Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-12
A WOMAN'S QUESTION
Shirley Dare Discusses a Problem
Which Troubles Both Sexes.
WHAT'S BEAUTY WITHOUT YOUTH.
How Great Men and Women Have Avoided
Times PencillingS
FULFILLING THE DREAM OF TIE POETS,
rwRIrrrN ROE rHr p1srATCE.I


live so short time, and yet waste two-thirds
of that time in decline. The world feels
grateful to those who keep their youth for
the encouragement Of its hopes. Never
smile at the man who wears well, and looks
and is younger than his years; that is, than
our feeble idea of their limitations. People
take the least possible care of themselves,
their health, their life, their vigor, and
resign themselves fatutiously to the conse-
quences, even deriding those who would put
back the hand shadow on the dial to its ap-
pointed place. As well ridicule those who
seek 10 escape death as those who would
escape age, which is the messenger of death.
We all want to bring things down to our
limited measures, and because we are stiff
in the wits, half cross with bad digestion
and running down by reason of unthrifty
waste of health, cannot abide the sight of
fellow mortals wiser than ourselves.
The conventional. notion of sobriety is
chargeable with this loss of youth. The
tradition of Spanish gravity and stiffness
of demeanor is cause of much loss of healthy
spirit and life. The precept translated in
Scripture, "Be sober, = really reads in the
Greek, "Be earnest" and terrific endow-
ment of earnestness and will is consistent
with as high flight of spirits and daring
humor as ever worn by court jester or his
knightly master of the crown. The greatest
minds of the world have always been men
and women of spirits so brilliant as to be
chargeable with lightness by their less
gifted fellows. The great fighters, from
Charlemagne, could laugh loudly and jest
keenly; the great reformers, Luther at the
head, were men of abounding humor; the
great poets and artists were young till they
died. and wherever you find this buovsnt
mirth-loving quality, this capability of
youthfulness, it argues a vitality which,
rightly priced, should carry its owner
through life with force unabated and eye
undimmed.
WHAT MEN COULD DO.
As well cared for, your fast Kentucky
roadster will outlast slow, weight-carrying
Norman. Men half comprehend this truth,
and give more thought to the. conservation
OF their youth. Society counts scores of men
who have copied Lord Palmerston in the
care of themselves, the limited delicate fare,
the hot baths weekly, or oftener; the daily
friction, which supplies the want of exer-
an attractiveness which satirizes their wears.
If American men could train themselves to
taste good dinners discreetly, and tear them
selves from their Offices for active exercise
out of doors daily they would be younger
and handsomer at 60 than they are at 40.
Mr.. Gladstone is a good example
OF what studious care will do for
a man mediocre in everything ex-
eept ambition; but Of whom the opinion of
Prosper Merimee stands upreversed, "There
is in him the something of the child, the
statesman and the fool.'' A man might
train himself, or life might train him, by a
hardy youth and temperate, hard-working
middle years, for an age which should in
reality be LIES prime, ardent with the cleo
trio force of mind, far-sighted and keen
sighted, with the single-mindedness which
all men, kings and counsellors, learn to wish
they had used before they come to die. In
stead, they rear themselves for the shrunk
limb, the unsteady gait, the rheumy eye
The tradition of Lilith, first wife of
Adam, is that she left him in anger that
she might remain fair, and became head
spirit OF evil, tormenting the dreams of man
as her daughters do to this day. The legend
has the fallacy OF all myths, which contain
halfcomprehended truth. Is it Christian |
to assign supreme power and beauty to the
spirits Of evil? Is she any more queen of fe- !
male demons than Solomon was of the genii?
and do we dread Solomon's wisdom and at
traction, who seems 10 have been a sort of
oriental Goethe, wanting the selfshness. 1t
was not Lilith who ate the apple which
tempted Eve. It is Lilith who, foreseeing
the pain and sin of life, takes away the |
young children mercifullY in sleep, and
women ignorantly hate her for it, forgetting |
how they slay and main them for life in |
their ignorant cruelty. They also hate her |
because, knowing the will of nature, she re-
mains ever fair.
and the sight of her face lures men, would
lure them to the spiritual, the. mental, the |
lasting, and teach them infatuation for all |
things good and wise and immortal. But |
men being doomed to work out a knowledge |
of the unspeskable folly and bitterness OF |
lower things, have but one reading of inten-
tion, and would bring her to the level which |
Eve taught them; so with the coming of |
Lilith there is strife. Her daughters NAV |
awhile forget their birthright, but they re- |
member it in time and the world holds the |
tradition of women who never grow old. |
Such are never forceless women, childish and 4
slight as they may seem. But while Ewes |
daughters are questioning and lamenting
their want OF influence over the minds OF
LuSus anu dSCTlDluR manner OF DaSeQeSS TO |
them to account for it, sLiliths daughters
smile; for good or bad, they will not lose
their power until the end.
IGNORANCE OF Ewes DAUGHTERS.
The secret of Lilith's power is her deep
humility. She knows her limitations-Eve
will not be told that she has any. Lillth
knows the sway of sense must have an end
and will neither rule by it nor neglect it,
nj IN hn ao de hovya |
her power scarce short of the divine, and
loses, even when she seems to win. It is
Lilith who has left in the world knowledge
of the secret of prolonging youth as we'll as
beauty. Ewes daughters have ignorantly
been content to initiate it with paint, powder
and stimulants, which left the form diseased
and fatigued. Lilith's wisdom teaches them
to keep the skin ever young aud lair without
masking it in metallic oxides ground in
toilet lotions, which is a genteel sort of
house paint. There is the greatest differ
ence between such paints and the creams
which soften and supple the skin without
spreading over il q metallic film impervious
to air and moisture.
The hot dry climate of France is most
like our own OF all the provinces of Europe,
and we may copy the old methods for the
toilet with benefit. Women who divided
their lives between the toilet and display were
likely to be shrewd mistresses of their art
Devotee and women of the world alike used
even the nuns not disdaining to
bind thin plate of lead about the forehead
10 free it from wrinkles, and give celestial
purity below the colf Converts made famous
additions to their incomes by the prepara-
lion of toilet waters and creams, and many
. fine lady made her pious retreat serve
double purpose Of getting back her beauty
sleep and her roses, as she mended her COM
Dlexion with "lait virginia. and eau celeste
1r balm marie between her orisons. The
cabinets Of laurel and cherry wood in the
iressing room of Madam de Maintenon
we're repositories Of cosmetics, which she
lad made ona large scale. Probably she
1sed nothing worse than strawberry Water,s
distilled from the whole wild plant and