Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-04
Written for TIE EVENING srAR.
BEAUTY AND ITS FOES,
How Corpulence and Other Evils Have
to be Warded OF.


THE BANE OF THE FLESH AND THE EpENIc
WAY OF REDUCING tan AMERICAN BEAUTY
IN LoNDoS-AN EDENIc BILL OF FARE-How
TWO GENTLEMEN REDUCED THEIR coRPULENcY.
when I meet with a countenance which
reveals to me the character of highly gifted
person. whether in art, science or domestic
traits, think experience all the qualification
which an artist would feel were he suddenly to
come upon one of the works of the old masters
in some unexpected nook or garnet. An ex-
pressive face speaks to the beholder in most
unmistakable language. After one has ac-
CURED knowledge of scientific physiognomy
he can never mistake knave for an honest
man or common-faced person for a genius
Neither will talent and goodness pass him
unnoticed. And the face which he might have
considered plain or homely may, under the
1uii blaze OF physiognomical law, reveal traits
OF beauty and power"
The obligation we all feel at having our own
ideas put INTO expressive language will be felt
toward the writer of these lines, from Mrs.
Mary Olmstead Stanton's ply siognomy, not yet
published. Readers will rather thank than
cavll at any freedom used in drawing upon this
WORK, which Is most original and highly sug-
gestlve on personal culture as well as its own
topic We must understand the forms and
faces about us, the significance of features and
physical quality and the causes which produce
them before We can improve upon them. The
most important to health, beauty and vitality
Is the bodily condition as to flesh.
THE BALANCE OF CONDITION.
The first thing judge of human beings will
note is their balance of condition-toward
plumpness or the reverse. Commanders used
to selecting men for service instinctively pro-
nounce upon their weight at sight. The first
tnlng which strikes a man in judging of a
pretty woman is her expression of face; then
her build, as plump or slender. And politi-
clans, when IN judging the tempers of men, in
stlnctvely calculate upon their physical condi-
ton. The big. fat, dubious man is either hard
10 move from his inertia or very easy to influ-
ence through his dislike to being disturbed
while the lean and hungry Cassus'' is more
dlihcult to deal with. There is sound physio-
logical reason behind this instinct Every ounce
OF overweight Is so much deducted from force
OF brain, muscle-so much shortening of
days and lessening of activities. Ii the
direct influence of over supply of tissue in
destroying vitality was understood, as demon
strable by facts and statistics. ''super1uous
flesh" would be as much phrase of dread and
dislike as superhuous hair is now, and with far
greater reason. 1t is the first sign of physical
degeneration, the clogging of energies within
and the tlm upon the fine steel of mental
keenness. Nature has its exact weights and
measures for each person, to exceed which is
loss OF force and invitation to decay. No
steam engine has its parts so exactly balanced
as the human frame. Its heart must beat, its
breath be drawn so many times a minute-no
more and no less-to keep it in good working
order; its food and its waste but be exactly
proportioned to its exertons of mind or body
or the want Of repair is manifest. Loss
wasting and shrinkage of the muscles do
not occur. The quality of muscle also
differs. 1t may be a bundle of mere thin
cordage, hardened by use. and innervated to
the EXTREMIST fiber by abundant nervous fluid
from brain kept in full play-and this sort of
nerve steel in thin, rack-boned zouave regi-
ments, recruited from the exposure and priva-
lions OF the streets, will endure hardships in
campaign better than lads from easy homes
Or how wiry house keepers will go through
years Of hard work which those refuse who were
never bred to it. A surgeon will tell from the
fiber under his knife that exercise and tension
have indurated muscle just we can tell the
flesh of working cattle from stall-fed beef or
the whip-cord sinews of racer from tine mus
cles of an easy saddle horse So the gaunt and
lean may have vast endurance, albeit without
pound OF fat to pad their hardened muscle into
roundness. But, beyond that conservative
rounded spareness, which is natures choicest
outline for
DANCER OR ATHLETE,
every pound additional not only detracts from
beauty but from life. No one who has realized
the high condition implied in agreeable out
lines, without an ounce of superfiuous flesh,
the free play and command of limb and brain,
the swift wits ready on call Of emergency, the
flash of vision through dimness and question
ing which beset derogate mor.als who spend in
poor digestion the nerve force which should
lend them ight-no one, / say who knows this
clear and blissful state Of body can ever be
patient with any inferior state. We eat more
than the body consumes in activity; more than
enough to keep up the three days provision
of dainty, comely flesh. which is all the ration
nature would cumber us with, and the out
lines lose their sinewy grace, the motions their
readiness, the wits their promptness. Fat
about the hips disfgures the gait and clogs
breathing, as it impedes the diaphragm in
its movements. About the heart it lessons
arterial action-the veins swell. the breath
grows a snOre. the lungs work more slowly and
laboringly, and the color assumes an even Dur
plish or pasty tinge in the face. Napoleon lost
his battles when he grew corpuent and fat
witted by comparison with the lean ambitious
corporal of Toulonne. Men lose their caution
and capacity as they grew stout and take to
questionable policy in business or postpone
action which would insure success out of the
sloth bred by a few unnecessary pounds of
flesh Lord Byron was wise to watch over his
tendency to corpulence as he did; and if he had
not released his care and grown stout CO.
quoting with Italian landladies he might have
pulled through his attack at Missolongehi and
found life worth living after all. We ought to
keep as close watch Of physical condition as of
the state of our teeth and it would be well to
make practice Of being
WEIGHED ONCE WEEK
or fortnight at least to keep trace of ones
state. And any deviation from the right
weight by three pounds should receive imme-
diate correction. A bath or two, long walk
or hight diet for two or three days will reduce
one to fair proportions, for corpulence. once
fixed, would be a life's labor to overcome 1t
is mistake to say that overplus of flesh is ever
tolerable in man or woman. We put up with
the sight Of it as long as it is not absolutely
enormous; but compare the stouter outline
with the more graceful one, as others see it,
and it will seem worth care and self-denial to
preserve the latter. A certain amount of bodily
exercise every day to balance brain work. liv-
ing on delicate, lean meats or game, with SAL
ads. green vegetables, fruit and light desserts
will control the first tendency to stoutness
whenever it comes on. And this understood
fine men and refined women will no more en-
dure losing the grace of youth and sinking into
middle-age solidity than they will take to false
teeth.
DO NOT BANT.
But when flesh is q fixed, uncomfortable
fact, blurring the clear lines Of the face and
obliterating the figure, don't fly to banting for
relief. There 10 a surer way which California
physician has brought into notice with marked
success. His idea is that uncooked food will
not tend to flesh, and he keeps his patients for