Beauty is very much of an art after all. The lily and rose complexions, the perfect
luxuriance of hair, the general perfection of face and form, are very seldom the gift of
chance conditions. The most beautiful woman, as a general thing, is the woman who
knows how to attend to her toilet, and it should form a matter of instruction in the educa-
tion of every young girl. Between the two extremes of artificiality and of reformers'
hygienic notions women get bewildered. The latter, if carried out to the letter, make
women outre in the extreme, and the former tend to disgust delicate and pure-minded
women, so between the two the average woman of home and society lets herself severely
alone, and consequently is not half as pretty as she might be.
Emerson says of the English, "They are positive, methodical, cleanly, and formal,
loving routine, and conventional ways; loving truth and religion, to be sure, but inexor-
able on points of form. All the world praises the comfort and private appointments of
an English inn, and of English households. You are sure of neatness and of personal
decorum. A Frenchman may possibly be clean: an Englishman is conscientiously clean.
A certain order and complete propriety is found in his dress and in his belongings."
Rooms should be thoroughly swept, thoroughly dusted, thoroughly ventilated, and
thoroughly warmed. Beginning fires at the first intimation of chilliness — continuing till
the latest breath has vanished.
Carpets should be thoroughly swept once a week. Bits of paper free from printing
ink, saturated with water, is best for sweeping carpets, tea-leaves are apt to stain, and salt
to rot. The first dust should be removed with a feather duster — then with a soft cloth.
The feather duster should be well shaken after it is used, and washed frequently, as it
accumulates dust, and if not kept clean it will leave a deposit of dust upon everything it
touches, instead of removing it. Lambrequins, draperies, ceiling, walls, and behind pic-
tures should be thoroughly dusted once a week. Windows thrown open once a day ad-
mitting all the sunlight possible. Table linen should be kept perfectly white, laundried
without starch, beautifully polished and thoroughly dried when ironed. The silver bright,
the china and glass, glistening in their irreproachable cleanliness.
FOOD AND DRINK.
Faces speedily gain beauty under fit care and food. — DR. HOLMES.
U"T "*HE saying that every house has a skeleton in its closet has more fact than poetry
about it, if we are to take the evidence of our sense of smell. You come upon
the skeleton behind the door of an unaired clothes-closet press, where soiled things
and stale bedroom odors have their own way week after week, till you wonder nice girls can
bear to put on dresses which hang in them.
Too many pantries and food closets have their spectres, if we judge by the moldering,
unsatisfactory odors about ice-box and meat-safe, and the worst is, that it doesn't stay
there, but comes out in the shape of dull headaches and sore throats and low fevers which
haunt the house.
Page 38
Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Beauty is very much of an art after all. The lily and rose complexions, the perfect luxuriance of hair, the general perfection of face and form, are very seldom the gift of chance conditions. The most beautiful woman, as a general thing, is the woman who knows how to attend to her toilet, and it should form a matter of instruction in the education of every young girl. Between the two extremes of artificiality and of reformers' hygienic notions women get bewildered. The latter, if carried out to the letter, make women outre in the extreme, and the former tend to disgust delicate and pure-minded women, so between the two the average woman of home and society lets herself severely alone, and consequently is not half as pretty as she might be.
Emerson says of the English, "They are positive, methodical, cleanly, and formal, loving routine, and conventional ways; loving truth and religion, to be sure, but inexorable on points of form. All the world praises the comfort and private appointments of an English inn, and of English households. You are sure of neatness and of personal decorum. A Frenchman may possibly be clean: an Englishman is conscientiously clean. A certain order and complete propriety is found in his dress and in his belongings."
Rooms should be thoroughly swept, thoroughly dusted, thoroughly ventilated, and thoroughly warmed. Beginning fires at the first intimation of chilliness — continuing till the latest breath has vanished.
Carpets should be thoroughly swept once a week. Bits of paper free from printing ink, saturated with water, is best for sweeping carpets, tea-leaves are apt to stain, and salt to rot. The first dust should be removed with a feather duster — then with a soft cloth. The feather duster should be well shaken after it is used, and washed frequently, as it accumulates dust, and if not kept clean it will leave a deposit of dust upon everything it touches, instead of removing it. Lambrequins, draperies, ceiling, walls, and behind pictures should be thoroughly dusted once a week. Windows thrown open once a day admitting all the sunlight possible. Table linen should be kept perfectly white, laundried without starch, beautifully polished and thoroughly dried when ironed. The silver bright, the china and glass, glistening in their irreproachable cleanliness.
FOOD AND DRINK.
Faces speedily gain beauty under fit care and food. — DR. HOLMES.
THE saying that every house has a skeleton in its closet has more fact than poetry
about it, if we are to take the evidence of our sense of smell. You come upon
the skeleton behind the door of an unaired clothes-closet press, where soiled things
and stale bedroom odors have their own way week after week, till you wonder nice girls can
bear to put on dresses which hang in them.
Too many pantries and food closets have their spectres, if we judge by the moldering, unsatisfactory odors about ice-box and meat-safe, and the worst is, that it doesn't stay there, but comes out in the shape of dull headaches and sore throats and low fevers which haunt the house.