For Elegance and Beauty

Every girl longs from the bottom of her heart for her beauty to eclipse, utterly, the beauty of any other girl. Every girl in the world has her own particular look and her own particular charm, and she who wishes to be captivating must work to beautify her appearance and develop her charm on the basis of those rules of sound physical training that belong to the art of beauty, so that her beauty may wear its natural dress. That, without doubt, is better than an imitation beauty which may destroy beauty itself and clothe it in a kind of vulgar artificiality that lowers its worth or wipes it out.

Some ladies and young ladies think that beauty consists simply in appearing well turned out, their faces under a thick layer of powders and paints, their eyebrows plucked of their hairs with a fine, elegant line drawn in their place — and, on top of this, in being slender and svelte, their hair tinted a blonde shade of dazzling charm.

All these are means of beautification, and no harm in them; but compared with what nature can do by way of beautification they are not worth a drop beside the vast ocean. Nature alone can flood a girl with true beauty and make her reign wherever she is found; and by natural methods alone can a girl captivate her husband and draw him with her enchanting appearance — while her ornament and adornment may add to the splendor of her natural beauty another beauty, still more charming and splendid.

What is the use of coating the face with powders and painting the lips with their special pencil, while the nose shows red — proof that the circulation of the blood is not running regularly??

The girl of the modern age has begun to learn that physical exercise plays an important part in the question of beauty and beautification; the sickly, ailing girl can never appear a captivating beauty. And what no two people dispute is that by practicing physical exercise, health remains at the height of its glory; and the girl whose head is crowned with the beautiful, splendid crown of health appears more active, more cheerful, more hopeful and optimistic about life and all its pleasures and charms; then a wave of true beauty floods over her and makes her worthy of the love and admiration that rest only upon perfection of body and harmony of its members, perfection of mind and calmness of nerves.

Walking abroad is a form of exercise that the girl who wishes hearts to stop before her ought to enjoy. If she cannot breathe pure air by strolling in gardens and fields or by riding horseback, then daily exercise may suffice her. And for a girl to be respected, she must be clean in her appearance. In short, beauty may be summed up in two words: cleanliness and health...

Girls nowadays take the greatest care to appear in a lovely, attractive form, more than ever before; they wear elegant, healthful clothes. As for corsets with their iron clamps for compressing a large bust, slimming the waist, and correcting the shape of the hips — that was a device for beautifying the figure used in times past. Today, now that the ways of life have changed, the girl of the modern age cannot appear in such garments while driving a motorcar, or running a little to catch the big taxi in the squares and streets, or practicing a few physical exercises — quite apart from the fact that such garments hinder the body's organs from growing and breathing.

The eyes of the civilized world have lately turned toward the need for a girl to adorn herself by natural means, after it became clear that powders and paints may bring out something of beauty but cannot bring out the whole of it. They can display certain charms, but they are powerless to show the girl in the fresh garment of her own comeliness. A clear complexion, limpid eyes, and pearly white teeth — these are the foundation of beauty, and nothing supports that foundation but physical exercise, pure air, healthful food, and the finest natural care when needed.

The English proverb says that it is better for a girl to bite her lips and color them with the crimson of her own blood than to paint them a deceiving color while they are thin and withered.