ROMANCES OF OUR OWN TIMES.
♦ TRUE STORIES FROM REAL LIFE.
THE WOMAN WHO SOLD BEAUTY. Madame Rachel and her Wondrous " Secret."'
A person walking up New Bond street, London, in 1864 might have noticed over the front of a shop window in which was displayed a multitude oi" powders and soaps done iip into small, gaudily-coloured packets, the name of Madame Rachel.
It was a name known from one end of the kingdom to the other just then. If you opened a new&paper there was the advertisement staring you in the face of Madame Rachel, the lady with the wonderful " secret of eternal youth and beauty." For £1000 Madame Rachel undertook to make a woman "■beautiful for ever."'
In 1863 she issued a little pamphlet entitled " Beautiful for Ever," urging upon women the desirableness of the study of loveliness. " Lovely as the bright sunshine at morning's dawn ; beautiful as the dew-drops on the flowers; so beautiful," declared Madame Rachel, "is lovely woman." To preserve the beauty of those whose loveliii3ss was fading, to confer beauty on those who did not possess it, was Madame Rachel's mision !
The beauty she had to offer, however, was nitto be had without paying for it. At the end of the pamphlet was a list of articles Madame Rachel recommended to her patrons,, and which she alone could supply to them. Tin " Magnetic Rock Dew Water of Sahara "' was an infallible wrinkle-curer and restorer of hair to its original colour. Distilled in the shape of dew from the " Magnetic Rock " in the interior of the Sahara Desert, it was, Madame declared, brought on swift dromedaries to Morocco for the use of the Court, whence a few bottles forwarded to Madame Hachel were on sale at 2gs a. bottle. Water from the River Jordan was again very excellent in certain cases, and this precious liquid could be secured at the Bond streec shop at from 10gs,to 20#s a bottle. The "Royal Arabian Toilets of Beauty." as arranged by Madame Rachel for the Sultana of Turkey, fac-similes of which, Madame stated, were used by the Royal European brides, could be secured by anyone content to pay the moderate sum of from lOOgs to lOOOgs ! Thousands of women from all parts of Britain and the colonies began to patronise Madame Rachel. Soaps at a guinea a tablet : creams for the face at 2gs a yor : beauty pow ders at from 2gs to sgs a box were in large demand. The shop in Bond street became famous, and ladies slipped cautiously in and out to hold consultations with Madame Rachel in the private room into which they were ushered upon the best method of preserving their loveliness. In a few years Madame Rachel was so well off that she could afford a magnificently-fur-nished house in Maddox street at a rental of £250 a year, a brougham, and a box at the opera which cost her £400 for the season. was doing a good deal for Madame RacbaL Servant eirls from the country. al-
lured by the statements of Madame' s marvellous powers, came on hasty trips to London to consult her as to how to acquire charms which might ensure their captivating rich husbands. The means of these ctislolnero were generally limited. Madame did what she could for them with "beauty baths" at half a guinea each at the premises in Bond street, and such a supply of powders, soaps, hair-washes, and eye-beautifying ungents as their money would run to. " I called on Madame Rachel to see what she could give me for the rash on my face," a lady wrote to a friend. "If she has such wonderful powers of making other people lovely I cannot conceive why she does not exercise some of it upon herself. She is by no means an agreeable-looking woman, with a face which appears patched up with all kinds of stuff, and what looks lika dyed hair, an.l not at all nice. Very imposingly dressed, and very sharp in her way." ■Sharp she certainly was. Her real name was Sarah Rachel Levison, and her study of the beautiful had been the result of an accident. Many years back, stricken by fever, she had had to have her head shaved of its much-prized locks. Upon her recovery the lo is of her hair so tormented her that her medical man gave her a prescription, which lie said would cau&e it to grow once more. It did so. Madame asked the doctor for the recipe, and then conceived the idea of making money by advertising the wonderful hair pomade. The results were such that she devoted herself henceforward to the lucrative profession of 'making her fellow -beings lovely from the crowns of their heads to the soles of their feet — or, rather, of obtaining money under the pretence of doing so.
" I wish to see Madame Rachel !"
The words had surely never been uttered in that Bond street 'shop by any customer who promised Ivladamc a fiercer struggle to make beautiful.
