The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-11-11

be frayed places. If you have been tam
pering with the cuticle, trim it once even
.ly and ever afterwards, when washing the
hands, put down the skirt little while it
is soft, and perhaps, loosen with the Or
angewood stick; but do not roll it back as
is often advised, or cut it.
Sleeping in gloves is not bad for rough
hands, but if continued it is apt to yellow
them, and is not particularly healthy or
comfortable. A little oil rubbed in at
night does as well.
The matter of shaping the nails is en-
tirely question of TASTE The long points
are becoming to very few hands and hid
eous on all others. If woman is con-
WINGED that she has the hands of profess
sional beauty. then she may be so Frenchy
as to point her nails, but she runs great
risk of deforming her hands The short
nail, no longer than the finger and even a
little shorter, is the least trying to the
hand.
Lord Byron's old receipt for pretty
nail still holds good "a rose leaf with a
crescent in it." And as most rose leaves
are oval, let the nail be as much that shape
as possible; and if you can shape it so, let
it curve at the tip exactly as it does at the
end where the "moon" lies. This will ae-
complish the oval.
After a woman has made her hands soft
and white and pretty, she wants something
else and that something is the polish which
still continues to be fashionable among So
ciety beauties, in spite of the verdict that
the manicures are against it. 1t takes
longer to manicure polished nail than it
does dull one, but there is no doubt that
it is more elegant thus.
The old way of polishing with pink paste
and diamond powder is an excellent one.
But a quicker and in some ways better
one can be obtained by the following mix
ture Tincture of benzoin ) parts, alcohol
parts and common cologne part. APP
ply with small camel's hair brush. If
the nails be too pale the smallest particle
of analine dye will improve them if mixed
with the polish.
The advantages of this polish are that
it is quickly put on and will prevent the
nails from cracking. A young profes-
sional woman of New York makes each
winter several bottles of this polish and
gives it to her friends in fancy bottles fit
for the toilet table,
Biting the nails, which is a nervous
habit, and not so much an ugly fault, is
cured by keeping the nails ''shiny." The
gloss makes them feel like glass to the
teeth and takes away the fear of biting
them absent mindedly. Many society la
dies would not be without the polish for
fear of returning to the biting trick, learned
in childhood and never overcome until the
days of nail polishes.
Hard nails need vaseline rubbed into
them and rubbed-not washed-off, Vel
low nails may be whitened with alcohol
and blue nails made pink with the friction
of the polisher.
Rings, worn habitually, harden the
hands and make callous places, and so does
the habit of closing the hands tightly. All
nervous tricks with the hands wrinkle
them and enlarge the joints; they are all
beauty destroyers.
The prettiest way of using the hands is
to use them boldly. A hand laid idly in
the lap with the fingers open and lightly
separated always attracts admiration if it
be well-cared-for hand. Pretty hands
should carry fans, they should hold hand
kerchiefs, and be curled in pretty positions.
But to form habit of doubling up the
fists is never graceful and, moreover, it
forms wrinkles on the palm and around
the knucklcs, and gives stretched and
withered look to the back of the hand
There are stories told of professional beau
ties who bind their hands nightly upon
blocks of wood to make them smooth and
encase each finger in thimble.
OF course no woman with hand in bad
condition can make it all she would have
it in day, or even in week. But if
she will try intelligently and faithfully for
one month she will berewarded at the end
of that time by having people say to her,
''what very pretty hands you havew while
her intimate friends will beg for the recipes
that have suddenly given her such an at
traction as really beautiful hand.
Evading the Rules.