The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-06-12

entered the inner u lilS lCIlA
pie; 1 know exactly how it is done.
Did you ever hear of violet" tbs
Partisan perfumer and cosmetic sharp
I know not if his powders, and essences
and soaps, and philters have ever reach
ed your household, but L have Inter
viewed him" and henceforth all knoWl
edge is mine At the corner of the
Boulevard Capuchin and Rue Scribe un-
der the Grand Hotel, you shall see ar
octagonaI room, elegant with ebony
carved counters and deliberately orna-
mented and gilt. Violet's wares are
not exposed to the vulgar gaze, but are
locked UP in glittering buffets. Off the
main room is a retiring room, and be-
yond that a small square room OF
boudoir. One of the walls Of this
boudoir is a plate-glass mirror, with
footlights and side-Hghts-as for the
front of a stage-arranged before it
A smaller mirror faces this on the OPP
posite wall. The remaining walls, as
we'll as the ceiling, are Of pulled and
tufted satin of a light drab, or ashes
of roses color. There are fauteuils and
ottomans and lace and brocatelle hang
ings. all OF neutral tints-for only so
can the results of Violet's art be prop
erly tested. This boudoir is illuninat-
ed, not by plebeian gas or glazing cleo
trio bulbs, but by wax candies. There
is no window and but one small door,
and all natural light is carefully ex-
cluded.
Here are constructed those marvel
GUS compilations which exhibit them
selves daily on the Champs Elysees and
nightly at the opera and in the salons.
Here is where the countesses and prima
donnas, and reigning lorettes come to
fit and try on their faces. A Paris COM
plexion is a work of high art. First of
all you have a good subsoil or sdbstra-
tum of Violet's ordinary powder. Your
own original cuticle is the bedrock and
the rest is the alluvial deposit, or
rather your own face is the lath, and
Vfolet's business is to have it properly
plastered. The first coat having been
duly laid on, there is delicately tinted
paste for the forehead and chin;
second for the cheeks; a third for neck,
arms and bust; a fourth for wrists and
hands. With a soft brush these light
shaded pastes-almost white-are ar
tisticaliy blended together. The next
task is to make prominent the
arteries of the arms and neck
with long tracing brush, dipped in
light blue powder. Then comes the
brown, black, or golden crayons for the
eyebrows, according to the prevailing
fashion. Following these, the artist
''gets up the eyes. With soft pink
paint she touches up the upper lid,
with violet tint she colors the lower
one, with a fine brush and a deXterous
touch she darkens and lengthens the
sweep of the eyeIashes, and your optic
is seemingly elongated and given
1anguid appearance. All this belongs
to the higher branches of the art. Be
yond this there is rouge powder for the
cheeks, and rouge vinegar for the lips.
and henna for the nails. When the
charmer has been thoroughly quilted
and painted and grained, she is varnfsh
ed with a soft, colorless liquid, warranted
not to crack or peel, and thereafter she
may lean her face on a handkerchief,
or an embroidered shirt-bosom. or drop
q tear, or receive a kiss without fear
of unpleasant consequences.
Heaven has given you one face
And you make yourself another"
Having acquired sufficient French to
make my wants known, 1 conclude 1
will cease further effort in that direc-
ton. The faculty of acquiring Ian
guages does not belong to the highest
order of intellect anyway. Children
learn easily; and sailors who cannot
read or write often speak fiuently sew
eraI tongues. Unless for a special pur-
pose I doubt if it be worth while to
devote time to the acquisition of
French. Our own English has 4 rtera-
-;,I,
struction and entertainment to the stu
dent, and unless one needs a knowledge
of French for his business or profession,
why break his heart over their tangled
verbs, or his jaw in enueavoring to
masticate their participles?
I visited the French mint last week
Hotel de Monnaie' they call il. Ex-
cept that there is more room, its inter-
nal arrangements do not materially diff
fer from the San Francisco institution.
To assert that it affords excuses for
saIary-drawing to more idle persons,
would be to Islander the ingenuity of
our politicians. I rememl.a: some years
ago a friend of mine received an ap-
pointment as upper night Waterman"
or roof surveyor in or rather on, the
San Francisco Mint. He was required
to repair every night before u o'clock
to the roof OF the building and watch
until morning. It was his duty to
guard against fire and burglars to
sound a bell every hour. in order to let
the Waterman below know that he was
awake, and to report in a government
notebook any circumstance worthy of
record. For the first week my friend
was faithful to this trust. The note
book detailed the battles, sieges, and
fortunes of a large yellow cat; his
courtship of gray pussy; the machina-
tons of their envious foes, and the
final triumph of the gamboge grimalkin.
On submitting his memorandum to the
Superintendent, that gentleman COM
mended his zeal, but suggested that the
United States was not in the habit OF
mixing its geological and financial de-
partments, and no record of wildcat was
needed in a hard money institution.
For another week my friend performed
his duty faithfully, and smoked his