The arts of the toilet are as old as Thebes. The painted eye of desire, the burning cheek and dyed nails, were coeval with the wisdom of Alexandria. Of old the Roman ladies used the fine dust of calcined shells and the juices of plants to restore their freshness of color. There is no end to the modern contrivances for the same purpose. Crushed geranium leaves, and the petals of artificial roses which contain carmine, friction with red flannel, and the juice of strawberries, are homely substitutes for rouge. The women of the South are more given to the use of cosmetics than their Northern sisters. Perhaps Washington sets the example to all the states; for nowhere else is seen such liberal use of paint and powder, skillfully applied, as at the capital. There women paint for the breakfast-table, and carry the deception every where. The Spanish-American ladies make the absurd mistake of supposing their rich complexions and dark eyes are not more enticing to Northern eyes than our own cold beauties; so, by the help of toilet bottles, they present faces like Lady Washington geraniums from nine in the morning till they ice themselves to frozen whiteness for the evenings. Whited sepulchres is the phrase forever ringing in one’s head at sight of this folly. What indignation has seized one at sight of Madame ----, the witty and enviable, who had the weakness to mask her lustrous, tropical, Murillo colors--which enchanted every Northern heart--with poor plaster of burned oyster-shells! It was very well for the Treasury blondes, who looked like human peaches till one saw them close, to dabble in white and pink. It suited their style. For these superb Creoles and Sevillians, never! Both from principle and preference, this book discountenances paint and powder. It believes that a woman needs no other cosmetics than fresh air, exercise, and pure water, which, if freely used, will impart a ruddier glow and more pearly tint to the face than all the rouge and lily-white in Christendom.