Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-22
BEAUTY BEWILDERED
In Her Mad Search for Recipes to En-
hance Personal Charms.
ALL GREAT MINDS DON'T AGREE.
Oatmeal Makes Faces Rosy, Says One,
Like Putty, Says Another.
A SAD EXPERIENCE WITH A FAI
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.i

| MOI so mucn Wnat 10 10 10 oe ueduLliul,
as what to do to look beautiful, is the ques-
tion of all others that seems to be agitating
the mind of the feminine pu blic at this time;
and as many varied and diverse prescrip-
tions are given as there are so-called reme-
dies for seasickness. To follow the advice
of these would-be physicians to the outer
woman would be to rush from one extreme
of folly to the other, and in some instances
one would be doing well to get off alive.
To make a review of the contradictory
advice given for the care OF physical charms,
let us begin with what Solomon, in his wis.
dom, denominated woman's crowning glory,
the hair. To brush or not to brush is the
question. First we read: To insure g
luxuriant growth we must bestow at least
100 brushes each night, and brush vigor.
ously and thoroughly through the day as
often as rearranging, and keep it up while
time and patience holds out. The patient
must sleep in cap, too, if she would have
the silken tresses of our grandmothers; wash
frequently il she would promote the growth
and render the hair soft and lustrous.
THEN THE OTHER EXTREME.
OF course, she makes up her mind at once
to do this and do it thoroughly, though
| nothing else in Lille be accomplished, when
about this time she reads: Never brush
| your hair, nor comb with a fine comb, but
use the very coarsest comb available and ar
range as loosely as possible. Never sleep in
a cap, as that heats the head and causes the
hair to fall out Too frequent washing
weakens and fades the hair, destroys luster
and renders it altogether unmanageabIe. If
our foremothers had observed these rules the
present generation would have better hair"
So much for treatment for the hair. For
the complexion, that corner stone of woman's
beauty, who can remember the diverse and
numerous gratis remedies for its imper-
fections and the care of its perfections To
insure the clear skin of the Scotch or the
near approach to it one must make oatmeal
the staple article OF diet; and thelhearer she
can come to literally living upon it the
more nearly will she approach the Scotch
perfection of clearness, etc. Just when she
has decided to live upon oatmeal porridge
or starve in the attempt, she bears from an
other especially authentic source the en-
couraging remark: keep up the porridge
diet if you want putty-colored, pasty CON-
plexion."
RULES FOR PLUMPNEss.
If one is thin to the verge of what Bessie
Bramble calls "scragginess," how gladly
she reads that cup OF warm milk night and
morning, taken with regularity, and as
much as she can drink in the interim, will
certainly produce the coveted degree OF
plumpness. That's easy. Yes, she will
take milk, take it often and take much in
ternally, and bathe in it, and she leaves an
order for an extra supply OF the lacteal
fluid to be left night and morning, and set
ties down to the first principle of diet, when
lol her evil genius again appears through
the columns of newspaper, and she reads:
Milk is ruinous to the complexion. 1t is
conducive to biliousness. Persist in the
use of it and you will grow yellow as a
kite"
The last prop seems knocked from under
her, for, OF course, she has not only just this
moment awakened to the fact that nature
has dealt stingily with her; she has been
painfully conscious of her sallow, ill-favored
leanness these many years and has spent
both time and money trying to remedy the
evil, but she had not heard of the warm
milk beforehand it is SO easy to takel
AT this juncture she finds it easier to ac-
cept the onward flow of lean existence by
remembering that all women credited with
the most personal magnetism, from Cleo
patra and Helen OF Troy down to the mag
netic Bernhardt, have been thin women;
and that this charm. this trick of manner,
of speech, or whatever it is, is the best of the
Creators gifts to q woman. Its component
parts cannot be analysed; nor can a pre-
scription be given for it; but whatever else
it may be she can be sure it is largely gen.
tie breeding. fne-grained courtesy and pure
womanliness; and that 1t is a charm beyond
any physical endowment that could be given,
and that these women are credited with the
lions share OF such bewitchment.
WHAT IF SHE is FAT?
But what If, with undue favor, nature has
given her two women's share OF flesh and
blood? Well, then, she is to walk, walk,
walk. Walk early and walk late. Walk
off this 'too, too solid flesh." Yes, and eat
less; and eat the very things we most dislike
and leave all the luxuries of cream, butter,
salads and pastries ior the thin women
Hard lines, but there is no other way Tor it
if she would become petite. So with the
heroic determination to do and dare any,
thing for the salts action of once again wear
ing q inch corset she gets up with the
lark and begins to tramp off flesh; and
already she is eating like a Pile
beian when a halt is called on
such cruel regimen alter this fashion: "Let
fleshy people not imagine they can reduce
their size with satisfaction; the skin having
been stretched to the containing capacity
forced upon it by too abundant proportions
rarely or never shrinks to its original
dimensions. and the result of reducing flesh
is an unenviable state OF fabbness."
Horror OF the two evils, fat or habby,
the former is certainly the less, and, with
mind made up to endure what she cannot
cure she bows to the inevitable and resumes
riding and eating, since there is nothing GER
tain by walking and fasting.
GETTING RID OF WRINKLES.
But about wrinkles, POLITICALLY called "the
line tracery OF time" So written they
sound better than they look. 1t may be
lady is clear-skinned enough to escape crti-
cism; or she can bear with her complexion's
imperfections it she only could hit upon a
remedy to efface the boot marks OF time that
has ridden over her rrough-shod. Theoretically
there is a remedy tor all evils. Here is an
oit repeated one for wrinkles: "Never bathe
the face in tepid or cold water; hut in water
as hot as can be endured. Also steam the 4
face over boiling water; best done by hold
ing a steaming cloth close to the face. This
will shrink the skin, and the wrinkles are
caused by the wasting of the tissues under
the skin, leaving the latter loose-too large
for the remaining flesh underneath"
Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? Impressed
with this philosophy she decides to cook the
wrinkles until done to death, when again
her endeavors are thrown into chaos by
reading: What jealous hatred that
woman must have OF her sex to recommend |
the steam face bath as sure defeat for |
wrinkles. A notice of the poor wash
woman's hands will prove the malicious |
ness OF such advice, and the effect of too |
hot water upon the skin. My dear sisters. |