American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1879-09-06
Powder and Patches.

| Why will girls who are pretty enough
insist on powdering and painting their
faces, eyebrows and lashes, throwing in
Il ''beauty - patch in an odd corner
And why will even the ugly girls initiate
them? Flesh is flesh and paint is paint,
and not all the art of man, or woman,
even, can by any possibility make the
one be mistaken for the other. The fash
ion is increasing 1T Il detdstable rate and
spreads among all classes Even girls
who hardly know the use of soap and
water can handle the paint pot deity,
and turn out of an evening in all the
glory and bravery of a Sioux.
The astounding thing about this i'll
sane fashion is that it should be so prey
alent among the youngsters. Youth
and health are in themselves great beau
tifiers, while good heart makes the
face glad. There may be some excuse
for the elder sisters on whom the hand
of Time has been laid not too gently.
When nature fails they look as naturally
to art for aid as iaftie man looks to a
crutch. When the roundness of youth
has gone, and the roses have faded on
the cheeks-roses that were never gath
cred, perhaps-and the eyes lose some
thing of their hister, while the tell-tale
wrinkles begin to creep around them
honest men obstinately refuse to trace
the touch of a pencil here and there, or
the faintest suspicion of rogue. But for
the life of them they can't help seeing
it, and thinking in their hearts how
worthless disguise it is.
But in the case of girls, with all their
lives before them and Time himself
dancing attendance upon them-when
these come up decked nut iii borrowed
man is sickened and is apt, often unjust
ly, to think hard things of the smiling,
Sinking, ogling old-young creature be-
fore him. In nine eases out of ten the
young lady's face is a fair counterpart
of her mind. The surface Of the one is
as Transparency false as that of the 9TH
er. Her thoughts, tastes, desires are
frivolous. She is an adept at slang,
knows considerably more of men and
things than her grandmother, is so free
with the 60 fellows - that one might
easily be pardoned for installing her
character, and tries her best to make
every one see that she has considera-
bly, fewer grains of sense in her
head than of powder on her face As for
the "fellows,'' they laugh with her,
joke with her, "cut up'' with her, but
rarely under any consideration marry
her. And what comes of marriages
with creatures of this kind, the divorce
court and the scandal court know and
tell.
Girls can be gay without being loud,
and win hearts more easily by being
womanly than by playing the tom-boy.
A proper reserve never Injuries them in
the eyes of a man, and he does not I'M
dervalue them for being able to do some
thing higher than to flirt. 1t is not the
prettiest girl who always captures the
best man, any more than it is the hand
soonest man who always carries off the
prettiest girl. Worth seeks for worth
and recognizes it when found. A cult
waited mind and a pure heart work won
ders with a face that would otherwise be
considered any thing but well favored.
If the girls will only take to "making
up their minds to morals, instead of
their faces, both society and themselves
would be great gamers thereby.-N. Y.
Graphic