The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-31
FOR FEMININE READERS
FOLLY OF WOMEN WHO STRIVE TO
LOOK YOUNGER THAN THEY ARE.
Gowns of Next season VIII show
CIinEinE EHects-Care of Mems
CIOthing-Summer Beverages.

or taller, or better proportional than
cruel Providence has made them, is natural
enough, but that so much time and trou-
BILE should be spent Simply in trying to look
young" does seem unreasonable, especial
ly when it is evident to everybody that the
majority of such efforts must be failures.
says "Idler,' in the New York Post. The
men or women who do not look their age
are rare. In each generation there are ex-
ceptions, people, who, from one cause or
another-generally a phenomenal constitu-
tion-succeeded in giving the illusion of
youth for few years after youth itself
has flown.
A curious fatality that has the air of
Nemesis pursues those who succeed in pro-
ducing the false appearance. When point
ing them out to strangers. their admirers
Tin order to make the contrast more effec-
tive) add decade or two to their real age.
Only last month was sitting at dinner OPP
posite famous French beauty, who at
fifty still succeeds in looking no more than
thirty. During the meal both my neighbors
directed attention to her appearance and in
each case said: isn't she a wonder! You
know she's over sixty" So all that poor
lady gained by looking youthful was ten
years added to her age!
The desire to remain attractive as long
as possible is not only a reasonable but
commendable ambition Unfortunately the
stupid means most of our matrons take to
accomplish this end produces exactly the
opposite result. One sign of deficient taste
in our day is this failure to perceive that
every age has a charm of its own that can
be enhanced by appropriate surroundings,
but which is lost when forced into an in
congruous setting. 1t saddens lover of the
beautiful to see the matrons going so far
astray in their desire to please as to pose
for young women when they no longer can
look the part.
Holmes felt this, and when writing of an
aged relative asked plaintively:
"Why will she train that wintry curl in such
a spring-like way?"
That this folly is 'in the air. to-day few
will dispute 1t seems to be perpetrated un-
consciously by the greater number, with no
particular object j in view, simply because zee
gument when used by one of the fair sex!
Few matrons stop to think for themselves,
or they would realize that by appearing IN
the same attire as their daughters they chal-
lenge a comparison that can but be TO their
disadvantage, and which it should be their
object to avoid Is there any diSilluSion
more painful than. on approaching what APP
peared from distance to be a young girl,
to find ones self face to face with sixty
years of wrinkles? That is modern YER
sion of the saying, can old head on young
shoulders" with a vengeance! If the mis-
taken matrons could divine the effect that
tired eyes smiling from under false halr,
aged threats clasped with collars of pearls,
and rheumatic old ribs braced into SEM
blance of girlish grace, produce on the men
for whose benefit such adornmentS nave
been arranged, reform would quickly fol
low. There is always something uncanny IN
such an illusion. The more successful 1t is,
the more weird the effect, No one wants
to see Polonius acted in the finery of Mer-
Quito. What sense of fitness demands is,
on the contrary dnal e IN N tbpt
woman is to become a trump, but only that
she is to make herself attractive in another
way.
During the Ancien Regime in France,
when matters of taste were considered all
important, when an entire court would con-
suit on the shade of a brocade and hail
new couture as an event, the great ladies
who had left their youth behind them never
committed the blunder Of aping the maldens
of the day. They were far too clever for
that and appreciated the advantages to be
gained from somber stuffs and fatterlng
laces Let those who doubt study Natter
exquisite portrait of Maria Laczinska. Moth
ing in the pose or toilet suggests de-
sire on the painters part to rejuvenate his
sitter. If anything: the Queens age e is EN-
phasized as something honorable. The gray
hair is simply arranged and partly Velled
with black lace, that sets off her delicate,
faded face to perfection, but without HAT
We find the same view taken of age by
the masters of the Renaissance, who APP
precated it's charm and loved to reproduce
its grace
Queen Elizabeth stands out in history as
woman who struggled ungracefully
against growing old Her wigs. and hoops,
and farthingales served only to make her
ridiculous, and the fact that she wished to
be painted without shadows in order to
appear young is recorded as the aDerra-
ton of great mind. -
Are there no painters to-day who will
whisper to our wives and mothers the secret
Of looking really lovely, and persuade them
to abandon all foolish efforts at rejuvena-
ton. and let us see some real old ladies
once more, as they look at us from minia-
ture and portrait?