WHAT FASHION WILL DO.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 979, 17 September 1881, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHAT FASHION WILL DO.

The evils to which women submit in order that beauty of appearance may be secured are as old as the hills ; but the modes by which this beauty is sought are as varied as the object is universal. Periodically there are warnings against the particular form adopted; thus we have at times heard of the horrors of belladonna, of chlorodyne, and eau de cologne when taken in excess; but a more serious one is now affecting many — i.e., the pernicious practice of arsenic-eating. A few years since the dangers to which persons were exposed by wearing and making dresses and flowers of a certain shade of green, afterwards known as *• arsenic green,” were everywhere discussed, and so successfully advocated that the color disappeared even in the paper on walls. Now it is asserted that “ a list of 500 names of ladies who are in the habit of using the drug regularly ” could be easily written off. In Victoria it is maintained that the habit is rapidly spreading, and that a practical chemist has for years noted down the persons met with the arsenic brand upon them. The object is to obtain a beautiful complexion, and for this a woman will take the poison daily, either pure or as “bowler’s Solution.” After a year's trial “ a beautiful pallor is producedthen comes reaction.

In a few years the victims health suffers, and she resolves to give up the charm. Nature revenges herself ; the face then becomes a livid red, and in despair, back the victim flies to the poison. Perseverance brings back the paleness ; it is no longer the clearness j of alabaster, but the sickliness of I chalk. Health is gone, paralysis fol-1 lows, then death. Truly fashion has a load to bear. High heels are ruining the feet; tight pin-backs are cramping the limbs; the eyes are affected by the minerals in the many “ washes” applied to the hair ; small waists are bringing diseases innumerable in their train ; and now poison is added to the list. Surely, in the rage for equality of the sexes we can find some women brave enough to enter a crusade against cosmetics, to make good health fashionable. Outdoor exercise, early rising, and regular habits will do more for a good complexion than any artificial solution. — Sydney Mail.