PERHAPS, in these days of public and private baths, it may seem a
work of supererogation to insist upon cleanliness as the first
requisite in a lady's toilet. Yet it may be as well to remind our
fair readers that fastidiousness on this head cannot be carried
too far. Cleanliness is the outward sign of inward purity.
Cleanliness is health, and health is beauty.
We will begin, then, with the business of the dressing-room, which
can be quite well performed in three-quarters of an hour, or even
less; and should at latest be achieved by eight o'clock in summer,
and nine in winter. To sleep too much is as trying to the
constitution as to sleep too little. To sleep too much is to
render oneself liable to all kinds of minor ailments, both of mind
and body. It is a habit that cannot be too severely censured,
especially in the young. No mother has any right to allow her
young daughters to ruin their temper, health, and complexion, by
lying in bed till nine or ten o'clock. Early rising conduces more
to the preservation of health, freshness, and young looks, than
anything in the world, and even to the proper preservation of our
mental faculties.
The bath is a most important object of study. It is not to be
supposed that we wash in order to become clean; we wash because we
wish to remain clean. The bath should be taken by a person in good
health once a day in winter, and twice a day in summer. For
persons of really robust constitutions, a cold shower-bath may be
recommended; but as a general rule the sponge-bath is safest and
most convenient. Cold water refreshes and invigorates, but does
not cleanse; those persons, therefore, who daily use a cold bath
in the morning should frequently use a warm one at night. For
cleansing purposes, the water should be of from ninety-six to one
hundred degrees, or even one hundred and eight degrees; but such a
bath should be sparingly indulged in, as it exhausts the physical
powers.
A tepid bath, varying from eighty-five to ninety-five degrees, is
perhaps the safest for general use, the more particulary as it
answers the purpose both of refreshing and cleansing. It is not
well to remain in the bath for longer than two or three minutes. A
large coarse sponge is best for the purpose. It is advisable to
wet the top of the head before entering a cold bath. Whether soap
be used or not, it is well to apply the flesh-brush gently to the
face and vigorously to the whole body. Nothing improves the
complexion like the daily use of the flesh-brush. When the
brushing is concluded, a huck-a-back or Turkish towel should be
used for the final process of drying.
The teeth must be scrupulously cared for. If proper care were
taken of the teeth in youth, there would be less employment for
the dentist in after life. The Americans ruin their teeth by
drinking iced drinks with hot dinners; the Spanish ladies by
eating sugar all day long; the Mexicans by smoking cigarettes.
Very hot and very sweet things should be avoided. The teeth should
be carefully brushed, not only night and morning, but after every
meal. Very hard tooth-brushes are not advisable, and a simple
tooth-powder of common chalk is safer and more effectual than any
quackeries. The onion, we need scarcely observe, must be the
forbidden fruit of the Eve of the nineteenth century. Indigestible
food is also certain to affect the sweetness of the breath. As
soon as the breath becomes unpleasant, one may be quite sure that
the digestive machinery is out of order.
The nails must always be fastidiously clean, and never allowed to
grow inordinately long. In the cutting of the nails, every care
must be given to the preservation of the shape, and to the removal
of superfluous skin. A liberal use of the nail-brush, warm water,
and best Windsor soap will insure the preservation of a delicate
hand. Gloves must of course be worn out of doors; and even in
doors as much as possible.
The hair requires a good deal of care, though of the simplest and
most inartificial kind. The secret of fine and glossy hair is a
clean hair-brush; and ladies who keep no maid to perform those
offices for them should wash their hair-brushes in hot water and
soda every day. Every other day is the minimum of washing that a
hair-brush should have.
Once secure the perfect cleanliness of your hair-brush, and the
rest will be easy. Brush the hair carefully both at night and
morning; let it be occasionally cleansed with yolk of egg beaten
up, or a mixture of glycerine and lime-juice, and you will find no
need to resort to hair-doctors or quacks. Pomade and oil are
strictly to be avoided; but after a sea-water bath, or during a
sea journey, a little warm pomade will be useful in softening the
hair.
Above all things, never attempt to change the color of the hair by
means of fashionable dyes and fluids. Color so obtained cannot
harmonize naturally with the skin, eyes, and eyebrows that Nature
has given. Practices of this kind are simply and strictly
immodest. They evince a senseless desire for fashion, and an
equally senseless eagerness to attract. Auricomus hair-dyes, like
painted lips and cheeks, and pencilled eyebrows, and complexions
purchased, are disgraceful to the wearers. With regard to the art
of obtaining a good complexion, let ladies be careful in regard to
diet, take regular exercise in the open air, wear broad-brimmed
hats in the sun, and veils in the wind; let them avoid pearl
powders and washes of every kind; let them, above all things, go
early to bed, and rise betimes in the morning; and if by so doing
they are not made "beautiful forever," they can never be made so.
The face should never be washed when heated from exercise. Wipe
the perspiration from the skin, and wait until it is sufficiently
cool before you bathe, even with warm water. Rain-water is best
for the bath. In case of any eruption upon the skin, no time
should be lost in procuring medical advice. He who doctors
himself, says the proverb, has a fool for his physician.
With regard to dress, it is impossible to do more than offer a few
general observations. The fashion of dress is for to-day; but the
esthetics of dress are for all time. No matter to what absurd
lengths fashion may go, a woman of taste will ever avoid the
ridiculous. The milliner and dressmaker may handle the scissors
never so despotically, but in matters of color, harmony, and
contrast they remain under the control of their employer. Dress,
indeed, may fairly claim to be considered in the light of a fine
art. To dress well demands something more than a full purse and a
pretty figure. It requires taste, good sense, and refinement.
