A “ SENSIBLE ” BEAUTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3509, 14 June 1921, Page 49

A “ SENSIBLE ” BEAUTY.

“Beauty,” said Elizabeth, “is a talent. Cultivate it, and it increases tenfold; bury it in a napkin, and it dies. In other words,** she added tor tlie benefit of her puzzled little friend, “if you don’t take care of your looks, you soon won't have any left to take care of.” Jhe Bride looked sad. She was a prrt ty little thing, very dependent on her colouring for her charm. In the strong light her 6inall face was revealed as being a shade too powdered, the eyelashes darkened artificially; the soft hair a trifle too obviously “waved.” Her strong-minded friend Elizabeth sat witli the late afternoon sun pouring over her face and hair, and revealing no flaw in her exquisite skin. Her sober di ess was a foil to the whiteness of her neek anil tho smooth forehead, from which the golden hair rippled back. Dark eyebrows and long curling lashes emphasised the clearness °1 her She was good to look at. Yet Elizabeth was apparently scornful of her own good looks, cared little about pretty frocks, and ran a Government Department with the greatest efficiency and common sense. ‘‘Elizabeth,” said the Bride, “it's all very well for you to be so sneering about powder and things, but you’ve got a perfect skirt and gorgeous hair. I have to make up a bit.” “M.v dear child,” said Elizabeth, “of Course I take reasonable cure of my looks, just as I wash rnv hands anil shine my shoes. You can’t leave everything to nature; we all start well enough—look at. babies’ skins —but we don’t wear well. All this powder has a good enough effect —for a time— but. sooner or later your skin gets coarse and there’s no biding it.” “J wish,” said the Bride, .“that instead of lecturing you would toll me what to do. You say ‘take care i f your looks’ and ‘don’t powder,’ but what shall T do?” “Use your common sense.” said Elizabeth. “If you thought deeply, you would soon see that making a mask of cream and powder over your fare blocks up the pores and makes your skin rough and spotty. What you want is to peel off the soiled outer skin and give tile new one underneath a chance to show itself. Get some ordinary mercolised wax from your chemist, rub it on at night, and wash it off with good soap and water in the morning! Or if you are in a hurry, wash your face first, and before it is quite dry, rub the wax on, and dry your face with a towel. Either of these processes absorbs the old soiled outer skin and leaves the new clean complexion underneath revealed in all its beauty.” “But.” objected the Bride, “my nose gels so shiny. I must powder.” “There are other ways of preventing a shiny nose,” said Elizabeth, “my secret is a homely one. Just get some cleniinite, dissolve it in water, and use it as a lotion for your face and neek. It wants to be rubbed into the skin until it is quite dry, and then it leaves a nice, even hloom, and prevents all ‘shininess.’ Besides it doesn't look a bit like ‘make-up.’ it just gives your face a kind of peach-like bloom which is a distinct asset.” “I suppose,” said the Bride, “there is no home-made substitute for rouge, is there? Because, you know, i look dreadful when I’m pale.” Elizabeth thought a minute. “I don’t know why powdered colliandum wouldn’t be an excellent thing. It is a soft dull pink, and it tends to deepen a little in a warm room. I should be inclined to try that. Of course, prolactum is the only thing for keeping your lips smooth and healthily red. You know that of course.”

“One more problem,” said the Bride, “before 1 married, 1 used to put my hair in curlers. Now 1 leave it loose at night, because Jack likes to see it down, and of course I have to wave it with tongs nearly every day. I’m so worried because all tho colour’s going—l actually found some grey hairs the other day. Shall I use henna or what to make it bright again?” “Henna, of course not.” said the emphatic Elizabeth, “you don't want to dye your hair at twenty-two —or at sixtv-two if you're sensible. You must get some tarnmalita at once —plain, ordinary tamnialite, and make it tip yourself witli hay rum. That will soon bring back the lost colour. Do you shampoo with stallax? Oh, but. vou should ! That makes your hair so silky and bright. Of course vou must drop waving your hair with hot irons. It's suicide for your hair—makes it dry up and fall out.” "But, Elizabeth. triy hair is quite straight.” moaned the Bride. “That's all right.” smiled Elizabeth, “all you want is sibneiuie. Just comb your hair clown the way you want it to go. damp it a little with silmerine. put a slide or two in. and fluff your hair up on each side of the slide. In the morning you will find a nice kink where the slide was. Your hair' ought to look naturally saw, not a series of hard furrows like a ploughed field. You won’t need to put the slides in more than once or twice a week. . You’ll find that vour hair, with a little patience and perseverance, will develop a wave of its own, so that after your stallax shampoo, if you comb it before it's quite drv, the wave will return of its own accord. Two ounces of silmerine will la-t you for at least six months. Besides, you will be superior to the coal shortage, for if is criminal waste of gas to use it to heat tongs. Enough of your looks! Let's pass to brighter subjects.” The Bride smiled. “Silmerine—silmerine —T won't forget, that. All right, talk away, Elizabeth.”

