The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-01-14
BUSINESS VALUE
OF BEAUTY

Five million women are today EN-
ployed at wages in the United States.
The greater number Of tnese-tnose
employed in mills or factories at,
rough manual labor, or women en-
gagged in routine clerical work in great
business houses where they arc
screened from the public view-can
be as plain as ill-fortune chose 10,
make them, and their positions are
not thereby endangered.
But there have grown up certain
kinds of work from which the girl
minus good looks and good figure is
absolutely barred. SAYS Miriam Finn
Scott in Success. In consequence !
there has developed an almost separ
ate profession which can rightly be-
entitled "The Profession of Being Good /
Looking"
There is not stenographer whoI
is not aware that a pretty face is a D.,
commercial asset" says Miss Scott, |
land none appreciates this more keen
ly than the plain girl. A friend of
mine. very clever, very quick and ex-
act, with excellent references, but
unfortunately with a plain face, re-
Gently tried to secure a position by
calling in response to want advertise
ments.
AT the first place she applied she
found nine girls ahead OF her. Each
one of these girls was to take dicta
ton. She and one other girl took the
simple business letter of about 200
words in about a minute and half
and typed it quickly and accurately
The other eight were girls of very me-
diocre ability; but it was the pref
test of these who got the job, for
she had dimples and a catching smile, |
and easy manner and pretty clothes. !
Perhaps in no other kind of work, |
barring the stage, has the commercial
value of a womans face been so well
proved as by the demonstrator, espe-
cially the demonstrator of toilet arti- |
cles, who, with her fine complexion, |
wealth of hair or good teeth, advertis- |
es alleged merits OF face creams, eye |
brow growers, hair growers, wrinkle |
preventers and the like; the milliner' s |
model, who tries on hats before the
fashionable customer and whose pref
ty head and handsome face make the
headgear more attractive in the eyes
of the customer; the figure model, who
tries on rich, ready made gowns and
cloaks and whose form and beauty
emphasize the style of the garment;
the girl who poses for fashion plates,
the manicure and hairdresser in pub
lie shops, the stenographer in many
positions, sayeswomen in certain de-
partments, the ticket seller in cheap
shows, and a number Of other varie
ties that will suggest themselves tol
the woman who goes shopping.
Skill, of course, is required in such
work, but as one girl said to me: It's
your looks that hold your job.
81 know one of these commercial
beauty models whose likeness is seen
almost everywhere-in cars, in rail-
road stations, in drug stores, on fenc-
es through the country roads, in mag
azines and newspapers. Nature has
endowed her with a wonderful head of
beautiful golden brown hair, natural
~ wavy, thick and long.
Before she became a model and
while employed as clerk in whole
sale drug business a customer noticed
her hair. She wore 1t simply, in tow
braids circling her head. He asked
her to pose for an advertisement of
hair tonic which he had discovered.
She posed in a dozen different ways
with her hair down.
"rBut of course she told me, in
each pose the artist retouched my face
sIiehtly-changed my nose, my chin,
m, eyes, to make it appear to the pub
lie that a number of consumers of this
hair grower had testified to it's mer
it's"