Chapter I: Preface

By means of these scattered chapters the writer has come to know women better--their traditions, desires, and delights. If through these pages women should know themselves and what they may become in regard and temper for their lovers, friends, children, and their own sakes, it will well reward the pleasant labor which has already met such kind appreciation. Begun by chance, to make an agreeable article or two for _Harper’s Bazar_, the “Ugly-Girl Papers” were continued by request, and have brought the writer into friendly bearings with many of the readers of the _Bazar_. To their questions and hints these chapters owe more of their value than appears on the surface; and the little book goes out hoping to meet, if not new friends, at least some old ones.

The science of the toilet is well-nigh as delicate as that of medicine; and as no prescription has yet proved a specific for disease, no recipe can reach all cases of complexion. I could wish for this book the good-will and consideration of physicians, under whose advice it may be hoped its suggestions will approve themselves of wide service.

S. D. P.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Woman’s Business to be Beautiful.--How to Acquire a Clear
Complexion.--Regimen for Purity of the Blood.--Carbonate
of Ammonia and Powdered Charcoal.--Stippled Skins.--Face
Masks.--Oily Complexions.--Irritations of the
Skin.--Lettuce as a Cosmetic.--Cooling
Drinks.--Sun-Baths.--Bread and Molasses Page 9

CHAPTER II.

Care of the Hair.--Children’s Hair.--When to Cut it.--Ammonia
Washes.--Glycerine and Ammonia.--Pomades.--How to Brush the
Hair.--Cutting the Ends.--German Method of Treating the
Hair.--Southernwood Pomade.--Hair-Dyes.--Dyeing the Eyebrows
and Eyelashes.--Superfluous Hair.--Depilatories.--Washes for
the Eyelashes and Eyebrows 22

CHAPTER III.

Elegance of Manner.--Grace of the Latin Races.--The
Secret of Grace.--Gliding Movement.--Calisthenics.--Erectness
of Figure.--Shoulder Braces.--How to Acquire Sloping
Shoulders.--Care of the Feet.--The Art of Walking.--Picturesque
Carriage of Southern Women 35

CHAPTER IV.

N. P. Willis as a Critic of Beauty.--The Perfume of the
Presence.--Charm of Good Circulation.--Chills are Incipient
Congestion.--Paper Clothing.--Luxuries of the Bath.--A
Substitute for Sea-Baths.--To Secure Fragrant Breath.--Delicate
Dentifrices.--Fine Cologne.--A List of Fragrance 48

CHAPTER V.

Morals of Paint and Powder.--Antique Toilet Arts.--Washington
Ladies.--Making Up the Face.--Whitening the Arms.--Tints of
Rouge.--To Make French Rouge.--Milk of Roses.--Greuze
Tints.--Coarse Complexions Caused by Powder.--Color for the
Lips.--Crystal and Gold Hair Powder.--Dyeing Blonde Wigs.--To
Darken the Hair.--Champagne and Black-Walnut Bark.--Doom of the
Complexion Artist 59

CHAPTER VI.

Récamier’s Training.--Diana of Poitiers’ Bath.--High Beauty of
Maturity.--The Worth of Beauty.--George Eliot on
Complexions.--Dr. Cazenave.--Barley Paste for the
Face.--Prescriptions of the Roman Ladies.--To Remove
Pimples.--Cascarilla Wash.--Varnish for Wrinkles.--Acetic Acid
for Comedones.--To Remove Mask.--Lady Mary Montagu.--Habit of
Italian Ladies.--Wash of Vitriol 70

CHAPTER VII.

Shining Pallor.--Lustrous Faces.--Golden Freckles.--Tiger-Lily
Spots.--Sun Photographs.--Nitre Removes Freckles.--Old English
Prescription.--For Yachting.--Almond-Oil.--Buttermilk as a
Cosmetic.--Rosemary and Glycerine.--Lotion for Prickly
Heat.--For Musquitoes.--Protecting Hair from Sea
Air.--Fashionable Gray Hair.--Dark Eyes and Silver Hair.--To
Restore Dark Hair.--Bandoline.--Cold Cream.--Almond Pomade.--For
Skin Diseases.--Sulphurous Acid 77

CHAPTER VIII.

