Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08
THE GIRL YOU
WOULD LIKE TO BE


written for The Star by Katherine Mertcn.
sgt TAKES a good deal OF common or
garden sense for a woman to escape
unframed from the tolls OF the com
Il mon charIatan and fake beauty spc-
clalists who flourish in these days.
Beauty culture IS contagious. The desire
to be beautiful dominates 50 many femi-
nine minds TO the exclusion of other things
that women seem 20 forget TO use their
Judgment when confronted with a balm,
elixir or wash warranted to work wonders
for the face or figure. The average woman
wants 70 try every beauty treatment
whether she needs It or not. Most women
are of an experimental disposition, anyhow,
and frequently try everything suggested in
the line of cosmetics just to see what 1t is
like with direful results. 1t is for this
reason we see SO many extraordinary
bleached blondes with hair ruined by too
much Tightening treatment" and so many
compilations also condemned for life by
'rejuvenated processes" and many good
constitutions undermined in health by So
called harmless complexion pills.
A woman can, and many do, spend from
five to six thousand dollars a year on their
looks. I am leaving out the expense OF
clothes entirely, and abiding merely 10
the amount expended on beautifying face
and body. It frequently costs about five
hundred dollars to have ones skin removed,
and some women go through this ordeal
every other year. One well known society
woman has Il trunkful of false hair. The
trunk was especially lined with tin so that
no dampness could penetrate and uncurI
her detachable locks. Every transtorma-
ton she has costs her forty dollars, and
she has twenty-five, and besides, switches,
curls, etc.
You think I am exaggerating, don't you?
I assure you that this Is true. Further
believes that only
one hairdresser in the world understands
the curling of hair, and even when she Is
IN San Francisco her Curls and pompadours
go back to New York every week In small,
carefully built and tir-liued boxes to be
yearranged No wonder she needs so
Cany.
There are countless other ways Of spend
ing money on ones looks. Some persons
will remember certain powder as per
feet for the complexion" Immediately my
lady rushes out to buy It, paying five dol
lars for a single box, whose contents cost
the manufacturer about fifty cents. The
daily manicure, pedicure, the hairdresSer,
the facial masSeuse, the scalp specialist and
the physical culture teacher all are EN-
ployed by the rich woman whose beauty
quest leaves a shining, golden path on
which many incompetents fatten. However,
I have really no cry to raise against the
woman who spends money layishly for the
enhancement of her own personal beauty if
the money Is hers TO spend, and she uses
some Judgment in disbursing her gold and
really obtains what she is seeking IN re-
turn for 1t. 1t Is against the senseless
waste of time, money, energy and effort in
the search of beauty. through harmless
methods, that women should be warned to
be cautious.
The woman who possesses a face and
figure free from any serious natural defect
needs only natural treatment to enhance
her looks There are many cases where
surgical operations have to be resorted to
where unshapely noses and outstanding
ears are positively disiguring. Often an
osteopath or surgeon has to be called In
to correct some structural defect, but IN
most cases the road to beauty is synony-
nous with right thinking and right living
The woman who foolishly hampers with
eyes or skin, who trusts her defects and
blemshes to some charlatan and who takes
any heroic face treatment that Is suggested
without some experience of the results OF
the process through which she Is to pass,
deserves to look the fright she usually APP
pears Girls OF nineteen, rather pale. per-
haps. but with otherwise good compilations,
have begged me to indorse some face-skfn-
ming process which would give them some
color and have been exceedingly offended
when they were counseled to get up early
in the morning and play golf. Face skin
ming is the most heroic Of treatments, and