Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-09-25
IMPROVING NATURE.
FEATURES ARE NOW CHANGED BY
SURGICAL TREATMENT.
Beauty May BE Had by Everybody For
Consideration--Nose Altered to Suit
Their Owners Taste and Dimples Ex-
changed For Wrinkles.

'.How to Be Beautiful Though Ugly is
the latest paradoxical problem for the
agile mind of nineteenth century man to
solve Only u couple of decades ago 1t
would have ranked with the riddle of the
sphinx, for, however man might boast
himself able to carve out his own character
and career, the last word us to his face was
supposed to rest with nature. You might
object to large mouths and Tapping ears
and consider pug noses low. No matter'
she clapped them on you ut her own sweet
caprice, and her action was eQulvalent W
"Nuff said
There is q Quaint old story OF meoi
mval king of France, who passed unilat-
terinp comments in his royal mind on the
personal appearance of u monk who was
assisting at mass in the chapel. Ihls
monks uoliness must have been OF pecui-
iarly striking pattern, for the king-who
auucars to have been deliciously frank
old fellow--could not keep his eyes off him,
until the monk came to these words i'll the
psalter. at is he who hath made US, and
NOT we ourselves" whoreupon the king,
rchskod. ceased to lay the responsibility
for his facial shortcomings on the unfor
inmate churchman. How scandalized both
king and monk would be today to learn
that impious mortals had taken it on
themselves to NEEDLE with their features,
and with the aid Of the surgeons knife
and the mysterious electrical spark have
crooked nose changed to a Grecian one, n
large mouth sewcd up into q rosy button
and the burrows plowed by age and care
spirited away 'for a consideration, as
Pooh Bah says! Whatever the considera-
ton. it seldom daunts or dampens the
spirits of the beauty seekers, who would
be willing to pay twice as much as they
now pay and undergo sharp pain in place
of mere discomfort for the sake of not
knowing themselves when they look in
the glass after the surgeons knife has done
the work on the offending features.
How much of the comcliness which may
be noted en- parade on Chestnut or Broad
street on any fine day was produced with
the connivance of nature and how much
in defiance of her intentions is one of the
things (which no fellah can find out. y
Even conservative Philadclphians arc
awakening to the magnificent possibilities
of molding their faces according to theil
own ideals of beauty, and IL larger proper
good looks to the cunning hand of art; bul
naturally the public is not taken into the
secret You meet your friend Jones
whom you have lost sight of for year OF
two, and are puzzled to sec thee his crook
cd nose or squint eye has disappeared ano
lie is become quite capable of upholdinl
the traGitions Of Quaker City good looks
But, innocent that you are, you congratu-
lat ability 10 vi,r barca1{
in time and go on your way rejoicing al
the metamorphosis Of Jones.
The modus operandi of some of these
transmogrifying processes is quite interest
ing Take the nose, for instance-a fea
ture with which nearly every one has somt
fault to find; witness the sarcastic proverl
that such and such thing is 'plain as tht
nose on your face" A Roman nose may
exhibit strong tendency to 'get up and
hump ITSELF" and what it called "th(
hump operation" is performed. An in
cisicn as made down the center of the nose
and the flesh held away by means of hook;
from the hump, which is skillfully drilled
away with steel bur which resembles the
engaging little instrument with which the
dentist buzzes away at your teeth. Then
the incision is sewed up, the place bandag-
ed and the candidate for beauty takes his
nose home with him to nurse it for foul
or five days, at the end of which time he
wakes up in the morning to find himself
as beautiful as the possession Of a pure
Greek nose can make any one.
Then there is the nose which, after ii
has been euphemistically described as re-
trousse, "upturned" and .'tiptilted" and
after physiognomists have declared that 1t
lends character to the countenance, re-
mains nothing more or less than plain
pug. A little triangular section of the
septum, which is the bridge of cartilage
Which separates the nostrils and connects
with the upper lip, is cut out and the
edges of the cut sewed together. When
they have healed and grown together, the
tip OF the nose no longer points the road to
heaven, but Is brought down to the nor
NAL position. A nose which by nature or
accident is unduly depressed at the bridge
Is provided with an artificial bridge of
silver the incision made for the purpose
cunningly closed up, and in short time
even the scar is invisible to all save the In
qulsltive eye of magnifying glass.
noted surgeon who has performed a
number of these operations says that base
ball players form large percentage of his
applicants. He says also that the proper
ton OF disgruntled visitors who want their
features rcmodeled is about equally divided
between The men and women, which proves
thai solomon was right and that all is
vanity without any distinction Of sex.
But do not these artificial bridges ever
get out OF order?" he was asked.
only once in a great WHILE" was the
answer, land then it is usually peoples
own fault" which probably meant that
baseball players whose noses have been
provided with silver basis must swear off
ON that delightful but dangerous game if
they wish to preserve the symmetry of
their features
That wrinkle business is especially mys
FERROUS and interesting The rows of hori
zontal ridges in the forehead betokening
care; the cushion of frowns between the
eyes, which signifies crossness, either of
the eyes or the temper, and the two 1nelan.
choly lines down the side of the face. which
Strike most anguish into the feminine
hcart (as for man. he can hide them with
beard), are literally pulled straight. as
one slnoothes the wrinkles in a tablecloth
by an elliptical incisjon, which in growing
together afterward draws out the furrowed
lines Even dimples, which the schoolgirl
asslduously strives and fails to produce
with sharp pointed slate pencil, are now
within the reach of those to whom nature
has cruelty denied them tp;fa 90 -,