The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-09-17
Fashionable Fingers and Toes.

not be delayed single day.-Neao York
Times.
Fashionable Fingers and Toes
The idle, fashionable woman has taken
to new diversion. She polishes her
nails. She extends her hand to you
with great frequency nowadays, and al
ways with the back upward and the
fingers Strengthened out. That is because
she wishes you to observe the nails,
which shine like glass, and are of a deli
cate pink hue. Who knows what started
this mania? Nobody can ever discover
the origin of such things. The distem-
per breaks out somehow, and then ex-
tends from person to person. The New
York woman of leisure, whether she be
left in the city or is to be found at some
near seashore resort, now spends about
four hours day at work on her nails.
Her tool is an article somewhat like the
wooden handles or holder for blotting-
paper-a narrow strip of ebony, ivory
or india-ru bber, with a knob on one side
and surface of chamois skin on the
other. Some of these polishers are fan
cifully made, and $40 is not an unusual
price; but cheap ones do the work as
well and homemade article answers the
purpose. The best of them have device
for handily fastening in fresh strips of
chamois skin, but tacks will do. The
essentials are polishing substance and
plenty of industry. A mixture is sold in
the stores at a pretty high price, and it
has beautiful name and label, but it is
simple composition of rotten-stone, oil
and rouge. Anybody can mix itfor her.
self. It is well to give these directions
plainly, because nail-polishing will be
sure to reach the west before many weeks
and then the fair readers of The Enquirer
will know how to do it. The stuff is
daubed on the rubber, and assiduous
friction does the rest. The rotton- stone
and OIL smooth and polish the nails, just
as metal, bone, and ivory are made to
shine by the workmen, and the rouge
imparts apinkish color. The enthusiastic
industry displayed by the women in this
summer amusement is wonderful.
They rub. rub, by the hour, usually
in parties, making this employment
take the place of needle work. There
was once an old woman who scrubbed
her kitchen floor until she wore her way
through and fell into the cellar, breaking
her back. Something like that will hap
pen to these nail-polishers, for nails can
not thicken by growth as fast as they are
bow being secured away. The polish
ing is not all done on fnger-nails. Oh,
no. The toe-nails of the bellies are beau
titled, too. What is the use of spending
time and labor in making their toe-nails
pink and glossy? Well, some of them
haYe husbands, bear in mind. But more
than that, this is the season when most
metropolitan women battle more or less
at the sea-shore, and show their feet in
doing so. Time was when the female
bather hid the corns, bunions, and little
unshapeliness of her feet in slippers, or
stuck them out of sight into the sand
when not in the water. The attractive
ness of the FURNISHED nails are deemed
by her to more than compensate for any
| b1emishes, and so she takes painsto show
her feet. The change is marked feature
in the surf scenes at the Coney Island,
where thousands of women are in the
| water every afternoon. Many of them
may now be seen sitting on the sand,
with their toe-nails proudly glistening in
| the sun.
The increased attention to nails has
/ naturally extended to their shape, and
the greatest care is bestowed upon the
matter of cutting them. Long and mar
row nails are considered prettiest, and to
give them the desired proportion
| while at the roots the skin is pushed and
cut back as much as possible. Gloves
are not worn at all this ssummer, even at
the full i-dress balls at Long Branch and
Newport Mitts of all colors, from
white through the whitest hues to plain
black, extend from the elbows to the
knuckles, leaving the fingers exposed.
There is all the more reason, then, for
rendering those fingers slightly. Really
beautiful fingers, if you will take the
trouble to convince yourself by obserya-
tion, are scarce indeed-much more SO
| than handsome faces The plump beauty
has fingers as blunt at the ends as drum
sticks, while the fingers of her etherially
slender sister are just about as bony
as skeletons. Thus it is a good year
for pretty fingers that do not need tight
| glove to squeeze them into good shape.
Rings are more than ever in vogue.
Bangle rings, with jingles to them, are
about the only novelty in that line.
| THE CAPTAIN's PIANo.-A sea-captain
who was asked by his wife TO look at
some pianos while he was in the city
with view of buying her one, wrote
home to her; 'sI saw one that thought
would suit you, black walnut hull, strong
bulk heads strengthened fore and aft
/ with iron frame, sealed with white wood
and maple. Rigging steel wire double
on the ratlines and whipped wire on the
lower stays, and heavier cordage. Be-
laying pins of steel and we'll driven home.
Length of traffrail over all, 6 feet inch.
Breadth of beam 38 inches, depth of hold
IA inches. Hatches can be battened
down proof against 10-year old boys and
commercial drummers, or can be clewed