Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-05
BEAUTY MADE TO ORDER.
An AuthOress who Insists that Plain
Girls Can Make Themselves Pretty.
From the New York Sun.

FROM the New fOrk sum-
Gertrude Florence Atherton, in her sensa-
tional novel. Hernia Suydam,"' makes her
heroine turn herself into beautiful woman
from very ugly one. But she does not tell
how the transformation was accomplished.
She simply has the young woman closeted with
a fashionable physician, and, beauty results
from what the doctor tells her to do. Neverthe-
less, Gertrude Atherton could have made
known what the doctor is supposed to have
said if she had wanted to- for in conversation
with her friends she is fond of asserting that
any young woman who wants to be beautiful
can make herself 30, no matter how slender a
basis of beauty she may have to build upon at
the outset She makes the assertion in mat
ter-of-course way, and adds in an equally posi-
tive manner: "Of course, mean any young
lady of means"
Her idea is that modern sense and modern
science have reached methods for treating
every defective part of the body that is not dis
eased or crippled. The new forms of calls
thenic exercises can be applied to part after
part until each is developed to its fullest.
There are exercises for filling out the neck and
upper chest, for developing the arms. for
Strengthening the back and throwing back the
shoulders. with accompanying braces to keep
those parts habituated to beautiful positions
There are even latter-day systems for filling out
cavernous cheeks. One physician at least recon-
mends ladies whose cheeks are the reverse of
plump to constantly chew a piece of leather or
thick rubber-in the privacy of their homes, of
course-until the muscles. of the face are
strengthened and enlarged to the right de-
gree.
We have heard Of ambitious pug-nosed girls
| sleeping every night with patent clothes-pin
fastened upon the hollow in the nasal outline
in order to bring it up so that the full line of
the nose shall be as nearly aquiline as possible
OF course there are many more ladies who
sleep in face masks and in gloves in order to
whiten their skins in those parts. Squint eyes
are Strengthened by surgery, and projecting
other influence that ladies resort to when
age begins to leave its marring finger traces
on their countenances is the practice of rub
bling upward with the towels with which thew
dry their faces after each ablution. 1t is held
by some students of the art OF keeping beauti-
full that as nearly all the lines that accompany
age in the face are lines trending downward it
Is reasonable to suppose that they either are
produced by years Of wiping downward with
towels, or at least are hastened and strength
ened by that influence. Young ladies who wish
to keep these defects from coming upon them
should therefore always dry their faces with
upward movements of the towel
The authoress does not go into details, but
when she says 1.-The ways by which beauty may
that she refers to. As for the complexion, she
says that while there are washes and balms
that are good, there are others that are hurt
full, whereas there can be no harm in treating
the face with cold cream every night upon re-
firing. She instances the case of a lady beyond
middle age who has pursued this course for
years, and now, while beyond middle age
has the complexion Of an infant Gertrude
Atherton may fairly be suspected Of hav-
ing practiced what she breaches in this
and many other respects, for her COM
plexion is beautiful. Her own well-scuptured
hneaments, however, are Of such pattern that
no one will suspect her Of having need for
practicing those other arts that are required
byyouthful plainness. Though she limits this
ability to acquire beauty to those who have
means it would be more within the fact to say
that the chance is open to those who have the
time. 1t takes time, for instance, to give the
hair that half an hour Of brushing every morn
ing which is said to make it luxuriant and
glossy; it takes time to exercise for filing out
thin arms and bony necks; ittakes time 70 chew
rubber till your face il plump. Time il what
the homely girls must command-tinae, and
inclination, and intelligence enough to GO to
bed early. q. e. =, e .s,..ss 6 "a.