The herald., 1895-06-16
PAINT AND POWDER
HAVE EVER DEFlED LEGISLATION,
EVEN PRlESTLY BAN

The art of ornamenting or mbelishing
the face most probably dates back to the
days of the first man and woman. and
if history tells us nothing about Mother
Eve having made use of it we are inclin-
ed to think that it is because history is
defective, and not because the art was
not known in those days, says the Berlin
Nord und Sud. One of the earliest known
forms of personal EN- pellishment is that
of painting the face with bright colors.
1t is most probable that this origina tea
in a desire to instil fear into the hearts
of ones enemies rather than from mo-
tives of vanity. but that which served to
brighten men seemed to attract the wo-
mems SO gradually it came about that war
riors painted their faces even in times OF
peace. Among the Fijians the first dress
of an infant is thick layer OF oil pant
all over tie body, the face being painted
red with the exception of the nose. which
is allowed to remain in its ginal color
that is, black. The well-to-do people
divide the face into four parts, each being
painted different color
Time brought development of the art
OF improving the appearance. Glarlng col
ors gave way to more refined cosmetics
and a more complicated method of using
them. 1t became the custom to use cos
metics. Every body used them-kings,
queens, rich women and poor women
even the mummies were painted. Later
on, when Roman civilization was at. its
height. the Egyptians still claimed to
hold their position as chief makers and
users of cosmetics, and the Roman en-
presses paid large sums for the mysteries
OF the kosmetikon which were sold by the
charlatans of the temple OF Isis. In MIN
evan people resorted to the process OF en-
ameling the countenance. The face was
first washed and thoroughly dried then
covered with a whitsh paste, which
dried haru and shiny like enamel. The
Jews made great use of such preparations
for personal adornment. as we see by IL.
Kings, ix, 80. The prophets often speak
on this subject and threaten the punish
,nent of heaven on those who thus sought
to improve The human face.
The Greek men thought moro of
physical strength than OF artificial beauty,
The women believed in red and white
powders, and the poets go SO far as to
saw that Venus herself on one critical &C.
casion did not hesitate to have recourse
to artificial embe llishment. During the
time of the Caesars the use OF cosmetics
increased to an alarming extent; the
men were as bad as the women.
Popea, one of the wives of Nero, used to
take with her troop OF 500 asses so that
she could enjoy the luxury OF u Daun Ill
asses milk. which was supposed to have
the property of making the skin tender.
Phyllis, the maid OF the beautiful Soema,
actually wrote treatise OH the most etfi-
cacious cosmetics. The Germanic and
Frank ladies OF the middle ages were not
ed for taeir desire to have arms and
hands of ivory whiteness and cheeks of
a rose tint.
The English ladies of the twelfth CEN
fury chose to appear with pale faces. to
obtain which they had recourse to cos
metics and to cupping. But the Floren-
tine ladies excelled even the Romans.
They:had 800 methods OF PREPARATIONS for
the simple purpose of hiding wrinkles;
in fact, the use Of cosmetics reached such
pitch that the priests considered it me-
cessary to pronounce against them. Then
the fashion changed and everything was
made white: faces were powdered, hair
was puwd cred and both sexes seemed to
vie with each other as to which should
use the most. A later method of adorn-
ment was the "patch." This was first
used to show up the deicacy OF the COM
plexion, but in very short time it had
developed to such an extent that there
were at least twenty in common Use. with
such names as sympathetic patch, 3"
Glove patch, ~ majestic patch etc.
II in this gen ration cosmetics are not
so much used as formerly, nobody will
| dispute that they still play an important
| part in the toilet.