Part 126

Let us give one more recipe, and that is for brightening the eyes. When you are tired and warm, and your eyes are dull, take a cloth and wring it out of very hot water, as hot as you can bear it. Lie down for ten minutes with this cloth spread over your burning face and tired eyes. You will be surprised to see how the tired lines will fade out and how the eyes will shine, and when your "dearest" comes home he will pay you a compliment which will more than reward you.

Reducing Flesh.

The real mode of life and diet should be changed if the fat would be reduced. If necessary, procure a pair of scales and weigh the different foods that are taken into the system. Reduce the diet then to about four ounces of starch or sugar material per day, one and a half ounces of fat, taken chiefly in the form of butter, and about six or seven ounces of albuminous food, such as lean meat or fish. This is the minimum that should be resorted to, and the patient can take more of each at first and reduce the diet gradually to this point. The proportion of the different food compounds, however, with the exception of figs, dates, grapes and nuts, should also be eaten daily, and one-third of a pound of some of the following vegetables: asparagus, turnips, cucumbers, parsley, watercress, celery, kale or cabbage. Fluids have a fattening tendency, and they must be taken in small quantities.

The drinking should be confined to tea, coffee or water, and never should be taken at mealtime, nor within one hour of a meal. This is peremptory, for food will produce fat much quicker and surer when watered by some good beverage.

Refreshing Sleep.

What is the correct method to pursue in preparing for a trip into dreamland, for there is a right as well as a wrong way? The business of disrobing should be so systematized that attending to all the little niceties included in the process will become, after a while, second nature. There is something more to be done, let us assure you, in addition to putting your hair up in curl-papers and dabbing a bit of cold cream on your face, if you would wake up in the morning looking as fresh as a rose. In the first place, do not put off these important preparations until you are so heavy-lidded that you are ready to give everything belonging to the toilet the go by. And now for the first step. Early in the evening your sleeping apartments should be thoroughly aired by dropping the window from the top and raising it at the bottom.

The current of fresh air is especially important when the room has been, as so many sleeping apartments are, in constant use all day. Ten minutes will be quite sufficient for toning up the atmosphere. Now close the window and allow the room to become thoroughly warmed, that you may not experience a chill while taking a rub down. Prepare a big bowl of tepid water, into which you sprinkle a small quantity of ammonia or borax. Take a Turkish towel, which is much better than a sponge, wring it out as dry as possible, and, grasping a corner in each hand, give the spine a vigorous rubbing. Have at hand another Turkish towel, and as you bathe the body in sections, dry as quickly as possible.

From the points of your rosy toes to the curve of your soft throat you are a blushing model of the charming effects of the bath. When finished, slip over your head a soft little shirt, high neck and short sleeves (a white silk or lisle thread is the best), the rosy skin beneath giving it the appearance of being lined with pink silk. Then comes the nightrobe, and next the pajama or lounging robe, which may be of anything, from flannel to eider down.

Tuck your feet into a pair of bedroom slippers, and you are ready to attend to minor details. Never think of retiring in any article of clothing which you have worn during the day. Such a barbarous custom has nothing whatever in common with health and refinement. Neither is it well to discard everything but your nightgown, for it is exceedingly dangerous to chill the system by night draughts.

How to Take Care of the Eyes.

Avoid sudden changes from darkness to brilliant light.

Avoid the use of stimulants and drugs which affect the nervous system.

Avoid reading when lying down or when mentally and physically exhausted.

When the eyes feel tired rest them by looking at objects at a long distance.

Pay special attention to the hygiene of the body, for that which tends to promote the general health acts beneficially upon the eye.

Do not depend on your own judgment in selecting spectacles.

Old persons should avoid reading much by artificial light, be guarded as to diet and avoid sitting up late at night.

After fifty, bathe the eyes morning and evening with water so hot that you wonder how you stand it; follow this with cold water that will make them glow with warmth.

Do not give up in despair when you are informed that a cataract is developing; remember that in these days of advanced surgery it can be removed with little or no danger to vision.

Never read in bed or when lying upon the sofa. Sit with your back to the light as much as possible. Attend to your digestion. Do not work longer than two hours without closing your eyes and resting them for five minutes. If your eyes are weak, bathe them in water to which a little salt and a little brandy have been added.

The Hair and How to Take Care of It.

If the hair has that soft, glossy look that tells of regular care, and if it is well kept, with every pin in its place, you may rely upon it that its owner possesses the instinct of ladyhood.

Each hair has tiny prongs or tentacles, something like those on the cockle bur, which catch the dust; hence the especial need of brushing. At a lady's school in England, some twenty years ago, the girls were required to brush their hair for fifteen minutes daily in the long dressing-room, and they were timed at this exactly as if it were any other exercise.

Occasionally the hair and the scalp need washing, as the face, though less often if the brushing be carefully attended to. When, however, it begins to seem dirty, give it a good shampooing. Wash both hair and scalp thoroughly in a washbowl of warm water in which has been dissolved a tablespoonful of powdered borax; then rinse it well in clear warm water; you will be surprised sometimes at the complexion of the water.

Many women dread the shampooing because of their liability to take cold in the process. Let such a person choose a room where the air is warm and dry. After wiping the hair thoroughly dry with towels, and pinning a fresh one around the neck and shoulders, let her get some one to come and make a breeze with a large palm-leaf fan upon her hair while she is engaged in carefully disentangling it with a brush and comb, occasionally giving the scalp a little vigorous rubbing if it begins to feel chilly. The fanning greatly hastens the drying process. Another plan is to lie down with the hair spread out on cushions in the sunshine. Be sure to get it thoroughly dry before putting it up.

An Excellent Head Covering.

A very pleasant step, though not a necessary one, next to take is to have a little thin silk mob-cap (of some pretty shade of silk, so that it is becoming rather than disfiguring, if needful, to wear about the home), lined, and thickly wadded with cotton-batting, well powdered with heliotrope or some other delicate sachet powder (these come in ten or fifteen-cent packages), and wear this from one to three hours. Here, again, those thousands of minute tentacles come into play; they catch and retain (one would almost think they close over them) the atoms of the perfume when they are thus freed from dust, and when the hair is soft and light in its new cleanness--and it is astonishing for how long a time the hair will retain that faint, delicate aroma which is so truly lovely in a woman's hair; and all to be obtained in so simple and innocent a way as with this little mob-cap, put on at the right time.

A good rule for ensuring the regular brushing of the hair, which may be taught to children (and perhaps good for busy women also), is to brush the hair with fifty long strokes both at morning and at night.