be dressed, and a thousand and one things that clearly reveal the improper emphasis placed upon them.  I do not wish to ignore the basic facts behind these anxious questionings.  It is right and proper that women (and men also) should give due attention to their physical appearance.  But when it becomes a mere matter of the outward show of cosmetics, powders, rouges, washes, pencils, and things that affect the outside only, then the emphasis is in the wrong place, and we are worrying about the wrong thing.  Our appearance is mainly the result of our physical and mental condition.  If the body is healthy, the skin and hair will need no especial attention, and, indeed, every wise person knows that the application of many of the cosmetics, etc., commonly used, is injurious, if not positively dangerous.

Then, too, observation shows that too many women and girls go beyond reasonable attention to these matters and begin to worry over them.  Once become slaves to worry, and every hour of the day some new irritant will arise.  Some new “dope” is advertised; some new fashion devised; some new frivolity developed.  Vanity and worry now begin to vie with each other as to which shall annoy and vex, sting and irritate their victim the more.  Each is a nightmare of a different breed, but no sooner does one bound from the saddle, before the other puts in an appearance and compels its victim to a performance.  Only a thorough awakening can shake such nightmares off, and comparatively few have any desire to be awakened.  I have watched such victims and they arouse in me both laughter and sadness.  One is sure her hair is not the proper color to match her complexion and eyes.  It must be dyed.  Then follows the worries as to what dye she shall use, and methods of application.  Invariably the results produce worry, for they are never satisfactory, and now she is worried while dressing, while eating, and when she goes out into the street, lest people notice that her hair is improperly dyed.  Every stranger that looks at her adds to the worry, for it confirms her previous fears that she does not look all right.  If she tries another hair of the dog that has already bitten her and allows the hair specialist to guide her again, she goes through more worries of similar fashion.  She must treat her hair in a certain way to conform to prevailing styles—­and so she worries hourly over a matter that, at the outside, should occupy her attention for a few minutes of each day.

There are men who are equally worried over their appearance.  Their hair is not growing properly, or their ears are not the proper shape, or their ears are too large, or their hands are too rough, or their complexion doesn’t match the ties they like to wear, or some equally foolish and nonsensical thing.  Some wish to be taller, others not so tall; quite an army seeks to be thinner and another of equal numbers desires to be stouter; some wish they were blondes, and others that they were brunettes.  The result is that drug-stores, beauty-parlors, and complexion specialists for men and women are kept busy all their time, robbing poor, hard-working creatures of their earnings because of insane worries that they are not appearing as well as they ought to do.