The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-05-08
Making Up the Face.
fCornhill Magazine. l


 Making up the face, as it is called, is an art in itself; by it the old can be made to look young, or at least younger, and the young old. By these arts the famous Dejazet, when eighty years old, could play successfully young page. Formerly burnt cork, piece of chalk and pot of rouge were sufficient; now your well-graced actor has his make up" box, or dressing case, containing stores of violet powder, fullers earth, chrome yellow, blue, crayons, umber, cosmetic, black enamel, joining paste" with other unpleasant things All have their purpose. Are you the hunted villain skulking from justice in the woods? you must rub your cheeks and chin thoroughly with thick blue powder, to leave the idea that you have not been able to shave for week. Or should you be an aged crone or hag, few blue streaks on the arms or hands suggest the well marked veins of old age To be particularly youthful and lover-llke, you must whiten your face thoroughly, rouge well up to the eyelids, and then draw little brown streak un- der the eyes, which lends brilliancy. An old man has very disagreeable task before him. He must rub his cheeks and chin well with fullers earth then, with a camel s-hair brush, pro ceed to make three dark streaks be- tween the eyes, with long lines from the nostrils to the corners of the mouth then get on what is oddly called his white bald wig" the bald portion of which is fixed to the forehead by join ing paste" \ striking additional effect Is produced by giving the effect of teeth being wanting. which at first sight seems almost an impossible thing to do But in your makeup" you find your black enamel, with which you paint over q couple of teeth; in few min utes it sets and hardcns and a most satisfactory and disagreeable evidence of old age iS the result \ mode of at taching whiskers was the old-fashoned one of hooking them on to the ears. But there k an article called "crape hair, which is gummed on to the cheeks, and when dry can be trimmed and combed like real whiskers As re- @ardS the nose, there is an elegant way of treatment, namely, by fitting on a well-modeled papcr moche one; but there is the rough-and-ready mode of dealing with it. We read in one of the textbooks on the subject the following grave directions In some low-comedy characters, such as Bordoiph, it is neces- sary to alter the shape of the nose in order to give 1t that bloated, biotchy appearance so noticeable i'll drunkartls. :. ! ou must first gum on the end of the nose piece of wool press it down to the shape and size required, then pow der it we'll with rouge to match the rest of the nose and checks The cheeks may also be enlarged in the same way. The other and perhaps the better way is to take a little powder, mix it with water and work it up into dough; fix it to the nose with spirit gum, mold it to the shape and size required, and then powder it with rouge to match the cheeks, etc. Blotches, warts and pim- pies may be made by sticking on small pieces of wool and coloring them either brown or red" We may thus fancy our unhappy actor complete, his woolen nose stuck on with gum, his eyebrows and whiskers well glued to him, his black enameled teeth, his cheeks plas- tered with rouge, white and amber his bald wig" fastened to his forehead with joining paste;" and we may won 1 der indeed, how he can find spirit or even ease to utter his wordsl