Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-04-13

of the table, and even the pangs of eternal
indigestion do not deter her from eating
sodden sweets and rich pastry, though they
bring pimples and bad breath. She Is too
irdolent to walk as constitutional, and is
unfortunately so well to do that she can
ride in her carriage, SO 1t is not necessary
for her to walk. With every appliance for
artistic baths, she dislikes the trouble"
of it all, and prefers musk and heliotrope
perfumes to clean water and unScented
soap. Her rooms are Uttered with priceless
odds and ends picked up in the marts of
the world. making housemaid's life
misery, and dusty velvet and silk hang
irgs keep out the sunshine that might ex-
pose secrets of housekeeping, keep in the
microbes of disease, and exclude fresh air,
without which no human being can live
long and retain his God-given qualities.
In this unsanitary atmosphere of perfumed
disorder, this woman, who Is too lazy to be
beautiful. spends her life.
No woman, however handsome when she
began it, could long live that kind of a life
the woman who wants beauty above every
thing else on earth can go long way on
the road to meet 1t by avoiding the mode
of living just described.
Cleanliness is next Goodness, but some
times think that 1 would like to reverse
the order, and have no desire to seem ir-
reverent either, but don't see how people
of uncleanly habits of body can have pure
thoughts. One celebrated authority says
that the skin is the thermometer of the
body, showing by outward signs just what
its condition is. Another says at greater
lepgth: 1.-THE whole skin has vast drain
age tract under it's surface, while the lat
ter is invisibly, a perfect sieve of minute
pores. through which immense quantities
Of effete matter are being constantly dis
charged unless these little openings are
cbstructed. When such is the case the
pent-up matter is forced in unnatural direc-
items or else testers or hardenS or remains
to disfgure discolor the cuticle or scarf
skin. 1t is just under the latter that all
impurities and discolorations rest, and 1t Is
also this scarf skin that in youth often be-
comes rough, leathery looking, wrinkled
and stippled-aIl because the glands under
meath 1t are inactive from deranged inner
condition or a neglected outer one. There
fore. with the assurance of perfect health,
the first step toward obtaining the desired
soft, satiny skin may be suggested by para
phrasing an old quotation: Let your first
effort be baths! your second be baths!! your
third, baths!!!'
The Bath is the Thing.
So, you see, my wistful sister, that If you
would retrieve your lost charms or enhance
those you have bodily cleanliness will be
the first step toward the happy end. If
mothers-I fear that mothers will begin to
hate me soon, but really, you know, they
are responsible for SO much. and shirk so
much, that one has to be constantly prod
ding them, but as l started to say, If
mothers would only teach their girls from
the time the weanlings begin to toddle
that bathing comes next to the Bible in
the category of necessities of life, there
would be thousands Of beautiful women in
the world where there are only hundreds
now.
sweeter or smoother to the touch than the
alabaster skin of well bathed baby. If
the daily baths-and proper diet-were con-
tinued without cessation till the Child was
grown, it would be as fair to look upon
as a piece Of sculptured marble, tinted
with the flush of life. But mothers begin
to feed their babies meat and potatoes
and pie before the poor little creatures
have teeth to chew with, and follow up
that diet with candy and coffee, sweetened
to sirup, and pork and pickles, pretzels
and cheese, and other messes, burdensome
to most adult stcmachs, and when the
child breaks out with boils and eczema,
and has commissions and chills, collie and
bowel complaints. they always declare that
they have not the slightest idea how in
the world it all came about.
The doctor could tell them, though. He
knows that no surer way of augmenting
his bills could be devised, and he tells
them, too, that the sallow dead-looking
skin needs baths and rubbing, along with
attention to the diet. The overloaded
stomach causes sulky liver, and when the
liver goes on a strike 1t deranges the
whole system. This condition in a child
ought to cause serious concern, especially
when of frequent occurrence, but it doesn't.
A mother will say, "Oh, she will outgrow
1t in time" but that is seldom the case,
and when she gets ready to come out, she
begins to hunt skin invigorators." beauty
foods" lotions, washes and ointments to
revivify a skin which tells only too truth
fully the tale Of a disordered life.
After trying everything advertised and
recommended by her friends without effect
she takes to cosmetics to cover up her life
less blotched skin and make herself pre-
sentable, and the last stage is worse than
the first. OF couse If one can't have an
"old master" one must be content with a
chrome, and unfortunately chromos are
much more plentiful than the master
pieces. 1t should not be so, and 1t Is not so
necessarily.
Quite q TransfOrma ton.
am reminded of case that illustrates
most forcibly my ideas Of the Importance
of attending to ones bodily health and
cleanliness, If one would develop the high
er type of physical perfection. 1t is the
case of young girl taken at the age of
twelve from a home of squalor and filth.
She was sallow and gaunt and wolf1sh
looking when rescued, and though not
morally bad, she was absolutely ignorant
of all ideas of personal cleanliness any
other attribute of culture or intelligence.
I thought her almost a hopeless case.
Three years later I saw her again, and
was astounded at the change. She was
yet quite sa!low, but her skin was clear
and wax-like and her gray eyes softened
in expression, and no longer inclosed in
red-rimmed lids; the scrofulous faint in her
blood seemed to have disappeared, her I'M
kempt black hair was most becomingly
arranged in glossy braids, and the slow
moving sullen girl had grown to be as
quick and tight of foot as one could wish.
The lady into whose hands Pepita had fall
en- is-well, you might call her a Crank
on the subject of hygienic living, and for
once in her life, having an excellent SUBJ
ject she was able to put all her ideas to
work fer exemplification, and Pepita's i'm
proved appearance justified all her theo-
ries to tine utmost.
She put the child under the water spout
the first thing. Not exactly, but meta
phorically, and at stated hours each day
the flushing" process was continued, till
all the bad outside was pretty well washed
off. Meantime, she attended to the depart
ment of the interior. She gave the girl
fresh wholesome food. and all that she
could eat comfortably at regular intervals,
and set her liver to doing its proper work.
She insisted on regular hours for retiring
and for rising, for exercise. and for work
and recreation. In fact. Pepita's life got
to be as methodical as clock work, and now