Parisian Beauties.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 218, 3 September 1887, Page 5

Parisian Beauties.

In the Prussian Chamber of Deputies Herr yon Ziedemann made the horrifying statement that in Posen he had met Avith a burgomaster who was quite unable to re member when he had washed himself last* But it is a well-known fact that a considerable number of Parisian ladies, admired for their beauty, never wash themselves at all. Face, neck and shouldersare carefully wiped every morning with a dry towel and then rubbed with a fine ointment ; they then appear in all the freshness of youth, with tints varying from dazzling white to a deep pink. Only once a year — generally in autumn — the complexion begins to show cracks and wrinkles j then the beautiful lady disappears for a season. All visitors are refused admission ; madame is indisposed. A fortnight later she emerges like a chrysalis, as beautiful as ever. She has undergone a transformation, a kind of a molting process, which is kept a close secret from everybody except her husband, who has to pay for it to the tune of 2,000 francs. Her far-famed beauty is the work of the emailleuse, a personage quite familiar to English readers who* are old enough to remember the case of Mine. Rachel. Several ladiesare known who, twenty-five or thirty years ago, were dis tinguished for their beauty at the- court of the late Emperor, and whose youthful appearance is to-day the object of universal admiration. Of course, this artifical crust effectually prevents any facial expression of the lady's feelings ; she can only smile faintly with her lips, she is incapable of blushing, and remains cold and impassivelike a stitue.

"Emilie," asks the teacher, "which animal attaches himself the most to man ?" Emilie (after some reflection) : " The leach, sir."