The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-11-04
MANICURE'S NEW ART.

Extravagances Done Away with by
the French Method - The Day
Passed for Cutting and Gouging,
Pink Paste, and Long, Pointed.
Polished Nails.
From the New York Sun.
"One hears occasionally" said
manicure the other day, "of the growth
in popularity here of the French
method of manicuring. In reality, this
method practically supplanted every
other several years ago. 1t consists
chiefly of avoiding the use of steel in
struments and treating the fingers en-
tirely with ivory instruments. Now
the average New York manicure would
never think of putting steel to a pa
TENTS fingers except to cut the nails
with scissors when they are long or
trim the skin to free it from hang nails.
The cutting of the cuticle about the
base of the nail has long since been
given up by the best operators, and
manicure who resorts to such a prac-
tice must have learned her business
very badly or a long time ago, and
kept herself uninformed about modern
advances. I don't believe that any
first-class manicuring establishment
today could produce one among it's
operators who would do such a thing.
THE old days of gouging and clip
ping are passed. The method of cut
ting the cuticle about the base of the
nail that was followed when persons
first began to be manicured was too
absurd and painful to remain popular
very long. Now the effect which used
to be produced with knife is accom-
plished by pressing back the flesh with
the end of an ivory instrument, and
this is the natural treatment. Carving
out the right shape by the simple pro-
cess of cutting away the edge of the
cuticle was one of the barbaric fea-
lures of new science which disap-
peared when it became more refined.
THE FRENCH METHOD.
Indeed, the French method of mani
curing is so thoroughly in use now
that it may be said to be practically
the usual way. Some little variations
from it are occasionally practiced, but
they are not essential. One will occa-
sionally find manicure scraping the
inside Of the nail with a sharp instru-
ment, and there is nothing worse that
she could do. 1t scratches the inside
surface of the nail, and when the
hands are made the least damp by
heat the scratches on the nail show,
they become darkened by dust or other
things moreover, and it is impossible
to keep them looking clean. No part
of the French system is better than
that which keeps sharp steel away
from the inside of the nail. Maybe it
was the reasonableness of this system
that finally put an end to the extraVa-
gances of which some women used to
be guilty. Nowadays there are few
women to be seen with their hands all
gummed up with the red paste that
used to be put on to color the nail
Who has not seen often, when mani
curing first began to be general, wo-
men with the skin about their nails
cut and jagged and then covered over
with pink paste? That practice has
entirely disappeared and so have the
long claw-like nails which were at
one time regarded as exactly the proper
thing.
Then women spent much of their
spare time in polishing their nails and
two or three women have come to me
here with their nails worn entirely
through from ceaseless polishing. All
that has disappeared now, and the san
ity introduced by the French method
which abolished all cutting and scrap
ing, succeeded in making out of mani
curing, which had been a mere affec-
tation, a matter of sensible habit Men
had their influence, too, in bringing
| about this change. When they got in
TO the habit of having their nails treat
| ed it was not, of course, to be expected
| that thev would wish to have them
polished TO a high degree of glossiness.
pinked with paste, and long and point
ed. They just gave up these extrava-
| gances and the women followed their
example. The result Is that the ex-
travagances and excesses of the prac-
tice almost entirely disappeared.
MANICURE MULTIPLYING.
1.-THE increase in the number of New
| York's manicures has been astonish-
ingly large within the past three years,
and even more noticeable has been the
alteration in the character OF the bust
ness. The business is said to be easy
enough to learn for a girl who has any
! qualifications for it, Usually 1t is
learned by apprenticeship in one of
the larger places. A girl will go in
there when she is about IA years old,
serve as a kind of maid and operate
sometimes on the hands of the other
manicures about the place, and watch
them whenevershe gets an opportunity.
Sometimes when women go to these
places to be taught and pay a fixed
sum for the privilege Of watching the
women at work and trying their own
skill occasionally on the woman with
whom they are working. Within a
J few months, provided that she gets
practice enough, the rudiments of the
work ought to be familiar enough to
the beginner Her own deftness and
delicacy will, of course, have much to
do with her success. They are the only
things which cannot be taught, and
sometimes practice provides d very
good substitute for them. Ability TO
work quickly and we'll comes only from