Service of Beauty.--Not for Vanity, but Perfection.--Eyebrows
of Petrarch’s Laura.--Fashionable Baths.--Trimming the
Eyelashes.--Luxury of the Toilet.--Its Magnetic Influence.--A
Safe Stimulant.--Amateurs of the Toilet.--Cosmetic Gloves.--To
Refine the Skin of the Shoulders and Arms.--Sulphate of Quinine
for the Hair.--For the Eyebrows and Eyelashes.--A Harmless
Dye.--To Remove Sallowness.--A Hint for Stout People.--Perfumed
Bathing-powder 86

CHAPTER IX.

Hope for Homely People.--Two Vital Charms.--The Way to
Live.--Sunrise and Open Air.--Bleached by the Dawn.--Live at
Sunny Windows.--In Balconies and Parks.--Christiana’s
Breakfast.--Brown Steak and Good-humor.--True Bread.--Device
for Stiff Shoulders.--Corsets and Girdles.--The Latter more
Needed.--How to be Pleased with One’s Self 95

CHAPTER X.

The Bonniest Kate in Christendom.--A Word to Mothers and
Aunts.--Different Vanities.--The Sorrows of Ugly
Women.--Recipes of an Ancient Beauty.--Sand Wash.--Color for
the Nails.--Embrocation for the Hands.--Soap to Bleach the
Arms.--Freckle Lotions.--Artistic Enthusiasm at the Toilet 108

CHAPTER XI.

A Dark Potion.--Olive-oil and Tar for the Face.--Olive-tar for
Inhalation.--Carbolic Lotion for Pimples.--Cure for Musquito
Bites.--Pale Blondes.--A French Marquise.--Deepening Colors by
Sunlight.--Seductive Cosmetics.--Nose-machine.--Finger Thimbles 117

CHAPTER XII.

Removal of Superfluous Hair.--Effects of High Living.--Work of
Typhoid Fever.--Roman Tweezers.--Lola Montez’s Recipes.--Paste
of Wood-ashes.--Bleaching Arms with Chloride.--Cautions about
Depilatories.--Public Baths.--Improving Complexions by the
Sulphur Vapor-bath.--How Arabian Women Perfume
Themselves.--Profuse Hair, Sign of Nature’s Bounty 125

CHAPTER XIII.

Madame Celnart’s Works of the Toilet.--Literature of
Beauty.--Cares of the Toilet.--Arts of Coiffure and
Lacing.--How to Hold a Needle Gracefully.--Iris Powder for
Tresses.--Arts of Italian Women.--Depilatory used in
Harems.--Spirit of Pyrêtre.--Herbs used by Greek
Women.--Mexican Pomade.--Dusky Perfumed Marbles.--Lost
Perfumes.--Sultanas’ Lotion.--Brilliant Paste for Neck and
Arms.--Baking Enamel 134

CHAPTER XIV.

The Last of the Rose.--Weighing in the Balances.--To Love and to
be Loved.--The Enigma of Love.--Its Power over the Lot of
Men.--Inspiration in the Looks.--The Land of Spring.--The
Duchess of Devonshire.--Women at and after Thirty.--Training of
Emotion.--Warming the Voice.--Crow’s-feet at the
Opera.--Bohemian Arsenic Waters.--Recipe from Madame
Vestris.--Milk of Roses.--Sweet-oils.--Opera-dancers’
Prescription for Restoring Suppleness 146

CHAPTER XV.

The Fearful Malady of which no one Dies.--_Esprit
Odontalgique._--Gray Pastilles.--Important to Smokers.--Mouth
Perfumes.--Care of the Breath.--Directions for
Bathing.--Perfumes for the Bath.--Bazin’s _Pâte_.--Quality of
Soaps.--Bathing and Anointing the Feet.--Nicety of
Stockings.--Delicate Shoe Linings.--Feet of Pauline Bonaparte 155

CHAPTER XVI.

“The Leaves are Full of Joy.”--Nobility of the Body.--Its
Possibilities.--Brain and Heart Dependent on it.--Physical
Culture Imperative in America.--Our Contempt of Health.--Easier
to be Magnificent than Clean.--Distilled Water for Every
Use.--Substitute for Stills.--Vapor and Sulphur Baths.--Bran
Baths.--Oatmeal for the Hands.--Frequency of Baths.--Remedies
for Hepatic Spots 165

CHAPTER XVII.

