A FOOLISH PRACTICE INDULGED IN BY GIRLS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1853, 27 May 1887, Page 32

A FOOLISH PRACTICE INDULGED IN BY GIRLS.

The evil that I shall touch upon is so widespread and of such long standing that downright plain * [speaking is not out of place. I refer to that foolish practice indulged in by so many girls of eating starch, rice, alum, &c. for reducing their plumpness and killing in their faces the beautiful bloom which nature has painted on their cheeks.

Madness is scarcely too strong a term to apply to such folly. If, for a moment, the girls in question thought of the wickedness of the thing they would not pursue such a dangerous course, for it is wicked to trifle with the most precious gift of life — good health, — and it .stands to reason that if it is natural for a girl to be plump and rosy, her precious health must suffer if she attempts to bring about that — no, not fairness, but bloodless— condition that 'is the result of vinegar drinking and eating the substances before mentioned.

There is as much difference between the natural clear fairness of the skin and the yellowy, sickly, ugly, bloodless appearance of the girls referred to as -there is between the delicate blooming whiteness of the lily and a sheet of parchment. I used the words "blooming whiteness" advisedly, because there is a bloom about a naturally fair face — a something that tells of health and life, a delicate flowerlike freshness so opposite to the dull corpse-like whiteness that tells of a bloodless condition, and which in an invalid is to be pitied, but in one who has brought about the condition herself is to be condemned. Look attentively at a naturally fair face. The lips are rosy, there are no dark circles round the eyes, just beneath the skin there is a suggestion of the life blood that excitement or exercise will call forth. An alum-eater, a vinegar-drinker has pale, unf empting lips, dark circles round the eyes, and is altogether sujrgestive of a corpse dressed up and taking a walk. There is nothing fascinating about that, gills ; nothing at all calculated to win for you the admiring glances you are desirous of gaining, The rosy, plump girl is a beauty beside you, possessing also the vivacity and sparkle and joyousness of health which is ever more irresistible than the dull apathy of ill health.

The manner in which the alum and vinegar yellow — not whiten — the face is this : The acid prevents the conversion into blood of the blood-producing elements of the food eaten. Starch and rice eaten in quantities also dry up the blood, and many a girl has brought on consumption, dyspepsia; and diseases of the stomach and kidneys from such senseless folly. Middle' age reached they will be fretful, dried up, ugly, old women— without the attraction of the healthful life, which •is to the ' appearance what * the

sungli'nt'isiip&i.the; water] the' !^lqom i upon the rdse/aficraTl r ifte moveriient and : music that is Nature's 'charm. The' great ' artist that painted the face of Nature ', made it aglow with colour-^nbt' a dead, leaden, uniform Hue — and there is as much comparison between a colourless face and one of rosy tints as there is between a day when everything is grey and one on which Nature's coloured flags .are flying, when sea and sky, wood and field are bright hued.> ' If girls, are too rosy and plump for comfort, there are, sensible means to take for minimising, the trouble— means, which are within the laws of health, and are sanctioned by reason, and to which no sensible person, could object. Some make^blood much more readily than otHers, and, some grow too stout for comfort-; 1 and whilel condemn in no measured terms the wickedness, of tampering with the health by sapping up the fountain of life, still there are healthful ways and means of reducing fat and.regulating the supply of blood by a judicious choice of diet. Some kinds of food are fat.producers, while others equally nourishing are not, and, a little knowledge on this subject would • set matters , right, without flinging away as a worthless gift the chief blessing of life. And if it is a matter, of complexion, a handful- of oatmeal instead of soap, a little milk instead of water will have a .prettier; effect, than all the alum eating in the'vjrprld.' There are so many mixtures in soap^calculated to roughen and cracken the skin, that I see no reason at all if oatmeal prevents this why it should not be used instead. ,An eminent doctor once recommended this— after drying the skin dusting it ovefr with the flour of the oatmeal. So long as men admire pretty faces girls will try to possess .them, and for those who have not naturally a soft, fine skin the application of such a , simple thing as milk is surely better than drinking vinegar or the use of cosmetics. .