Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1874 — Rouge and Perspiration. [ARTICLE]

Rouge and Perspiration.

A lady correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette , writing from Washington during the recent warm spell, says: Rouge and perspiration have long been declared enemies. Think of the mortification of raising a delicate cambric mouchoir to absorb the moisture, and, upon removal, finding it (the mouchoir) covered with the blushes supposed to be virgin to the damask cheek! I stepped into a “ ladies’ fancy store” the other day, and while awaiting my turn to be served busied myself in looking about. Some curiously ornamental articles in pretty glass cases arrested my attention, and, -when opportunity offered, I- asked what they were for. The girl gazed at me incredulously for a moment, as did Charlie when, watching the maneuvers of Oliver Twist, he said, “ Oh. my eye, liow green! ” but perceiving that I was really an ignoramus in the matter opened one end of -the long, slender, dainty-looking box, and disclosed therein nestlings tiny ball of such exquisite pink that my eyes glistened instinctively in gazing upon it. At the opposite end was a corresponding ball of white, ana in the central compartment dark material for penciling the eyebrows and giving that languishing expression to the eyes by touching tin? lower eyelashes, and in another part still was a “crimson dye for robust lips.” “Do many people purchase these things?” said innocent I.

Again looking ■“ how green," she said: “ Scores of people you know and meet every -day of your life are constant consumers, and it’s funny enough to listen to their various excuses. One lady said her country friends had written in for a supply of toilet articles. They didn’t have such things in the country, but she did wish they wouldn’t ask her to execute such delicate commissions for them! All the time I could see the rouge on her face. Then a young lady said she had broken some rare ornament , (rouge-colored, of course), and could find nothing else suitable wherewith to mend it.

“ Why, Admiral Blank’s daughter rouges, although the girls declare she can’t, for they have seen her wash her face and rub it hard, and the color remained. But 1 will tell you the kind she uses,” said the girl, now becoming talkative ; and lifting a tiny gold-trimmed vial filled with luminous liquid she continued, “ This is rouge vinaigre. It is inserted under the skin in the'form of a hypodermic injection, and the slight wound concealed for the time being by a small piece of cqurt-plaster. “ You may rub the outside as much as you choose, but nothing will come off for your trouble. The vinaigre stains the skin a lovely, bright, healthy hue, rather too healthy for American girls, and will stay for w r eeks without renewal.” Is it not injurious?” I inquired. “ Well, it must be used carefully, and it is well not to experiment on yourself, but leave the injection to the skill of the experienced. Sometimes, if the blood is out of order, it causes tbe face or body to break out, but then it is not dangerous, only unpleasant in such a case.”

I walked away, feeling that I had learned something new, if not elevating, about some of my fellow-travelers. I thought of the women of Bible times against whose follies of mincing gaits, darkening under the eyes, and other absurdities of fashion the prophet uttered such anathemas, and wondered why, in endeavoring to be beautiful, the most hideous means were used to bring about such a result. I think the banged hair, turning a pretty woman into a biped Skye terrier, the bleached and dyed tresses, the painting and enameling, and general distortions of the period, ugly, unpardonable, ungraceful, and unlovable, and if I was a man I wouldn't marry a girl of such mons’rous bad taste.