Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1890 — THE PRESERVATION OF BEAUTY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE PRESERVATION OF BEAUTY

According to the Lhwk of Health.

HE care and preservation of fe/niale beauty has I been a study from 'earliest history. Even in the Bible we read of the arts that women have employed to enhance their beauty, and history and tradition have pre-

sented us some strange things to believe. Noted beauties have been mentioned as having taken baths of wine, of asses’ milk, of milk and honey, and many other things to preserve their charms. It is said by historians that some of the renowned beauties bathed in dew, collected by slaves, and others again in rain water, and so on through all the possible things in creation. It is even related of one great beauty that she was bathed every day in fresh bullock’s blood while it was yet warm. It would occupy the whole Ledger to recount the stories current of the ridiculous ideas held by the ancients as to different means to preserve or restore their charms, and few of them would be of service in the light of science. The most of the so called cosmetics, from the very beginning of the use of them, were based upon poisonous substances, just as they are to-day, and we read in a book on Egypt that a paste made of an arsenical preparation was used over four thousand years ago, and from that time to the present day women have been using all kinds of preparations offered for sale by conscienceless persons, the most of them made of most dangerous minerals. It would be a curious study to show in what beauty consists, according to different ideas, in different countries, though, according to their lights, the women in each do the most they can to render themselves attractive, and in all countries women have, and always will, rely U]H>n the use of cosmetics of one kind or another to enhance their charms or conceal the ravages of time. To impress upon those who may read this series of articles the fact that they are taking their lives, even, into their hands, to say nothing of eventually ruining whatever good looks they had in the beginning, we shall tell them something of the materials which enter into the compounding of the various preparations now in the market, and which are said (by the makers) to be entirely harmless. All of the so-called creams, and lily balms, and such like liquids, are of necessity based upon white lead, and are, beyond measure, injurious to health and beauty. The commonest kind of flake white is generally used in their manufacture, and what is in one bottle, for which the buyer pays from 75 cents to $2, costs bnt the fraction of a penny. Bose-water, diluted with pure water, fills the rest of the bottle. The bottle must be well shaken before using, as the lead settles to the bottom, and the water then takes the appearance of cream, which is applied to the face with a sponge, which is exactly the same thing as painting a door or a wall, in effect, and a dead white is the result, which is unnatural and ugly. Some of them have a drop or two of cochineal added, which gives a so-called flesh tint, which is as glaring as the white in its unnaturalness.-— Emma Ki.o in Chicago Ledger.