Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society: A condensed but thorough treatise on etiquette and its usages in America, containing plain and reliable directions for deportment in every situation in life.Frost, S. Annie (Sarah Annie)
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Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society: A condensed but thorough treatise on etiquette and its usages in America, containing plain and reliable directions for deportment in every situation in life.
Frost, S. Annie (Sarah Annie)
Etiquette -- United States
PERHAPS, in these days of public and private baths, it may seem a
work of supererogation to insist upon cleanliness as the first
requisite in a lady's toilet. Yet it may be as well to remind our
fair readers that fastidiousness on this head cannot be carried
too far. Cleanliness is the outward sign of inward purity.
Cleanliness is health, and health is beauty.
We will begin, then, with the business of the dressing-room, which
can be quite well performed in three-quarters of an hour, or even
less; and should at latest be achieved by eight o'clock in summer,
and nine in winter. To sleep too much is as trying to the
constitution as to sleep too little. To sleep too much is to
render oneself liable to all kinds of minor ailments, both of mind
and body. It is a habit that cannot be too severely censured,
especially in the young. No mother has any right to allow her
young daughters to ruin their temper, health, and complexion, by
lying in bed till nine or ten o'clock. Early rising conduces more
to the preservation of health, freshness, and young looks, than
anything in the world, and even to the proper preservation of our
mental faculties.
The bath is a most important object of study. It is not to be
supposed that we wash in order to become clean; we wash because we
wish to remain clean. The bath should be taken by a person in good
health once a day in winter, and twice a day in summer. For
persons of really robust constitutions, a cold shower-bath may be
recommended; but as a general rule the sponge-bath is safest and
most convenient. Cold water refreshes and invigorates, but does
not cleanse; those persons, therefore, who daily use a cold bath
in the morning should frequently use a warm one at night. For
cleansing purposes, the water should be of from ninety-six to one
hundred degrees, or even one hundred and eight degrees; but such a
bath should be sparingly indulged in, as it exhausts the physical
powers.
A tepid bath, varying from eighty-five to ninety-five degrees, is
perhaps the safest for general use, the more particulary as it
answers the purpose both of refreshing and cleansing. It is not
well to remain in the bath for longer than two or three minutes. A
large coarse sponge is best for the purpose. It is advisable to
wet the top of the head before entering a cold bath. Whether soap
be used or not, it is well to apply the flesh-brush gently to the
face and vigorously to the whole body. Nothing improves the
complexion like the daily use of the flesh-brush. When the
brushing is concluded, a huck-a-back or Turkish towel should be
used for the final process of drying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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