Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment / Or the Lady and Gentleman at Home and Abroad; Containing Rules of Etiquette for All Occasions, Including Calls; Invitations; Parties; Weddings; Receptions; Dinners and Teas; Etiquette of the Street; Public Places, Etc., Etc. Forming a Complete Guide to Self-Culture; the Art of Dressing Well; Conversation; Courtship; Etiquette for Children; Letter-Writing; Artistic Home and Interior Decorations, Etc.

by Maud C. Cooke

Artifices of the Toilet.

All artificial aids to beauty should be sparingly used, and have no place whatever upon the toilet table of the young girl. Powder and paint are so obvious to the eye, that their use, or rather abuse, by some otherwise sensible women, is a continual wonder. A dust of rice powder is sometimes excusable, but there can be no possible apology for the “made-up” faces one sees upon our streets. They deceive no one and have no excuse for being. The woman who stands in the pitiless glare of the footlights must needs add color to replace that stolen from her face by the strong white light of day, but others have no such excuse for “frescoing” the face. It is a sin alike against good taste and good breeding.

There are various simple preparations that can be used to clear the skin, and various massage treatments to smooth out the cruel little lines that time writes on all faces, and kindly unguents to fill out the hollow cheeks and temples, and thus keep the outlines of youth a little longer. And there is wholesome living and vigorous exercise, and daily and revivifying baths to call the flush of health to the cheek; and loving thoughts and kindly deeds to keep the eyes soft and bright, and thus to set the inroads of time at defiance for many years. And since a woman is no older than she looks, and since the prerogatives of youth are dear to the heart, it is her bounden duty to keep herself sweet and young.

There is one excusable addition to the personal charms and that is where nature has denied the grace of luxuriant locks. This lack can be so cunningly supplied by the hairdresser’s art that detection is impossible, and as it ever has been, and ever will be, that a woman’s hair is a glory unto her, there can be no reason against her hiding from view any lack of it when it is done in an artistic fashion.