THE SMASHING CULT

Evening Star, Issue 19710, 10 November 1927, Page 14

THE SMASHING CULT

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR SHIMS Tho bronzed young man lias always been 'tho envy of las fellows and tho admiration oi tho ladies. In countries like England,, where tho sight of the sun is as rare and refreshing as a flapper’s blush, skin lotions warranted to produce the admired bronze tint in one bottle only have been placed at the disposal of- the young manhood of the country by chemists jealous of their nation's reputation for looks. The young Australian, more fortunate in the matter of sunshine, has no need of such adventitious aids (says a writer in the Melbourne ‘Age’). Ho need only bie him to the beaches and invoke tho aid of the actinic rays that arc so abundant during the summer months. Towards tho end of summer his metamorphosis is complete. His skin is dark, shiny, and tough enough to turn a spear. In color he could match the inhabitants of thoso fortunate South Sea isles where really well-dressed men never -wear more than a doormat, a hisbiscus flower, and a nose ring. The.» same strange yearning for a darker shin manifests itself in other countries of Northern Europe. The Germans are throwing clothes and convention to the winds. Wrapped in deep Teutonic thought, and little else, they ore acquirinig health and muscles bynumbers. The Letts of Lithuania and the Latts of Latvia are likewise helping to create a slump in underwear and overcoats. Stripped to tho buff, athletic Swedes and Norwegians are doing Swedish drill, in defiance of winds that blow chill from the Poles. Finnish laundries are crying “finish,” for in the summer months there is nothing to launder. High in the snows of the Swiss Alps there is a largo school whore deformed and diseased children play around almost nude, and so win back to health and strength. Even from Russia, that paradise of the parasite, comes a report that during tho last floods of the Neva many 7 Russians took cold baths. But as these would seem to have been involuntary wo must not assume that the moujik has yet decided to air, or even irrigate; his skin. Although woman has been in the forefront of the rcvolt'against clothes, she bas_ never let the ultra-violet rays have their way with her. She still contrives to hide a powder puff in her abbreviated garments. The tint she aims at achieving in her firm cheek appears to be a healthy glow, such as one associates with Diana (Manners, and of the Ephesians), Grace Nightingale, Queen Elizabeth, and Gertrude Eclorle. There have been no bloodless faces and blueveined bands since swooning failed to achieve a marital interest in the arms of the youngman swooned into; and it was found simpler to ask for a spot than to get it by tho more roundabout wayof throwing a fit of hysterics. Discretion is now the better part of pallor. In complexions, as in clothes, woman is swayed by the fashions. Since the publication of a certain book there has been a perceptible trend in some quarters towards blondness. Heavy sales of H 202 pro reported from America. Fortunately our girls uso hydrogen peroxide exclusively for cleaning the teeth. On tho -whole, it cannot bo gainsaid that woman is doing her bit to add to the increasing brownness of the race. The number of girls who go down to tho sea in slips and stay there for hours proves that.

While this is going on, the American negro is frantically buying np nostrums that claim to bleach his skin, and lotions that are supposed to take the kink out of his hair. Ho hates to he jet black more than the white man batesto be dead white. At the same time it would not be correct to say that ho would sooner bo a dead white than a live black. In countries like Egypt the -well-to-do merchant is carrying on the battle against sunburn as waged by his ancestors since the time of Tut. Ho refuses to walk a step in the beat of the sun unless seated on tho back of a donkey and protected by an umbrella as big as a bell tent. The Indian nabob has no uso at all for the ultra-violet rays. It would be a vain thing to ask him to go out in heat that would fairly make your eyebrows crawl and start chucking double somersaults for the sake of his health. Tho joy of running five miles at noontide on the balls _of tho feet, and taking deep breaths in a bazaar rendered fragrant by a multitude of coolies, camels, and cesspools, would not touch his heathen soul. He prefers localised corEulence, 40 winks, and a punkah to ealth and vigor bought at such a price. Ones it was the Oriental who was the sun worshipper. Now it is the German who reverently discards his Oxford bags and makes his obeisance to tho sun god by means of two dozen doubleknee bends, followed by sideways twisting, with arras raising and deep breathing.

What does it all mean? Is it an effort of Nature to achieve a levelling up of color among tho races of the world? ' Shall we end by all being yellow or piebald ? It is not likely. The movement in North Europe is not exactly widespread, but is confined largely to athletes, school children, and physical culturists. It may prove to be only a passing craze—part of the great physical culture, sport, and out-of-door movement that has sprung up since tho armistice, and that would appear to be a natural swing back after the nerveracking and debilitating Great War. Moreover, the sun in thoso latitudes is weak and vacillating; its kiss no more than a gentle brushing of tho lips. But what of Australia, where it is a playful bite that will tear strips of skin a foot long from the body of the incautious basker? The immunity conferred by a colfee-colored pelt is only obtained by many hours of exposure. The interesting point about it is that a trace of pronounced sunburn will linger years after sun bathing has been discontinued. After 10 or 15 years of continuous summer sun bathing a person acquires a definitely darker color, with correspondingly increased powers of resistance to light and heat. The chil-, dren of such persons will inherit this acquired resistance and this darker tint. It will only he slight, of course, but that it is going on cannot bo doubted. We are already browner of skin ,_ darker of hair and eye than the natives of Great Britain. We stand heat better. Much seems to depend on clothes. Races which completely clothe the body are never “colored.” Races which do not, even in temperate zones like North America, have dark-pigmented skins Many a Rersian is pale, many a Tibetan living amongst almost perpetual snows is black. The Persian wears voluminous clothes, and the Tibetan, strangely enough, trusts in his skin and two or three overlays of natural dirt to beep out the cold. It makes one wonder, though, what changes the years will bring to the inhabitants of Queensland, where men work in strong light and sunshine clad above the waist only in singlets, which often are penetrable by tho sun’s rays.