CULT OF BEAUTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

CULT OF BEAUTY.

KILL THAT CAT. STORY OF BLACK PATCHES. (By A BEAUTY SPECIALIST.) ''She's the cattiest woman in this city!" I heard it said of a pretty woman the other day. I wonder how many women knowthat cattiness is one of. the greatest destroyers of charm? Think of all the catty women that you know—alas, how few of us escape entirely! But there are degrees of cattiness. Perhaps, when very young, cattiness is not observable in a woman, but anyone who encourages it in herself is headed for destruction.

First, there comes an expression in the eye, a hard and crafty look, then a single cynical curve to the lip, then an ugly droop at the corners of the mouth —quite a different look from that caused by ill health—and last, a

habitual sneer. Indulged in freely, cattiness .carves those lines deep into the face, and now it will require no psychologist to read them. (I hope no man will read this, but if he does, I will tell him that some men are catty, too, but their number is comparatively small, as the scratches that the world gives him soon cause him to cut out the cat.) Mind you, this is not a sermon. I have nothing to do with the moral aspect of the case, except as it affects charm. Cattiness encoiyaged will cut those charm-destroying lines deep into the soul. The vision is distorted. Seeing and speaking evil continually, makes the eye evil. So, dear women, if we would be charming let us kill the cat! I know too well how hard it is to do. Many and many a time I have thought the animal was dead and decently buried, and at a hint of cattiness in another woman, that cat has snarled and reared its back again, for, believe me. it lias nine lives! The cat is a dangerous animal—l refuse to call it she! Honesty forbids ray calling it he! Tt is deceit personi ficd. It iias not the courage to comt into the open, hut sneaks and crawls, Tt purrs and lifts a soft paw while destroying. So, please, let us I<III the cat for ourselves. Cattiness destroys the catty one. Those awful tell-tale lines, the furtive eye, the drooping mouth, the insincere voice, are murderers to charm. If we would be charming, >2t us kill the- cat.

Patches. Probably everyone knows that the patch, that bit of black silk gummed to the face, is one of the many charming hand-me-down ideas from our fashionable forbears. But everyone is not aware of just how it came to be the style in its own time, just as it is periodically the style in ours.

It was the custom in the 18th century to attempt to cure an aching tooth by means of little plasters or little patches of velvet or silk applied to the temples. They were also applied to cover smallpox marks, this disease being so prevalent at the time.

Now, when this patch was dark, you may be sure that it had its possibilities in her own art of beautification, for even if it alleviated the toothache, which is doubtful, it certainly enhanced to a gratifying degree the whiteness of the skin to which it clung.

Tt was due to this, that during the reign of Louis XIV., every woman carried in her pocket a silver box which contained a mirror, some rouge, and a supply of tiny black patches for fresh application as the desire arose. There were square patches, round patches, oval, and star-shaped patches, others shaped like a heart or a cross, while patches in the form of a bird or animals, not to mention the castle, the flower garden, or the coaeh-and-four, were to be had.

The position of the patch upon the face soon began to have its own particular message from the wearer to her admirers. For instance, placed near the eye, it indicated a warmly passionate, altogether acquiescent nature; on tlie forehead, majesty of bearing; near the mouth, the state of being just a flirt; near tile nose, it gave the impression of impertinence; at the corner of

the mouth it promised a kiss; while place ill tile centre of the cheek it indicated nobility of birth and of character, as well as intent to conduct oneself along those lines. Even in those days, however, the censor — that snake in the Eden of beauty—then, as to-day, had reared its ' head to glance disapprovingly about. In 1059 a bill in England forbade the use of rouge and even of patches, but it is said that it got little further than its passing, and was coolly ignored by the reigning belles of the day, in spite of the severe punishments prevalent in those days for offenders against the law. Health Hints. There is one very good reason why we cannot all be vegetarians, even if we would. In the first place, there are not enough vegetables in the world to feed everybody, and, in the second place, there is not enough land on which to grow enough vegetables. Vegetarianism is good enough for poets, artists and preachers, but the strenuous, virile, fighting, aggressive man, requires meat. Remember that it is not what you eat that does you good, but what you digest and assimilate. We daily require about five ounces of solid nitrates for the muscles, twenty to twenty-two ounces of carbonates for animal heat, two or three per cent of phosphates for the brain, bones and nerves, with waste and water to give bulk, and acids to eliminate etfote matter from the blood. There is no doubt about this, and everybody knows it, yet, how many of us remember it when we order our meals ? Most of us eat anything that comes along, regardless of our chemical needs, and . then wonder why we don't keep well. I ask every dyspeptic I see how much walking she does. I generally find it's very little, and she always has an abundance of excuses, such as: It's too cold, too warm, too damp, too windy, too early, too muddy, etc., etc. To all , such I always say: " "My good friends, you are right. Wait till you get to heaven, and you'll find conditions just to your liking, and you won't have lon» to wait."