AN EARLY COSMETICIAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 61, 12 March 1936, Page 19

AN EARLY COSMETICIAN

INGLORIOUS MASQUERADER

"MADAME RACHEL'S BATH"

Who is there among us that has not heard about Madame Rachel, the great French tragedienne? inquires Professor R. D. Nauta in the "Cape Times." Yea, how many among us, but then only the aged ones,1 have even known her in the time ox her glory, have seen and heard and admired her on the stage of the Theatre Francais, in her incomparable impersonations .of the various heroines of French classical tragedy?

Mme. Rachel, on whose world-wide fame, tragedy stars of yesteryear, like Mile. Agar and Sarah Bernhardt, never threw even the shade of a shadow? This exordium looks as if I was going to tell something about the great French dramatic artist. Although I should love to, I am not, but I wish to say a few words about another, and different, Madame Rachel, a notorious Mme. Rachel who, at one time, filled the English women's world with the echo of her obnoxious celebrity, but the theatre of whose activities did not exceed the boundaries of London. I have a feeling that only few of our readers ever heard of this, to put it mildly, inglorious masquerader, but I venture to think that an eccentric career like hers well deserves to, fill a,,paragraph in the annals of human gullibility and self-delusion. NEVER LEARNED TO WRITE. Sarah Rachel Russel was the daughter of a man who, in his time, achieved some success, as a humorist. She was born in London in 1806, and must have received a most primitive education, since she never .learned to write well enough even to sign her name. Her first marriage was with a chemist shop assistant at Manchester. Some time later, probably then a widow, she turned up in London, opened a fried fish shop and married a sailor, who perished at sea in a shipwreck. Then, feeling the need of renewed, conjugal bliss, she was united m holy wedlock with one Leverson, who lived in the neighbourhood of King's College Hospital. Falling a victim to typhoid fever, she was treated by on* '- of the physicians of this .nearby hospital. At her recovery she was horrified to see that she had lost her' beautiful gold blonde head of hair, of which she was so proud The doctor gave her a hair wash which in due time made it grow again and recover all its pristine beauty. This successful cure gave her a brainwave. By dint of coaxing, she induced the friendly medico to give her the prescription of this potent lotion and on the day she got it she started upon her career as charlatan. Assuming the name of Madame Rachel, she boldly rented in 1860 in New Bond Street a shop, where she inaugurated the sale of all sorts of beauty preparations: face, hair, mouth washes, lotions, powders, creams, tintings, and opened a beauty parlour, where she started a practice as expert emailleuse. A LITERARY CURIOSITY. In spite of tremendous "face," luck went against her and in 186? she found herself in the bankruptcy court. Undaunted by the slights of outrageous fortune, she was "in business" again by 1863 and published a pamphlet entitled "Beautiful for Ever," by Madame' Rachel, 47a New Bond Street. >This :booklet is a true literary curiosity,; and ,was probably written by one of her daughters. The opening chapter is highfalutin meed of praise of the beauty of the soul, from which subject, drop by drop, the author slides down to the beauties of the body. She pretends to be able ,to enamel the face; i.e., to coyer it over with a new, smooth' skin of lovely complexion; she does not encompass this by the application of waxy cosmetics but by the marvellous compound she calls "The Arabian Bath," prepared with rectified extracts of flowers and rare herbs. She urges all ladies that are past the tender bloom of youth to see her about special treatment;* to avail themselves of the unique and infallible cure of rejuvenation,. and to have their beauty blemishes plainlessly obliterated. Her. list of preparations contains over 60 items, the least expensive of which is one guinea. They are arranged unHer the following headings: Face, mouth, eye washes (nothing new; for, old Horace already never travelled without his "Collyrium" or

eye salve!), toothpowder, gargles, creams, and "Royal Arabian soaps and scents." The most popular of these doubtful products was the "Magnetic rockdew water from the Sahara," two guineas the bottle. The monopoly ol •collecting this precious water she pretended to have bought at a high price of the Moroccan Government. It turned grey hair into rayen black, auburn or ginger; removed all wrinkles, lines, blotches, - pimples, rugosities, and gave the skin the rosy freshness of a schoolgirl complexion. Further she offered Indian kohl for the eyes; Arabian aromatic for foul breath; Circassian special gold blonde hair wash; Royal Arabian cold cream and (don't be shocked!) Royal Bride bath soap for body odours. Each of these two guineas. Real Egyptian kohl cost three guineas; Jordan water from ten to twenty guineas, a bottle, and Venus Toilet, whatever that was, also twenty guineas! £84,000 FOR TREATMENT! By dint of judicious puffing and unhampered by ruthless competition, Madame's business grew, in course of time, to be an amply-paying affair, and she became a confirmed climber. She. went to live in a gorgeouslyfurnished flat and had, of course, her private box in the opera house, the

rent of which was £400 per annum, if you please. But alas, by grasping too much she came to grief. She persuaded a certain lady, one Mrs. Borradaile, to take her complete rejuvenating and beautifying treatment, so that she might become fit for marriage with an, English nobleman, Lord Ranelagh. The collective fees for this unique course amounted to £84,000! As cash payment would involve about the whole of the lady's fortune, her bitterly-disgusted brother stepped .in, lodged a complaint for extortion, and Madame was sentenced to five years of penal servitude. This court case got rumoured far and wide abroad to such an extent that one of the springs on the : banks of Lake Rotorua in New Zealand is nowadays even known by the name of Madame Rachel's Bath! , Having done her time, she almost forthwith opened a shop once more and over the door she hung the impudently flaunting caption, "Arabian Perfumer to the Queen." At the time, the glory of the great actress was still rife all over the world and especially among the class of ladies whom Madame wanted to capture as her customers. She had a brain-wave again ■• and placed, on a pedestal in her studio a beautiful waxwork bust of her namesake, romancing abroad brazenfaced that she was a cousin of hers! Well, after all this one is apt to think that her customers must need-have asked her sometimes why she did not take the trouble of rejuvenating and beautifying herself. , In such cases, she used to give her age as 87, although she was barely 60; and having been a good.looker all her life, this answer usually satisfied inquisitive clients. Her last appearance in the dock was due to a blunder, which was really "infra.dig" for a woman of her ingenuity. One Mrs. Pearce'wished to take a treatment and it.was stipulated that the fee should be £ 50; DEMANDED JEWELLERY. As a pledge, Madame demanded from this lady jewellery to quite a considerable value, and what did she do? She at once went to the shop with three gilt brVls and pawned the lot! Mr. Pearce, who evidently knew his wife, found this Out and-haled her before the Magistrate, who found her guilty. This court case also brought to light the various poisonous : and utterly worthless ingredients of her expensive beauty preparations: lead, muriatic acid, fuller's earth, branwater, pollen, ethereal oils appeared to be among the component elements.

After her trial and previous life's fitful fever, her health broke down, and she died in Woking Prison, October 2, 1880. In Britain she is the prototype of all subsequent representatives of the beauty preparations trade.