BEAUTY BOUGHT IN SHOPS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1062, 1 October 1883, Page 2

BEAUTY BOUGHT IN SHOPS.

It is a question whether beauty, like goodness, must not necessarily be genuine in order to be admirable. The climax of this theorj is reached when the old lady of 85, the aged patroness of many charlatans, is heldup to admiration because —at a little distance—she would pass for 30. Proudly her “ makers up ” point out how this effect is produced ; her hair is false, her skin is enamelled—besides being “tightened” to prevent wrinkles —her eyelashes are stained, her figure is “made.” She is false all over. .Now, is this admirable? Would net a little honest oldago and ugliness be more agreeable? Be this as it may, it is not very importatp. When a lady has reached the mature age of 85 her appearance troubles no one very much, except her grandchildren. But when it comes to the woman whom you love, or might love if you were quite certain that she was genuine, the case is different. It is bad to know that your dear Angela must sleep in corsets, or she never, never could attain to the fashionable waist; it is sad to think of the inevitable results on her poor little feet of those Louis Quinze hdels, which make her pretty boots look so bewitching. Figure to yourself what it must feel like to take your beauty-sleep with a pajr of pincers on your nose. That pret|| did fashioned expression has now talmra new and dreadful meaning. Any one who desires to possess the “ Mrs Langtry nose ” has but to sleep in torment for a week or two and the great result is obtained. If the figure of the would-be beauty is not as lovely as she wishes, “ the ooatomical corset-maker ” will (Supply her with- a nocturnal squeezing apparatus which will “ fine her down” by degrees. It her stature is too low' for beauty, she may remedy this by wearing what is mildly called an “ appliance in the days of the Inquisition it would probably have been classed as an instrument of torture. This appliance squeezes and stretches all the lower part of the body, and its use is said not to interfere with the comfort of one’s beauty-sleep. Once enamelled, always enamelled. The professed beauty can only afford to be yellow, “grey, and uncurled ” in secret. She finds herself precipitated on the downward path. It is just as well,. having once begun to attend to the matter, to perfect her beauty. Why not make use of the marvels of modern inventiveness —re-model her ears, her nose and her finger-tips ? It is difficult to say why she should not carry her theory out to the full.—London World.