Year: 1873

Did you ever go to see lady, not of un-
easy but of uncertain age, and find your
self unexpectedly ushered into the family
sitting room by a new servant who did not
know the ways of the house? Did you
find her with the remarkable ornament of
a court tplaster loZenge an inch wide be-
tween her eyes, and one at the outer ends
of her eyebrows? Did concern express it
self lest she had fallen down stairs, or had
a difference with the cat? Were these in
situations parried with veteran resources,
and were you dissuaded from further in
quiry by the delicate remark that it would
interest her more than you to give the
history of her scratchess OF course you
felt there was a mystery about those bits
of court-plaster, and perhaps you feel so
to this day, if nature has not given you
the mind of detective. If so, your pa
tience is to be rewarded The secret of
those patches was not scratches, but wrin-
kles.


trust due tribute will be paid to the
ingenuity of failing age, which has per-
fected this device for warding off its un-
welcome tokens. The rationale of the
plan is very simple. The plaster contracts
the skin, and prevents its sinking into
creases and lines. 1t also protects and
softens it. Within the week have heard
of one oldish lady who wears these orna-
mental appendages all the time in the
house when not receiving company, and
covers parts of her face with dough made
of well-mumbled bread to keep her skin
fair. The heroism of the resistance to
time must be applauded, but whether the
play is worth the candle is an open ques-
ton. The beauty of age lies not in flesh
| like that of sixteen, but in clear and lofty
expression, in the look of experience and
not unkindly shrewdness, in the finish of
selErepression, of calmness and trust and
sympathy. These things grow on face
as it loses freshness and roundness, just as
the sky begins to show through thinning
| boughs.


1t would be the greatest of blessings for
some people to learn to accept themselves
and their gifts. If they could stand apart
| from themselves for while 10 see their
becoming styles and acceptable points,
much of their repining would be dropped
as superfluous. Everything and every body
Is beautiful in its season. There is a
wholesome plainness that accords with do
mestic life and natural surroundings, as
| the bark of trees relieves their green. The
color that comes of health, the gentleness
| and sweetness that come of conquered
self, are elements of beauty that make any
face tolerable. How dear the plain faces
are that have watched our childhood with
whom we have grown so closely that fea-
ture and form have lost their significance,
so that we really don't know whether they
are homely or not, and see only the love or
the humor that lives in their faces. Very
ugly people are happily indifferent to
their looks in general, and the degrees of
imperfection may always be lessened by
| judicious use of the arts of dress.


A woman young and homely may make
herself agreeable by the complete neatness
of comparatively simple toilette. Let
her eschew dresses of two colors, OF shades
even, though the latter are allowable, if
of nice material, and the shadings very
soft Where the complexion is dull, there
must be some warm or lively tinges of
Harper's Bdzdr.