The kdy "wvs tall and 'decidedly "scraggy." What her age might be it would have been hard to determine, but the wrinkles in her cheeks, in which the paint, lay in obtrusive furrows, were in strange contrast to the bright yellow of her hair. She had come to ask Madame to help her to loveliness. Madame Pvachel received her in her little private parlour and listened to her attentively.
"The treatment you need," said Madame, " will be lengthy. The five years you spent in India ■with your deceased husband have sorely taxed your complexion, but I can restore' it ! How much money can you afford to lay out upon it?" At that first interview Mrs Borradiile— such was the lady's name — spent £10. Her visits to Madame were frequent, and in j few days no less than £170 had passed into the hands of the purveyor of beauty. Mrs Borradaile worked hard." With ungents and powders, and dyes and washes, she sought loveliness, and would not be discouraged. She had no fewer than 100 of Machine's special "beauty baths." Mrs Borradaile possessed about. £5000. She appeared to have no friends and to be a woman ready to' believe anything. As Machine surveyed her customer her patched-up face grew more thoughtful and the sharp eyes keener in their glances. One day as Mrs Borradaile called at the shop she found Madame had extraordinary news for her.
" Did you see a gentleman," Madame asked, " going out of the shop as you entered the last time you were here? 1 '
Mrs Borradaile had,
"' He has fallen in love v/ith you," said Madame. "He is rich, and a lord. He is Lord Ranelagh. He lias asked me if you would like to be introduced to him with a vie"- of his paying his addresses to you?' Mrs Borradaile's head was in a whirl. She agiecd, and the next day won introduced to a person who represented himself as Lord Pt:aielagh. Once or twice afierwaicN ifrs Borradaile met the supposed nobleman who was so desperately iv love with her. After th-it M;\d>me Rachel, on her dupe calling, 7)i*oduced letters she declared she had received for her from him. They were signed "William," began "Mary, my own heart's love," or in some similar fashion, and the writer declared his unalterable love for the widow and his passionate de&ire that she would avail herself of Madame Rachel's wonderful powers so that she might grow iv beauty preparatory to becoming his wife. Charmed at the prospect of becoming Lady Ranelagh, Mrs Borradaile became more serious than ever in her pursuit of the beautiful. In a few months she lrnl paid to Madame Rachel no less than £5000. Every penny she possessed had gone to M.ndamc, who now declared that there was yet £50 owing to her. and threatened to send her to prison if the money was not paid In despair Mrs Borradaile consulted a solicitor. A few months later the Central Criminal Court was crowded by spectators anxious to hear the trial of as remarkable a prisoner as had surely ever stood even in that clock. All eyes were bent upon its entrance r.s the indue* took his place. A miserable, sicklooking woman, with painted cheeks and dyed hair, appeared in the dock with a wardress, who completely eclipsed her on the score of beauty. It was Madame Rachel. Tho purveyor of eternal loveliness tottered to a el-air.'into which she feebly £Jvnk. She was accused of having defrauded Mrs Borradaile of large sums of money, and five of the most eminent counsel of the day were engaged at immense expense to defend her. But all their efforts were in vainIt was proved that the Lord Ranelaph to whom Mrs Borradaile had been introduced was not tint person at all, but someone who personated him. Tho whole scheme was a fraud to induce Mrsjßorradaile to part with liar fortune. The trial resulted in Madame Rachel's kbours in the cause of beauty being interrupted by five years' imprisonment. But Madame Rachel was not to be easily deterred from victimising tliß public. _ In 1877 anyone passing down Puke street in the West End might have seen another shop window very similar in its contents to the old one in New' Bond street. Over the shop front ran the imposing inscription, " Arabian Perfumer to the Queen," and inside the shop was a lady dressed in rustling black silk, and with a complexion somewhat more wrinkled than it had been in the days of the Bondstreet shop. Madame Rachel was practising her old tricks once more, and once again customers were nocking to her. Amons them was a Youn.2 lady named
Pearse, a daughter of the great singer, Signor Mario. One day while walking through Duke street on her way to call upon a physician in Grosvenor square the tempting little packets in Madame Rachel's shop window attracted her notice, and she stepped inside to purchase some tooth powder. But Madame Pvachel could not think of allowing a visitor to depart with such a poor pun hase. She descanted long and eloquently on the virtues of her potions, washes, soaps, ponders, ointments, and baths, and told her how the most beautiful ladies in the land all owed their beauty to herself and her wonderful system of enamelling. " Why do you not apply thus system to yourself?" Mrs Pearse asked, eyeing the rather ancient-looking lady suspiciously. "How old do you think I am?" replied Madame Rachel.
