The Washington herald., 1921-01-10
THE TIME-LIMIr ON YOUTH.

l1S hA"L-hhlulI oN toStAs
A correspondent wants to know at
what age a woman should give up
the fight to appear younger than
she is, and frankly surrender to age.
Are paints. and powder. and
transformations a virtue up to a GER
tain point, and the unforgivable sin
afterwards" she asks.
This is a difficult question to an
swer, because no woman on the sun
ny. side Of 80 ever admits to being
anything but a mere girl, and there
fore, while she would agree that II
was foolish for other old sheep to
camoufiage lsmbhood, she would
have no doubt but that she could do
1t and get away with it, without
rousing a suspicion in the breast
Of the, beholder.
Admitting, however. that there
are women who. in the privacy of
their boudoirs, look into their mir
rors and behold all of their nifty
odd years staring them in the face.
what shall they do? Shall they do
and dye, or be grizzIed-headed? {?
snail they paint or leave their
countenances as weather-beaten as
time has made them?
1t seems to me that the whole
question of the ethics OF cosmetics
depends upon whether the results
are artistic or not. II a touch of
rouge discreetly applied. makes "a
salloW cheek rosy; II a little dash
OF peroxide puts a CLINT of gold
into mouse-colored hair and turns
homely woman into one who is
easy on the eyes instead of being a
scarecrow. then II is a highly moral
and philanthropic act for, the said
woman to have recourse to such
adventitious aids to beauty.
| But, on the other hand. cosmetics
Improperly applied, are highly i'm
moral and Objectionable. However
1t behooves the woman to be very
sure that the end will justify the
means before she dips her hand
into the paint pot, and gets busy
with the hair-dye bottle.
And that is what the woman who
tries to keep the illusion Of youth
after youth has fed, is too apt
to do.
Youth means so much to a woman
that no one can blame her fol
hanging on to it with both hands
as long as there is a shred of II
left. but the important thing for her
to realize is that there does come a
time when 1t is gone, and that she
n nTDT huu
tending that she has it still.
No hair looks $50 old as dyed
hair No cheeks look so witheret
as those upon which artificial roses
are painted. no figure looks SO aged
as the old body dressed in the
habiliments of a school girl.
Last summer / stayed at a resort
hotel in which there was a woman
of perhaps sixty. She was very
thin. and small. and this gave her
the figure of a young girl. She
wore the shortest of sport skirts
and the jauntiest of sport hats
and her hair was dyed that wonder
full mahogany red that never grew
Sn any human head. Everybody
noticed this woman. and the uni
Hersal exclamation that she called
forth was. MY heavens, did you
ever see such an old hag?"
Now really the woman wasn't g
hag at all She really wasn't old
II she had been dressed appropriate.
ly to her age, and had had he'd hon
est gray hair. she would have i'm.
pressed everyone as a pretty middle
aged woman. But when she tried
to look like a fiapper. she only
succeeded in looking like a witch
of Endor.
every woman who tries to look like
Something like that happens tc
her own granddaughter. She only
makes herself ridiculous. for youth
is one of the things that cannot bs
initiated. l once heard a hair.
dresser trying to dissuade a wo.
man from having her gray hail
dyed.
"Oh, yes" he said, 81 can dye youl
hair the color of girls, but
can't give you a girls young facS
to wear under it, nor the look Of
a girls young eyes. Your eyes
have seen too much, and life ha.
written its story in the lines or
your face"
And if women make a mistake
in trying to paint themselves up
and doll themselves up. so that they