Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-12-14
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CHANGING A FACE.
An Open Letter.

a.r. An Open Letter.
saw a little girl making a new face for
she was doing. Indeed, I often see
lines that, after q time become as dis
markings of the South Sea Islanders.
Intact. you were the little girl who was
changing her face. and thought that l
would write you IAN open letter.
about it. .-.fr...5.. ~ =. IL
You have heard the saying that
"beauty is only skin deep" and there
is another that may be new to you, that
"God makes our faces, but we make
our. mouths. Now, like most pro-
verbs, these are truths, but they are not
show you how in great measure we do
make our own mouths and our own
faces. s-tt
You know Very well that a black
smiths arm is not only strong, but
large. because hard WORK has developed
It's muscles; and it is a general truth
that all MUSCLES increase by exercise.
But you do not see how Il blacksmith's
arm illustrates anything in a little girls
face. ~ =- t
8 What does our skin, so soft and
smooth in childhood. and often so harsh
and wrinkled in old age, cover? You
say, iesh9 Yes. And some other little
girl adds, fat9 Very well. And the
boy who is studying physiology adds,
you all know that bones support the
him cfI hn fro,
as the beams and timbers of wooden
house, or of ship, are its frame. But
what is flesh? Is it merely SO much
softer fabric thrown over and fastened
to the bones in a thick sheet, like the
soft seat on the hard frame OF your
parlor sofa? Not at all. The flesh is
or little bundles, called muscles.
Muscles and flesh are different names
for the same thing, just as the bricks
and the wall of house, or the stones
and the pavement of a street, are the
same. Only the muscles, unlike the
bricks and stones, are changeable as to
size within certain limits; for each mus
Gle is attached to the bone beneath it
by the tough, inelastic tendon. Now,
You know the bones can neither bend
nor change their length, But how, for
example, does your hand reach your
mouth when you cat? Because your
arm is jointed, and some large muscles
are fastened by one end to its upper
part, near the shoulder, and by the 9th
err end below the elbow. The muscles
contract, which, as your Latin reminds
you, means .'draw together" and thus
grow shorter, and by means of the ell
bow Joint the lower part of the arm
(for the bone can not shorten) is carried
around and toward the shoulder Or the
face. as the case may be. But, becom-
ing shorter, the muscles must become
thicker, Just as, when stretched piece
of India-rubber contracts, you see it
grow thicker and stouter as it grows
shorter. BY putting your hand upon
it, you can feel the muscle of your arm
swell as it does it's work. But you al
ready know that continuous and forci- |
BILE exercise causes the arm--that is. its
grow much more marked
and bulky. Let us stop a moment to
see exactly what muscle means. Your
Latin dictionary will tell YOU, if you
don't already know, that mus means
mouse, and nauscuiats a little mouse.
The old anatomists who began to pry
into Natures secrets were impressed |
with the mouse-like outline of these
tissues when contracted, and SO called /
them little mice-muscleS. So all our |
flesh is muscle, and it is the little mice |
under the skin that are the tell !
tales of what is going on or has been |
done. ,,..-.. &C., s.-....I. =. ..s- -.e
Now, Your dear, soft face has its many !
too, much finer and more deli |
cate than those of the body, by the ex-
ercise Of which you express the emotions |
you feel. 1t would take too long to ex-
plain how or why certain of theEl |
respond to and illustrate certain feel
ings, and for the present you must &C
cept it as a fact. Now, the secret of |
our first proverb lies in the further fact I
that around the mouth is one of the few |
in the body that is not attached
to bone. 1t is muscular ring, to which |
other muscles are fastened, and moves !
in whatever direction it may be in |
retaining the seat and fashion |
into which it may be drawn And as /
the bony parts Of the face, the nose, the
forehead, the cheek-bones, the Jaws, |
the whole fixed contour, are what we |
have inherited, we can not of ourselves I
make much alteration in them. So, |
also. we inherit our mouth, but this, as !
well as a part of the, surface of the /
we can, and often do,
materially alter; and it is to these alter
making Of faces-that we
all, old and young, should give heed. II
I will not tire You, my darling, by |
going into those details which belong to /
. study that is beyond your years, but !
want you to remember, that those who
are peevish and knit their eyebrows and |
their foreheads cloud their I
brows,, it is called-do SO only by the
operation Of little muscles, that work /.
more easily and gov very little every
time they are so cmplOyed There is