this
point five years have dropped away from my
thirty, and | have only to dress myself up
carefully to remove the other three!' =
"Do mio," exclaimed the Italian with ap-
palling forgetfulness, '.arc you only 30? Why
we all thought you had the loveliest com
plexion we ever saw upon woman near
ing 40 =
While the American, astonshed by these
revelations, was reminded OF another French
woman OF her acquaintance who once told
her that the only bath her face had received
for years was by the corner OF towel dpped
In milk. This little French woman had &C
cepted the universal French theory that tbs
night air had a deleterious effect upon the
complexion, so she slept during the hottest
midsummer nights sitting with all doors ant
windows closed and Kerosene lamp burning
in her room, and with grease enough upor
her face to fry farmers luncheon OF dough
nuts. She arose every morning with a face
the hue Of mud-tuttle IN the crisis OF scarle'
fever, to refresh herself with milk and tht
corner Of a towel, and to say repiningly, al
she looked in her mirror: what would be
come Of my complexion If didn't take sucf
great care of it 7!
And the American also remembered thu
French boarding school where she onc
passed some months, where fifty haple8
girls snothered together hot nights in tn
dormoir with every window and shuttle
closed, and dim nlght-Iamp consuming tn
air. to rise in the morning languid and pale
to make fifty slight additions, all fifty to
gether, in the tiny basins Of the ldbOtre
where fifty powder-boxes stood with fifty bit
Of soap; and to be marshaled once month
, in the hottest weather, to march together t.
a neighbOriDg bathing establishment, wher
they took the only bath they had taken sine
the month before! And she ceased to won
, der that at 20 SO many French women disap
peared forever under a look Of grease an
!; powder
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