FIRST EDITION.

NEW YORK:

MY LADY’S TOILET TABLE. 508

WHEN a woman becomes a guardian of the heritage of beauty, or concludes to wrest it from Nature, she must make up her mind to give a large percentage of, her spare time to the study and, pursuit of the necessary tactics; for unless she be watchful, prudent, discriminating and systematic she must expect her inherited charms to prove most evanescent and those she covets to be beyond her reach. Nothing retains its perfection or improves in its quality without an expenditure of more or less care and attention ; but by the excess of her enthusiasm the care-taker of valuable possessions may preserve her idols at the sacrifice of her health and strength.

It is to be hoped none of our readers will become so zealous in guarding or acquiring charms of person as to meet with such disastrous physical results; but as she who wears or wears the prize of beauty will of necessity be obliged to expend much time, she may as well be as comfortable as possible while doing so, and in being comfortable hoard her strength and thus prolong her beauty. The first step toward comfort is to arrange all the weapons of warfare against Time and ungenerous Nature where they may be reached with the least exertion and used with no unnecessary outlay of strength, and there can be no better place than on a toilet table or cabinet planned expressly for the purpose. This

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article of furniture need not be in the least suggestive of a toilet bazar or a pharmacopoeia, but may be as pretty and luxurious as ingenuity, taste and means will allow. Many an inventive maiden will, after reading this chapter, rummage in the garret or attic of some old-fashioned house and there find an antique desk or table, or possibly some ancient bureau which she will force into service by applying our suggestions to its conformation with the happy result of furnishing a cosy nook in her bedchamber where she may study her face and figure and apply remedies for defects or tonics to sustain existing charms, with no drain upon her strength, no tiring of her whole system.

If our maiden is not fortunate in her search among the relics of bygone days, or her purse will not permit her to order what she wants from the cabinet-maker, let her get into the good graces of an ingenious brother or other male relative, or call upon the man who comes in to do "odd jobs" if he is handy with the saw, nails and hammer: or, failing in this get a carpenter and explain to him exactly what she wants and let him make the foundation of the table from plain, well seasoned boards. Let the table be planned thus Have a wide flat board for the top—as wide and long as you desire it. The top of a plain bureau will be a good guide as to proportions. Set the top upon upright boards at its ends, and have two or three shelves added underneath it. Cover the top board with canton flannel, such as is used under table linen, and then upholster or drape the table with cretonne of some pretty shade in harmony with the rest of the furniture in your room, arranging the curtain portion so that it will separate at the center, thus placing within easy and convenient reach any of the jars or implements you may wish to put

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out of sight upon the shelves behind it. Let the carpenter add a hack to your table when he is making the foundation, and on it fasten little fancy shelves or brackets and leave a space for an oblong or diamond shaped mirror at the center. With the enamel paint that comes in little jars or pots you can stain this back to match the color of the cretonne; or, if you prefer it you may cover it to match the rest of the table, and the mirror may also be decorated in any pleasing way. From the center of the back run up a strong wire shaped in a circle high over the top of the table and from this circle or ring suspend curtains of the cretonne, draping them at each side in a festoon. Select a place in your room for your table where you will get the benefit of a good light at both sides of it; for light is necessary to a thorough inspection of your facial defects and also to a proper application of remedies and cosmetics. Now upon this table must repose many of the liquids and appliances previously mentioned. Avoid patent compounds and use nothing with whose ingredients you have not made an acquaintance. And, it will not be necessary for you to put all of your lotions, liquids and emollients into commonplace bottles, for in china shops are found such pretty and quaint specimens at such low prices, that it will be a woman’s own fault if the toilet table does not conceal its real purpose by having upon it dainty jugs and decanters, pitchers and urns, to hold its arms of war. Said a lady whose toilet table holds the most exquisite wares:

"I can’t bear to have anything common about my rooms. The money other people spend on second rate bric-à-brac and personal ornaments I spend on this altar

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to vanity. Instead of hideous nondescript gatherings of china, Hungarian, Doulton, Swiss and grotesque faience, I choose very few things of the best design and coloring possible for their places. Those pieces aie Baltimore porcelain, the most delicately artistic in America, and those are Cincinnati, the best, you know, and worth all they cost. That little turquoise studded flask was sent from Mexico, that cut-glass vase with strings of pink and yellow pearls is home manufacture, of brook pearls from New England. ‘V hat tourmaline stopper is from Maine. The work is by clever people all over the country, for every village almost nowadays has somebody who does nice things in out of the way work. That carved pearl box is by a soldier on the plains. As to what is in them you shall know after a while. You will find the whole battery necessary to keep Time at bay and defeat niggardly Nature in the cabinet bottles."