A woman of taste and good sense will neither make dress her first
nor her last object in life. She will remember that no wife should
betray that total indifference for her husband's taste which is
implied in the neglect of her appearance; and she will also
remember that to dress consistently and tastefully is one of the
duties which she owes to society.
There is a Spanish proverb which says, "Every hair has its
shadow." So. in like manner, every lady, however insignificant her
social position may appear to herself, must exercise a certain
influence on the feelings and opinions of others. If, therefore,
the art of dressing appears either too irksome or too frivolous to
such of the fair sex as are engaged in serious occupations, let
them remember that it performs the same part in beautifying
domestic life as is performed by music and the fine arts in
embellishing the life moral and spiritual. So long, therefore, as
dress merely occupies so much time and requires so much money as
we are fairly entitled to allow it, nothing can be said against
it. When extravagant fashions are indulged in--extravagant habits
fostered at any cost--and under any circumstances--the critic is
quite justified in his strictures, however severe. Dress, to be in
perfect taste, need not be costly; and no woman of right feeling
will adorn her person at the expense of her husband's comfort or
her children's education.
"As a work of art, a well-dressed woman is a study." Her toilet
will be as _bien soignee_ and as well chosen at the family
breakfast-table as at a ball. If she loves bright colors and can
wear them with impunity, they will be as harmoniously arranged as
the artist arranges his colors on the palette. If she is young,
her dress will be youthful; if she is old, it will not affect
simplicity. She will always follow rather than lead the prevailing
fashion, and rather follow her own fashion than violate good taste
or common sense.
The golden rule in dress is to avoid extremes. Do not be so
original in your dress as to be peculiar; and do not affect
fashions that are radically unbecoming to you. Ladies that are
neither very young nor very striking in appearance cannot do
better than wear quiet colors. Ladies who are not rich can always
appear well dressed, with a little care in the choice and
arrangement of the materials. Whatever the texture of the dress,
it should be made by the very best dressmaker you call afford. As
well go to a third or fourth-rate dentist, music-master, or
doctor, as go to a third or fourth-rate dressmaker. The dressmaker
is a woman's good or evil genius.
Morning dress should be faultless in its way. For young ladies,
married or unmarried, nothing is prettier in summer than white or
very light morning dresses of washing materials. Light dresses
must be exquisitely fresh and clean, ribbons fresh, collars and
cuffs irreproachable. All stuffs are to be rigidly eschewed except
those of the very finest kind. Morning dress for elderly ladies of
wealth and position should be of dark silk. Jewelry, hair
ornaments, and light silk dresses are not permissible for morning
wear.
Walking dress should always be quiet. Rich walking dress attracts
attention, which in the street is not desirable. For the carriage,
a lady may dress as elegantly as she pleases.
Elderly ladies should always dress richly. Any thin old lady may
wear delicate colors, whilst a stout, florid person looks best in
dark or gray. For young as well as old, the question of color
must, however, be determined by complexion and figure. Rich colors
harmonize with rich brunette complexions and dark hair; delicate
colors are the most suitable for delicate and fragile styles of
beauty.
For ball dresses, light and diaphanous materials are worn; silk
dresses are not suitable for dancing. Black and scarlet, black and
violet, or white, are worn in mourning; but ladies in deep
mourning should not go to balls at all. They must not dance, and
their dark dresses look out of place in a gay assembly.
At dinner parties, unless of a small, friendly kind, only the
fullest dress is appropriate. Demi-toilette can be worn at
unceremonious dinners, and even high dresses, if the material be
sufficiently rich. It is better to wear real flowers at large
dinner parties, but artificial ones at balls; since the former
would drop and fall to pieces with the heat and the dancing.
Much jewelry is out of place for young ladies at any time; and,
indeed, there is as much propriety to be observed in the wearing
of jewelry as in the wearing of dresses. Diamonds, pearls, rubies,
and all transparent precious stones belong to evening dress, and
should never be worn before dinner. In the morning, one's rings
should be of the simplest kind, and one's jewelry limited to a
good brooch, gold chain, and watch. Diamonds and pearls are as
much out of place during the morning as a low dress or a wreath.
It is well to remember in the choice of jewelry that mere
costliness is not always the test of value; and that an exquisite
work of art, such as a fine intaglio or cameo, or a natural
rarity, such as a black pearl, is a possession more distingue than
a large brilliant which any one who has money enough can buy as
well as yourself. Of all precious stones, the opal is the most
lovely and commonplace. No merely vulgar woman purchases an opal.
Gloves, shoes, and boots must always be faultless. Gloves cannot
be too light for the carriage, or too dark for the streets. A
woman with ill-fitting gloves cannot be said to be well dressed;
while to wear soiled ones at your friend's soiree is to show her
that you think lightly of herself and her company.
It may be remarked, by the way, that perfumes should be used only
in the evening, and with the strictest moderation. Perfumes, to be
tolerable, must be of the most _recherche_ kind. Some people, of a
sensitive temperament, would be made ill by the smell of musk or
patchouli. Finally, let every lady remember Dr. Johnson's
criticism on a lady's dress: "I am sure she was well dressed,"
said the Doctor; "for I cannot remember what she had on."