tine, I
880.
THE WEST SHORE.
,67
RAVAGES OF FASHION.
The world moves, and while en
lightened nations are not slow to eman
cipate themselves from the chains of
ancient llu.dldoui, the living vv outlet
yet ohtains that men and women, intel
ligent and philosphical in all things
else pertaining to their general well
being, will voluntarily endure the
worst physical slavery that ever existed
on earth. If vice is a monster, then is
modern fashion a most uncompromising
tyrant, verily ruling its subjects with a
rod of iron.
In the personal deeoratio.i and wear
ing apparel of the day, a system of
idolatry and bigotry is hourly exempli
fied, most astounding to any careful and
thoughtful observer. Ridiculous as
many old styles would now appear,
it needs but the behest of some leading
votary of fashion to exhume them from
the annals of the past, reinstate them
in the domain of popular favor, and
make them the cynosure of admiring
vulgarity. The fashionable world has
yet to produce a Moses through whose
expert generalship we may yet be led
through the wilderness of abject folly
into the promised land of common
sense.
To improve upon Nature is the
avowed object of many of the expensive
fashions now in VOSrue among those
who belong to the higher walks of
life. No sooner does a young girl be
gin t ripen into womanhood than she
discovers the appalling fact that there
has been some miserable error commit
ted somewhere and by somebody, about
her model or complexion; and thence
forward it is the sole object of her lift
to correct the blunder that has been
made. Wholly ignorant of the first
principles of physiology or the laws of
health, she goes about giving new lines
to what she deems her misshapen form
She impudently questions the pre
priety of the beautiful exterior that the
great Architect has given her innocent
girlhood, and calls into rccpiisition the
villainous appliances of human ingenu
ity to convert her yielding body Inti
what in the end is nothing less than a
horrid deformity. By main strengtl
and awkwardness she girds her cx
pending chest with plates of steel, jam
her feet into abominable things that St.
Crispin never invented, apes the sav
ages by liedaubiiig her face with min
eral poisons, and scoots up her hair into
shapes of ineffable ugliness. Thus ac
coutered and stuck up, she persuades
herself into the silly belief that she is
really beautiful and attractive.
0 shades of our dear departed grand
mothers I come and deliver us from
this abomination of desolation.
Bat Hun is a gigantic ami far-reaching
topic, and in order to thoroughly
investigate it, we must do as great men
and books say! examine the subject
seriatim. We will begin, then, with
the cosmetic absurdity.
Few ladies know to what a fearful
extent mineral poisons enter as princi
pal ingredients into the composition of
their much-esteemed face powders. It
is a libel on the vegetable kingdom lo
say that there are no mineral product)
in the face powders so extensively sold
throughout the length and breadth of
our lair land.
Dr. llassell, of London, is piosocut.
1 4... ......
ins a work lor which mime gviiarw
tions of healty men and women will
rise up and call him blessed. It may
ie remembered bv our readers thai tins
. . LI. .
eminent chemist thorougiuy expose
sme of the principal food adulterations
several years ago. But the Doctor did
not weary In well doing, Homned al
his discoveries in regard to what unsus
pecttng people put into their stomachs
under the attractive guise ol 1000, M
was subsequently led to examine what
silly women put upon their faces. His
explorations in the latter field justifies
the omlnOUS assertion that there is tuny
as much pure ami unscrupulous Iniquity
practiced in the manufacture of the
arious cosmetics as m the preparation
of canned and many other kinds ol
food. The lovely " violet powder,"
for example, so extensively sold at per
funiery stores, was found to be a mo
pernicious hash of active mineral pot
sens. Even the popular "rice pow
der," which the careful mother applies
to the delicate skin of her infant, was
found to contain DO less than twenty
live per cent, of arsenic, and it w
one day stoutly protesting that her face
powder was purely a vegetable crea
tion. But when the sagacious physi
cian undertook to weigh a spoonful of
the powder against 11 similar iiuautitv
proved that several young babes
li.id
died from the ellects ol this powder
Every physician knows that a thin
delicate skin will lake up large ipianti
tics of arsenic through the process
absorption, and having thus gained ac
cess to the various tissues of the body,
its immediate effects arc very much the
same as if taken into the stomach.
The stylish wife of a physician was
of wheaten flour, the scales would not
balance, and he was obliged to treble
the quantity Of Hour before it was equal
weight to a spoonful of the powder.
Even though a face powder is en
tirely free from mineral poisons, it is
no less deleterious in one respect, at
ast. It is just as inslrunieulal in
filling up and clogging the pores of
the skin as the more objectionable com
pounds. Profi I lei wig assorts that a
stoppage of the pores of the skin in and
unit the face is the main cause of
pimples and other cutaneous eruptions,
But the latter gentleman has made
still more unpleasant revelation. In
one specimen of toilet powder prepared
by a leading perfumer of l'uris, he had
liscoverud the healthy eggs of the
DtttodtM JolticiioruM, an active little
parasite that delights extremely well to
burrow at the base of the irruptions
on the faces of pretty young Indict.
The Professor is of the opinon that
many of thu volatile oils used to per
fume cosmetics renders such compounds
a fit abode for those living germs which
so largely pervade our atmosphere.
Prof. Chon, another capcii of Berlin,
fully coincides in this interesting mat
ter, with the two eminent authorities
already referred to above. More of
this subject in a future issue.
LADIES ADULT TO MARKV.
In marrying, make your own match.
Do not marry any mini to get rid of
him, or to oblige him, or lo save him.
The man who would go to destruetioti
without you, will hetpiiteas likely with
you, and perhaps drag you along. Do
not marry in haste, lest you repent at
leisure ; do not marry for a home and a
living, when by taking care of your
health you can be strung enough to
earn your own living. Do not let
aunts, fathers or mothers sell you for
money or a xition into bondage, tears
and lifelong misery, which you alont
must endure. Do not place yourself
habitually in the society of any suitor
until you have decided the question of
marriage ; human walls are weak, and
people often become bewildered, and do
not know their error until it is too late.
Get away from their influence, settle
your head, and make up your mind
alone. A promise may lie made in a
moment or sympathy or half-delirious
ecstasy, which must he redeemed
through years of sorrow, toil and paiu,