The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-10-15
Suffering to be Beautiful.

pears to have been and to be the opin-
ion of most peoples, savage or civilized.
Beginning with hair, we find that saw
age, like civilized men and women, will
not let their hair follow it's natural bent
nor keep its natural color. 81 never
saw you wear your hair quite so light as
that" some one said to a young lady
lately when examining her portrait.
The natives of the Western Pacific
wear their hair, naturally dark, as light
as they can, by the aid of lime obtained
from burned color The Venetian Ia
dies used to spread their locks in the
sun to bleach them, Science has pro.
vided the modern fair with different
kinds of auricomous fluid. AS to shay
ing, savages are often as particular
about it as Stendhal, who shaved every
morning during the retreat from Mos
COW. The discomforts of shaving the
head with a shell or sharp piece of
flint have often been commented on. 1t
is necessary for a friend to sit on saw
ages head when he is being shaved.
Afterward he gets up and sits on his
friends head. 1t is easy to imagine the
joy of these children of nature when
some bits of broken glass come in their
way. Then they enjoy what they think
the luxury of a really easy shave. In
some countries man, selfish man, com.
pels the woman to shave, while he in
dulges his vanity by wearing his own
hair in greasy but elaborate mop.
The tinger-nails are not usually en-
couraged to grow more than nine or
ten inches long, because of practical in
conveniences which attend this decora-
tive arrangement. A Chinese. ascetic.
however, encourages his nails to extend
in a variety of curly shapes, an indul-
gence which we should not grudge to
man whose comforts and amusements
are cut down to the lowest figure, and
who thinks that he is earning heaven
by turning this life into hell. Tat
tooing hurts dreadfully, especially
when people go in for having pat
terms alto retieUo on their arms. backs
and bosoms. When the whole BODY is
converted into surface covered with
spirals, like pre-Raphaelite wall pa
per, the victim can only be supported
by the appreciation of strong aesthetic
conscience. In some cases, of course.
tattooing means no more than our GUS
tom of carrying visiting cards. The
marks merely show to what family a
lady or gentleman belongs, and, on in
specting these, a maiden at once knows
whether any black fellow she meets is,
for her, an eligible husband. !. If their
marks are the same they must not think
of marrying. This arrangement pre-
vents many 'disappointments," as a
girl knows at once when it would be
hopeless for her to give away her heart.
The nose, lips and ears have naturally
been much decorated. The Australians
and certain races on the northwest
coast of America used to wear such
huge bones in their noses that they
were forced to keep their mouths wide
open to breath. In Peru the lobes of
the ears used to hang down to the Shout
ders.
While savages cut the nose, ears, lips
and other parts of the frame into varI-
Gus conventional designs, it is reserved
for civilization-C Chinese, European and
American-to attack the really useful
organs. Thus a savage may chop off
his little finger by way of proving that
he has come to years of discretion, as
the Mandans did, or he may have his
front teeth knocked out for the same
purpose, as is the manner of the Murri.
But he will not ruin his chest or deform
his feet. Only people who do not need
to walk or run much, wear tight
boots and cultivate slender waists,
though the practice descends from own
ers of carriages to the middle and lower
classes. Mr.. Flower (author of book
49, ~ al c.l,o
" wood-cuts of the Chinese woman's
foot and of it's skeleton. ''Dur-
ing the first year of the bind
ing the pain is so intense that the suf-
ferer can do nothing but lie and cry and
moan. For about two years the foot
aches continually" Some of the toes
usually come off with the bandages,
which enables the fortunate patient to
wear smaller shoe than would other
wise have been possible. The Chinese
woman's foot is almost exactly like
drawing of the Partisan lady's foot in
shoe, which is reprinted from an adj
vertisement in an English paper, with
a wide circulation among women. APP
parently Partisan shoemakers wish En-
glish ladies to live up to Chinese ideas.
ne tOOo VI SOAoCh VI Wv
formed Chinese foot, touch the ground
between the great toe and the heel.
The fashionable length is between three
and half and four inches.
But probably the Chinese do not
tight lace. This is the greatest, most
permanent and most mischievous of
modern fashionable deformities. A
glance at the waist of the Venus, so
Incorrectly attributed to the chisel of
the athlete Milo. and at the waist of any
lady in picture of the fashions, will
show that the modern woman's internal
economy must be hopelessly deranged.
The shape of the skeleton is actually
and absolutely reversed. The ribs of
the human frame are narrow at the TOP
and expanded downward. The ribs in
the skeleton of a tight-laced woman are
wide at the top and contract as they
descend. Probably evan more misery
is caused by the absurdly contracted
waist than by the ridiculous pointed and
high-heeled boot. But all classes suffer
from " the cruel and extreme torture
of the boot" in the modern conven-
tional shape. Tight lacing, after all,
only affects women, and chiefly women
who want to be fashionable. If we