The Banting System.--A Quaint Author.--Trials of
Corpulency.--Result of Living on Sixpence a Day.--Indifference
of Doctors.--A Wise Surgeon.--Relation of Glucose to
Obesity.--Diet for Stout People.--No Starch, no Sugar.--Losing
Flesh at the Rate of a Pound a Week.--“Human
Beans.”--Humors of Banting’s Tract.--His Gratitude.--Honors to
Dr. Harvey.--One Day with Dives, the Next with
Lazarus.--Bromide of Ammonia 175

CHAPTER XVIII.

A Letter.--Trials of a Plain Woman.--The Best Husband in the
World.--Burdock Wash for the Hair.--For Children’s Hair.--Oil
of Mace as a Stimulant.--To Restore Color to the
Hair.--Sperm-oil a Powerful Hair Restorer.--The Cheapest
Hair-Dye.--Cure for Chilblains.--Loose Shoes the Cause of
Corns.--Pyroligneous Acid for Corns.--Turpentine and Carbolic
Acid for Soft Corns 185

CHAPTER XIX.

A Talk about Complexions.--Delicate Lotion.--Cause of Rough
Faces.--Sun Painting and Bleaching.--Court Ladies Refusing to
Wash their Faces.--Experiments with Olive-tar.--Consumption
and Clear Faces.--Rev. W. H. H. Murray on Olive-tar.--Porcelain
Women.--Drawing Humors to the Surface.--What is to be Done for
the Weak Women? 192

CHAPTER XX.

Sulphur Baths.--Bleaching Old Faces.--Experiments in
Bathing.--Cautions.--Need of Public Baths.--Their Proper
Prices.--Method of Giving Sulphur Vapor-baths.--Hot Baths for
Hot Weather.--Russian Baths at Home.--Improvements Needed in
Public Baths.--What they Should be.--What they Are.--The
Russian Vapor-bath.--After-Sensations.--Brightness and
Lightness of Health.--Reverence for the Physical.--Influence of
Bathing on the Nerves and Passions.--Necessity of Public Baths 198

CHAPTER XXI.

Devices of Uneasy Age.--Bread Paste and Court-plaster to Conceal
Wrinkles.--Accepting the Situation.--Plain Women and Agreeable
Toilets.--Examples.--The Rector’s Daughter.--Dressing on Two
Hundred a Year.--Écru Linen and White Nansook.--A Senator’s
Wife.--A Washington Success.--Dull, Thin Faces.--Hay-colored
Hair.--Advantages of Lining Rooms with Mirrors 212

CHAPTER XXII.

Physical Education of Girls.--A Woman’s Value in the
World.--High-bred Figures.--Antique Races.--Inspiration
of Art not Vanity.--The Trying Age.--Dress, Food, and Bathing
for Young Girls.--A Veto on Close Study.--Braces and
Backboards.--Never Talk of Girls’ Feelings.--Exercise for the
Arms.--Singing Scales with Corsets off.--Development of the
Bust.--Open-work Corsets the Best.--The Bayaderes of India and
their Forms.--The Delicacy due Young Girls.--A Frank but Needed
Caution.--Care of the Figure after Nursing 224

CHAPTER XXIII.

Hands and Complexions.--Preparing for Parties.--Refining
Rough Faces.--Carbolic Baths.--Chalk and
Cascarilla.--Glycerine Wash.--School-girls’ Flushed Hands and
Faces.--To Soften the Hands.--Red Noses.--Secrets of
Making-up.--Cologne for the Eyes.--Cosmetic Gloves.--To
Impart a Brilliant Complexion 238

CHAPTER XXIV.

Women’s Looks and Nerves.--A Low-toned Generation.--Children
and their Ways.--Brief Madness.--Women in the
Woods.--Singing.--Work well done the Easiest.--Sleep the Remedy
for Temper.--Hours for Sleep.--The Great Medicines--Sunshine,
Music, Work, and Sleep 247

CHAPTER XXV.

Changing Wigs and Chignons.--Matching Braids.--Frizzing the
Hair.--Crimping-pins.--Blonde Hair-pins.--What Colors
Hair.--Bleaching Tresses.--Sulphur Paste.--Foxy
Locks.--Freshening Switches 257

CHAPTER XXVI.

Hair and Complexion.--Black Dyes.--Persian Blue-Black.--Peroxide
of Hydrogen.--Chloride of Gold.--Transient Dyes 267

THE UGLY-GIRL PAPERS.