Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-04

blending powders to suit our skins and IN
teaching the art of make-up. and house-to-
house canvaSSers offer TO give US facial free
Of charge, on the chance, of course that We
will buy a quantity of their products
But does all this expenditure and effort really
make us beautiful? That question was soTne-
what outside the sphere of the Department OF
Commerce but the advertisements and the
short stories in national magazines tell the
story. What they really seem to be doing Is to
encourage us to make the most OF what Mother
Nature visited on us.
The short-story writer's are no longer making
their heroes and heroines exasperatingly beau-
tiful, because, after all, they want MIR. and Mrs.
Average Reader to see at least>a little some
thing of themselves In their principals. He
was good looking sort Of sound mind
in sound body" The hero was equipped
with proper muscles and Digestion, and the
heroine, "a debutante, and since she came out
the old man nearly had to go and sit IN the
garage the house was so cluttered up with
boys" Mary's blue black hair, ivory pallor
and geranium lpstick" are mentioned, but her
mouth may have been no better than yours.
Tight little red cur1s clustered close to
Glorias head and her eyes were as inscrutable
as any animals" but her nose may have been
large or uptrned. In other words, she may not
have been one bit better looking than the
hundreds of girls one sees every day
Thank heaven, the personal appearance Of
Helen of Troy and Adonis Is no longer thrown
at us. We are advised and encouraged by the
beauticians to make the best of what we have.
The element Of personal hygiene and the intro
duction of absolute cleanliness into the science
of cosmotology, with the consequent beneficial
effect on health and general good looks are
being emphasized And the appeal is to every
man and woman.
RUT will the industry continue to grow? One
- might answer by saying that IS per cent
of our people do not yet use toothbrush or q
dentfrice of any kind national advertising
company recently declared that two thirds OF us
still preferred toothaches to toothbrushes.
Twenty-Five pounds year Is the average per
capita use of soap in America, according to
Roscoe c. Edlund, general manager of the
Association of American Soap and Glycerin
Producers. When we consider the enormous
quantities used in washing clothes, dishes, auto
mobiles windows and other household and
Office equipment there must be thousands and
thousands among the great unwashed" to
whom even a Saturday night plunge must be
a rare course of procedure.
Therefore if the cosmotologists estimates
of the consumption of toilet preparations and
soaps are high, as the Department of Commerce
feels that they may possibly be, we are even
a less clean nation than we have heretofore
believed.
Some 1000 600 women alone are believed to
account for half the sums spent in beauty
parlors, genealogical baths and barber shops
and for curling irons, bath cabinets, mechanical
massage machines, vibrators, driers and other
such articles There are about 100000
women in the country. Therefore the other
36OOO.00O are evidently trailing behind their
Neutrality-suspicious. sisters. They are doing their
identifying, if any. at home. and the creams.
powders. lotions and perfumes that they use
can't be so terrifcally large