Birmingham age-herald., 1895-07-21
DANES BEAUTY TALKS Concerning the Use and Abuse
 of Cosmetics. GOOD THINGSIN THEIR PLACE Women of All Ages Have Found Them Access sores to Their Charms-Advce as to
 Their Application.
BY DIANE DE MoRNy.

Copyrighted, 1895, by Diane de Morny.)
 am always a bit amused at the anath- ema hurled al the present use of cosmet- ics, particularly when a hopelessly soured and pitilessly unattractive wo- man or blatant tobacco-smoking spir ituously- male addresses me on the ever-recurring subject. I read from time to time, with the rest of the world, of the untold millions we women are spending annually for our paints and powders, and of all the good we might do with our money were not irretrievably given over to vanity and deceit. I have been assured by men, who certainly should know if worldly experience in their own generation goes for anything, that no good woman at any time of the worlds existence ever painted her face. l have had Jezebel thrown at me with verse of descriptive scripture attached to her with such spite that one would think I was personally accountable for that most trying woman, and had given her the formulas for the paints and eye dark eners she adorned herself with before going out to the capture of King Jehu. And through it all have smiled the lt- tie q know better" smile of the woman who believes in her sex, and knows that for every point of feminine weakness she can, when she likes, display ten virtues of supreme and splendid strength.
 Cosmetics Have Always Been Used
 AS a matter of actual fact. whatever my dear readers personal opinion may be as to the morale of the question, cos metics have been used by both good and bad women as far back as we can learn anything of the personal customs of the sex-just as wine has been drunk by priests and sots. and will be used and abused forevermore The word "cosmet- ic" has grown from common usage all most a msnomer. It signifies beautify- ing By external applications. Anything externally used for the promotion. preser- vation or restoration of phys beauty is, properly speaking, cosmetic The common idea that only paints and pow ders are cosmetics is erroneous. soap or hair-wash a simple glycerine lotion or a dentifrice-they are all cosmetics. Just as long as women have been forced to depend upon physical charms to first at tract the other sex-just so long as love has been the most potent force known to manl<ind-just so long ago did our prede- cessors seek to remedy defects and aid nature by every external means attain able.
 Suspicious of M other Eve.
 I have no way of corroborating my be- lief that the use of cosmetics dates back to our beautiful mother Eve, though l doubt not in my own mind that she. too, resorted to them and bathed her charm Ing lace III lDe utW lIOlil iIlS oWCCt NloiClo of Eden and perfumed her shining hair with the fragrance cunningly extracted from the roses of Paradise.
 One thing is certain, as far back as Abraham we are in the Bible told of the use of many cosmetics some of them of , priceless value, and their usage appears to have been commended as mark of wealth and refinement.
 The Jews of remotest antiquity were noted for their especial predilectdon for nf mons time was accompanied by most extravagant use of perfumes, paints and dyes The men, too, used them as freely as the women 'who made themselves fair with painting of their faces and with pre- cious ointment and with braiding of their hair"
 The Assyrian men and women dyed their hair and painted their faces. Egyptians wore wigs and blackened their eyebrows and eyelids. The Greeks and Romans spent hours daily in beauti- flying themselves in the same way, the Greek women employing makeup artists for the purpose with paints, powders, hair dyes, etc. They even went to the extent of submitting to a fashion which decreed the shaving of their heads "un- til they were as bald as their knees" and substituting for natural hair wigs vary ing in color to suit their costumes. Pale blue, pink, green and purple wigs made of fluffy, floss-lke silk were worn "cha- cun son gout" by the heroic Greeks.
 Roman women of wealth passed nearly the entire day in beautifying themselves by cosmetic arts, and Roman lady of distinction would employ half dozen slaves at her prolonged toilet. Both Greek and Roman matrons dyed their tresses golden by about the same pro- cess we moderns use at present-peroxide of hydrogen.
 Cosmetics All Right If Not Abused.
 am not an advocate of indiscriminate painting of the face or of hair-dyeing or bleaching, because all are usually un-s pleasant and perceptibly artificial and unbecoming in their results, but insist upon it that women have painted and patched their faces. and dyed and pow dered their hair, and worn wigs, and have been often these very same women