CHAPTER XIX

MOTHER’S SIXTH TALK--HOW TO GROW BEAUTIFUL

=A girl’s vanity.=--When girls reach the age of fifteen and sixteen their personal interest in personal beauty is apparent. Their frequent use of the mirror, a mania for primping: poring over such glaring headlines as, “Become Beautiful,” “Don’t be Fat,” “Be Plump,” “Beautiful Dresses, a Woman’s crown of Glory,” “Cure for Pimples and Black-heads,” found in the papers and magazines, all indicate a girl’s interest in being beautiful.

=There are two kinds of beauty.=--Physical beauty and intellectual and spiritual beauty. Not all can have the first, but all can have the latter. The first, unfortunately, may be a source of temptation and danger; the latter, fortunately, a blessing. Physical homeliness, entire or in part, may be outgrown, or cured by hygienic living and judicious treatment, or it may be over-shadowed by the possession of lovely traits of character.

=Beauty and the sex nature.=--No young woman, however beautiful physically, can develop a charming, attractive personality unless she possesses a normal sex nature. This end may be achieved by maintaining a hopeful, cheerful and perfectly chaste state of mind and perfect freedom from all habits of vice. In this way the vital energy of womanhood can be easily directed so as to carry life and health to every organ and part of the body.

=Puberty pimples.=--Soon after the dawning of puberty, many girls are troubled with pimples. They usually appear on the face, often only on the forehead. The back may be affected in the same way. They usually last two, three or more years and resist every effort to remove them. The girl had just as well make up her mind to endure them until nature takes them away. It was once thought that they were evidences of the practice of the secret vice. In some cases this is true. But in most cases they are inseparable from the early years of puberty.

=Treatment.=--By following certain simple rules this trouble may be very much reduced. Avoid eating highly seasoned foods and rich pastries. Take plenty of open-air exercise. Massage the face with the hands, using a good quality of absorbent cream. If cold baths are begun in the summer time, so as not to shock the system, this is very valuable. During the menses, plenty of warm water should be used. Absolute cleanliness will prevent many forms of female troubles.

=How to correct some kinds of homeliness.=--Stringy, greasy or dull hair may be made a crown of beauty by scrupulous care, tasteful arrangement and the use of suitable decorations.

Where the bodily form is too thin or too fat, or scrawny and angular, correct habits of eating and exercise are the natural remedies. Very thin persons will usually gain flesh by taking open-air exercise and eating nutritious food. Fleshy persons can usually reduce their flesh by eating two meals a day, eating a less nutritious diet and by taking more exercise. If this advice is introduced gradually no inconvenience will be noticed.

=A substitute for physical beauty.=--There are some forms of physical irregularities, such as prominent ears, large and irregular teeth; a receding chin or forehead; thick or thin lips; a long or ill-shaped mouth; small, expressionless eyes; a large, flat or pug nose, none of which can be remedied by the advice given. She must develop the truest form of beauty--a charming, winsome personality, a lovely character. She will then possess a charm that cannot be excelled by any physical queen of beauty, and that she may retain long after the glow of physical loveliness has faded.

=Some “musts” and “must-nots.”=--She must cease frowning and learn to smile; she must repress anger and resentment, and turn the other cheek; she must not seek favors, but discover the joy of bestowing blessings on others; she must intensely interest herself in everything that will stimulate and develop the intellect, expand the soul and enlarge her spiritual vision; she must revel in the sweetest strains of music and the most bewitching beauties of art and nature. By following this advice, the naturally beautiful girl will add a new charm to her attractiveness, and the homely girl will transform her defects into seeming beauties and develop the indefinable loveliness of a beautiful character.

FOURTH DIVISION

HOW TO TEACH SOCIAL PURITY AND SEX TRUTHS TO A BOY