What a Woman Should Know (part seven)

A series of excerpts from the booklet What a Woman Should Know by George M Vickers printed in 1904 by the White Sewing Machine Company of Cleveland, Ohio.

In part six of last week we learned that correct posture is essential to our appearance as well as good health. And to avoid wrinkles cheerfulness was and is the remedy. Who's thinking of Maxine about now?

Everyone awake? Here we go.

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Beauty Sleep.-Once in a while you may go to bed late wihout any particular injury; but nothing makes a woman look old and haggard quicker than loss of sleep. The sleep before midnight is "beauty sleep," and nothing is truer. Freshness, beauty and health are sure to abide with those who avoid late hours.

Diet and Medicine.-Those who have had complexions, muddy or rough, of long standing, while observing the advice given elsewhere, and trying the methods suggested, must be careful of their diet, for it has much to do with making the skin fair, clear, and brightening the eyes. Most people try to improve the complexion by treating the surface only, when the treatment should be thorough and constitutional. As individual differences are found in every one, each person must take such internal medicine as is the best suited to her system.

Young Women.-Late hours, irregular habits and want of attention to diet, are common errors with young people, but it is very difficult to make them comprehend this. Frequently they sit up until twelve o'clock and even later without any apparent ill effect; they go without a meal to-day, and to-morrow eat to repletion with only temporary inconvenience; one night they will sleep three or four hours; the next nine or ten; in their eagerness to go to a place of amusement they will eat no food at all; the next evening they will eat a heavy supper and go to bed early and then wonder why they have pimples or a dull, sallow complexion, and when old, wonder why their faces look lined and haggard, when they paid no regard to the plainest precepts of health in early life.

A Woman of Fifty.-At the age of fifty a woman is not too old to improve her complexion and make it white, smooth and free from blemish, if she will but try.

Pale Face.-As friction over the body is good to open the pores, so is gentle friction of the face highly beneficial in producing a color, should it be pale. A diet of beef, mutton and fruit will impart a rosy tint to a pale face. No article of clothing should be worn too tight to allow a free circualtion of the blood. Few persons would have headache when they rise in the morning were it not for the bad air they breathe during the night. Lower your window a few inches from the top, and raise the lower sash a little. A few breaths of fresh air taken outside, before breakfast, when the weather is sutable, is a great banisher of headaches. You will feel fresher and a rosy tint will steal into your cheeks.

Upcoming in part eight we will learn about a Woman's Stature, Her Weight, Her Proportion and To Develop the Muscles.