This fair lady made no pretense of using all of the unguents and preparations she fancied possessing. She was able to gratify her fancy of putting her bric-a-brac to such a use and the idea was a bright and pretty one. Still if one cannot have both china and cosmetics, the latter will keep just as well in democratic bottles, which, by the way, may lose a little of their commonplace look by having glass stopples and a bit of decoration in the way of~ ribbon, silk casings, hand-painting, etc., etc.

A word of advice regarding the actual use of this table. Do not, if you have space enough in your sleeping apartment, place upon it any of the paraphernalia of the dressing table. A confusion of accessories leads to an imperfect result in either case.

Upon the shelves beneath the table keep your large

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jars and boxes, and above all be sure to have a spirit lamp or a tiny gas stove for the hot water which you must daily use, either for ordinary ablutions or facial steam baths, or for the occasional hot drinks necessary to good health. Here may also be kept the pretty bowl in which eggs may be beaten for embrocations, shampoos and masks. Upon the top of the table have your hand glass, a comb and brush, and a pretty box in which maybe kept the implements for manicuring the nails, and the dainty means for darkening the brows and lashes. Back of these set a large bottle of rose-water, one of pure glycerine, one of cologne and another of 4oilet water. Add to the collection smaller bottles containing tincture of benzoin, ammonia, camphor and bay rum; and in jars or wide-mouthed bottles that may safely rest upon the small shelves keep borax, bicarbonate of soda, powdered starch, powdered orris and powdered alum and charcoal. Upon the lower shelves in the large jars have plenty of oatmeal, almond meal or corn meal and common salt, and a, smaller jar of grated or powdered Castile soap, which latter is a good dentifrice-; and also, in connection with either of the meals, a little of it may be tied in a tiny bag to throw into the bath as suggested in another portion of the book. The- curtain of these lower shelves may hide the curling tongs and the vessel over which you steam your face to clear your complexion of black-heads; and here will also be the best place to stow away poisonous though healthful compounds, such as carbolic acid either in solution or crystals.

Now, as we advise sitting as much as possible throughout the processes of the toilet, select a chair which will permit you to use the accessories necessary as con-

A CHAIR FOR THE TABLE. 513

veniently as though standing. Possibly its legs may have to be sawed off a little or raised upon blocks to obtain the proper height; and when this is done make this throne from which you command your forces as ornate as you please. Seated upon it before your table, your hair may be dressed with none of the strain standing entails; your lips, nostrils and ear-tips may be daintily touched with the crimson which must be bold or tender according to its location, leaving the mouth like a rosebud, the ears like the heart of a sea-shell and the nostrils of a delicate pink. Then if a rose must be painted on the cheek, lay it there with a cunning and skilful touch or else discard it altogether. High up on the cheeks it lengthens the effect of a face; spread out towards the ears it gives a semblance of fulness; laid on farther forward it takes away from the broadness of a face; and applied all over the cheek with no shading and mellowing of the tint, it vulgarizes the prettiest face in the world.

The faint liquid bloom that is applied with a brush and is productive of a dainty flush, is all the coloring the average woman needs for her face, and if she adds it deftly she may be forgiven her indulgence; but be sure to bear in mind that while the sterner sex are quick to observe, criticise and comment in any thing but a pleasing way upon the inartistic and lavish application of cosmetics, your own sex are the keener as well as the more treacherous observers of the two, and it is therefore well that you should linger long at your shrine to vanity in the study of an artistic make up, if you would be~ rendered happy either by the reflections of your mirror or your sex, or the complete delusion of the other sex as to the naturalness of your facial charms. Make a map of your daily time

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and see how much of it you can devote to your personal improvement, and when you have decided, formulate your order of exercises according to your time, and then let them be as much a part of your every-day existence as any of your other habits. You cannot accomplish wonders nor even fair results without the watchwords which have been harped upon throughout this volume. Thorough "grooming" is as necessary to the refined personal appearance of a woman as it is to the sleek, satiny look of a race horse; and woman quickly shows the effects of attention or neglect in this respect. Well groomed, she looks as fine in gingham as in velvet; ungroomed, she looks unrefined though her raiment be richer than that of the Queen of Sheba.

"My lady’s toilet table" has been planned to help capricious woman to become systematic in her attacks upon Time and Nature. With all her forces at hand she need make or have no excuse for neglect. If she has not the "full two hours out of every twenty-four" which a writer upon the subject says it is absolutely necessary for every woman who expects to even slightly enhance her appearance to " spend at this shrine," she must crowd as many of the essentials as possible into the time she has to spare and be satisfied with moderate results.

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