I !'*!•■ ■ .-hidden, with the object of conserving supplies. The price oi bread and i.,;i- ; things La.- already risen in .a mi. places, and if the strike continues everything will rise in price. There is a limit to toleration, where sanity refuses to concede to unreason, and the loyal citizen has about leached that limit. The miners will do well not to let this trouble recur —the public patience is exhausted. April 16. What an amazing week ! A week of intense strain to the nation and to the Government only equalled by the days

preceding the war! Once again we were waiting for the verdict which would consign the nation to the bondage of injustice or reject tyranny. This time the battla to be fought was on our own sod agains a section of our own household. Would the Prime Minister yield to the miners’ demand for a Government subsidy to their wages, and commit the country to an annual payment of one hundred millions, or suffer the consequences of a refusal? Not since 1914 has the country been so earnestly behind the Government to stand firm and to suffer the consequences of that firmness. As the days passed the volunteers were more and more. The parks became more and more like armed camiis. Business “marked time” while negotiations proceeded— Cabinet meetings, meetings of Parliament, meetings of railway men, meetings of transport workers, meetings of miners, argued and remet and re-considercd. the Government absolutely refused to grant the . t bsidy now or ever. It was useless to undertake, to guarantee money that is not in existence to pay. The miners’ refused to accept anything else, i <>e vail way men and transport workers dethat they must support the miners, "heir s'rike was announced for Friday night, anil from all quarters people abandoned their business and travelled to their biSMs. The volunteer transport service arrangements were completed, and final instructions were given. Thousands of k.■•employed men were ready to fill vacated nkicea —glad of the chaiu-e. engineers, electricians, drivers of engines, drivers of horses, every class of skilled and unskilled worker anticipated the hour of 10 p.m. on Friday. On Thursday night the Prime Minister and his colleagues at Downing street were still at work. At 2 a.m. on Friday Downing street was blocked with motor care. Negotiations were still pro ceeding. The mine owners offered to forego any profits o- the mines to swell the miners’ wages. This was refused. They wanted the subsidy and the pooling of mines, so that the poor and badly-man-aged mines could nap the benefit of the well-worked mines in other places. The Government offered a grant or a loan to tide the rn< r over the present. They refused. and still demanded the moon Ail day long were comings and goings in Downing street. The weary Prime Minister presided at meetings at No. 10 and made speeches in the House. Comiterrnessages flew back and forth from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. Mr Hodges in the House of Commons was pinned down to the fact that his object as the miners’ leader was not the wages of the men, but pooling. He stated his willingness to consider a temporary arrangement of wages, apart from the national pooling. The F veiling N ews sums it as follows :- ‘‘The Prime Minister promised to bring miners and mine-owners together. How he procecdc-d is common knowledge. How lie waited is common knowledge also. While he waited at the Board of Trade an intense drama was proceeding at the miners’ headquarters. It de serves the pen of a playwright to record. Mr Hodges told his executive what ho

! had done and what he had said the night | before. A majority of the executive I felt he had gone too far. They told him Iso bluntly. They expressed their fears ! that the rank an.fi file would not stand for ! it. Mr Hodges pleaded and reasoned. His pale, ascetic face and figure gave the impression of a hero in a Greek play — a hero lighting against the destinies. He was outvoted, but only by the bare margin of two. And he proffered his resignation. Then the executive began to plead with him. At this stage the representative of the other branches of tho Triple Alliance appeared on the scene and swiftly learned what had happened. They carried the tidings to Unity House. The news created a fresh and dramatic situation. ‘ If,’ said the parliament of the Triple Alliance, ' the Miners’ Executive overthrow their own secretary and leader when he makes a proposal which seems to us wise, a proposal made to M.P.’s at the Bar of the House, as it were, we must review our position. The circumstances under which our pledge of support was given are altered.’ They decided, in fact, and by a considerable majority, to call off the sympathetic strike.” Then Mr Thomas, leader of the railwaymen, made an entry of the House of Commons in a tense hour of the afternoon, and announced that the railway strike was “off” ; that, as the miners would not consider any of the offers made, they could not support them. And so the news went forth—“No railway strike.” It is the heaviest blow that has fallen on the Labour movement within memory, says the Herald, and tho Triple Alliance is a badly-shaken reed. If any good at all can come of it it will be to convince Labour that the same spirit which built up the Empire, which at all times and in all places has faced and fought at whatever sacrifice and threat of an enemy, will rise and fight the enemies of our household who hold a gun at the nation’s head. Some other way will have to be found to secure the lights of Labour instead of these big combines against the employer, otherwise apital, which breed anarchy and disorder and misery, or in a little while there will be no capital c or the employer to lose and the employee to gain. Production alone produces wealth. The whole spirit is wrong. This infliction of evil and suffering upon the millions that a few mav benefit is a reversion of the moral order, and holds the essence of failure in itself. Only the brutal man can see his children starve for his own obstinaev and will to dominate. And, says the chairman of the Labour party, it was the human element, human considerations which caused the vast number of railwaymen and transport workers to refuse to take part at the eleventh hour in the strike. “Black Fridav,” as the miners nail April 15. when the big combine fell to pieces, has not ended the coal dispute. Already the miners’ funds are all but exhausted, and the pinch of want is 'eit in many districts. Nor are the miners' wives suffering alone. Extraordinary scenes were witnessed in London to-day. Long queues of people waiting in turn to buv deal, and long before the need could be ?.upolled bv the coal merchants, the supply failed, and disappointed men, women, and children turned to face th bitter cold without the prospect of a Sunday fire.