Mrs Pear&e had no idea.
"I am 85," said Madame. " Eighly-five. "You did not think it," and Madamo laughed. "It is only my system which preserves me so wonderfully, I will guara-ntee that if you adopt my system now when you are young, you will, when you are 60, look as fresh and beautiful as you are to-day." As a matter of fact Madame was only about 50 years old, but 'Mrs Pear&e had perhaps never heard of a lady professing to a greater age than she really 'was. For 85 Madame was certainly excellently " preserved." ' What, would you charge me?" Mrs Pearse asked.
"A thousand guineas," replied Madame. " Look how beautiful Lady D is ! I enamelled her. She paid me £2000 for it." But Mrs Pearse protested that the amount wfs altogether out of the question. With some bottles of complexion washes and other stuff, for which she paid £20, Ehe quitted the shop. Certainly Madame Rachel's complexion wash had peculiar properties. Mrs Pearse used it several tinier with the effect that a rash broke out on her face, and in alarm she ,set off to see Madame about it. "You are in a terrible state," declared Madame, after examining her minutely and sadly. " Terrible ! All the pores of your sk'n are open, and unless you place yourself in my hands and let me see to you, you will be disfigured for life."
Mrs 3'ear&e wss horror-stricken. " I must see a doctor," she cried. "A doctor!'' exclaimed Madame Rachel contemptuously. "Why they bring their patients to me to be cured. I have studied the skin for 30 years. Unless you wish to be disfigured you must put yourself in my luHids."
"And what will you charge me?" cried Ivh's Peirse appealingly.
' As you are Signor 'Mario's daughter and T know so many of your friends, I will finish you for £500," declared Madame. " It is impossible,"' cried her victim.
Madame sighed
"Well,"' she s.iid, "you will be sorry for it all your life, and what a sad affliction for a young lady! Let water or cold cream come near that rash, and "' she shuddered at the thought. "As a friend,'" she said at last " I Avil] take £5200," t'nd Mrs Pearse accepted the generous offer.
Ii was a hard task, however, for her to find the money, f>nd she hud to hand some jewellery to Madame Rachel as security for port of it. At last Mr Pearse learnt all about what had happened. He called on Madame Rachel, demanding his wife's jewellery and letters back, and, on her refusing to part wilh them, he put the matter into the hands of his solicitor, Mr (now Sir) George Lewis.
Shortly afterwards Madame Bachel once again mode her appearance in the dock at the Old Bailey, charged with obtaining Mrs Pear?.e'rf jcVellery and money by false pretences. There was 'little doubt about her Some lemains of the precious facewash supplied to llvs Pe?rsc were submitted to an anylist, and were found to contain hydiochloric acid in such quantities as would ensure a ra&h resulting from its use. When the ra&h appeared, then came Madame's opportunity "to terrify her victim into placing herself entirely in her hands by declarations that unless she did so she would undoubtedly be disfigured for life. Her story about her having enamelled Lady D was proved to be all nonsense. Her ladyship's maid went into the box, and swore that her ladyship was totally unacquainted with Madame Rachel, and was content to use simple soap and water us the sole preservative of her wonderful beauty.
Madame aams a clever plotter, and she well deserved the fresh sentence she received of five years' penal servitude. They were the only two cases ever brought against this cruel and clever criminal, but Madeline Rachel's victims were to be numbered not by two? and threes, but by thousands of credulous women, whom she trapped by her mendacious advertisements and then robbed until she could extort no more. There vi'cie thousands of women in Great Britain who sorely rued the day when their Hearts first, throbbed high with' delight at the prospect of becoming "beautiful for ever."— J3y A. 0. Tidbits, in Cassell's Saturday Journal.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18980818.2.236
Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 46
Word Count
2,453ROMANCES OF OUR OWN TIMES. Otago Witness, Issue 2320, 18 August 1898, Page 46
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