The Secret of Make-up

MY DISTASTE for dyed hair, however, is only aesthetic. Since my marriage I have completely changed my point of view about dressing up for effect. Before I married I hardly ever used make-up, except when playing. I didn’t care what I looked like. I was the worst-dressed actress in New York by the unanimous consent of my friends. I refused to make up offstage because I didn’t feel like myself with paint and powder on. My eyebrows and lashes, like my hair, are almost white. They were my alibi that the shade of my hair really was natural, but they also made me look permanently tired and washed out. I never bothered about it though. But now I want to look as attractive as possible—as a compliment to my husband, perhaps. I even use make-up on the street—very little, I hope, because I don’t want to look made up, for the purpose of make-up is to simulate perfect health. To look made up is to impress people with paint and powder rather than with your own personality.

I find that the secret of make-up is to put it on and then rub it all off. Enough will stay on to accentuate your features.

When I make up for the street I barely indicate that I have eyebrows and eyelashes by outlining them with a brown eyebrow pencil. This delicate bit of shadowing gives my eyes a little more depth, but even if one’s eyes are set deep they should be shadowed. The shading brings out all their quality and luster and form. Blond women should not use a dark eyebrow pencil. It makes light hair look bleached by contrast.

In rouging my cheeks I blend the coloring into my whole face, as I do in the theater. I work the color—just a tiny dab of it—almost as far back as my ears, and way up into my temples, and down as far as possible on the cheek, so that the result is a diffused rosy glow so delicate as to be almost no color at all. Only a little make-up should be used. Making up is a delicate, illusive art. As with perfume, you should aim to make people wonder whether you use make-up or not. And if you do, what on earth is it, and where is it? Otherwise you might just as well paint yourself as boldly as an Indian and lose the entire quality of illusion.

by actress Ann Harding – The Ladies Home Journal, March 1927

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING BY BUS

THE two most prominent developments during the present Christmas shopping rush noted by J. C. Royle, Consolidated Press correspondent at New York, are the elaborate stocks of mechanical toys and the extent to which the motor-bus, rather than the railroad, is being used by the Christmas shopper. Says Mr. Royle in one of his dispatches:

Merchants anticipate that the toys and gifts for children bought most freely this year will be of a far more expensive class than ever before, even in the boom days of 1920. The toy trend has been of decided benefit to American manufacturers, who excel in the production of mechanical toys. The greater part of the foreign toy competition is in the cheaper grades of play-things, and the Japanese toy-makers now in America to sound out prospects for entering this field more actively in 1927 undoubtedly will take the above trends into consideration. In the cheaper toys, Germany again is producing heavily, and is shipping large quantities of toys here.

Bus lines in scores of different localities are preparing for a rush of passengers. They claim that buses have changed the trend of merchandising in many sections, and that merchants who have not realized that fact and taken steps accordingly will feel it acutely in the next few days. They anticipate that more suburban purchasers will flock to city stores for their Christmas buying than ever. They say that the woman shopper who would not take a train trip to the city will go there to shop rather than shop in her local stores, provided she can ride comfortably in a bus for not more than an hour and be set down in the middle of the metropolitan shopping district. Some of the railroads are not only running bus lines instead of suburban trains, but are contemplating delivery of passengers arriving by train at railroad terminals to the center of the hotel, theater, and shopping districts by means of buses.

Source: The Literary Digest for December 18, 1926

MORE CHRISTMAS-CLUB MONEY THAN EVER

“PEOPLE who depend on the Christmas — Club for their holiday spendings are not affected by the recent unpleasantness in Wall Street, for a recent press statement shows that this year’s payments are to be 10 per cent. greater than last year’s, and more than five times the amount in 1920. According to a statement from the Christmas Club Organization appearing in The Wall Street Journal, some $600,000,000 is being distributed by more than 8,000 banks or other financial institutions to 9,000,000 Christmas Club members. Eliminating certain special corporation and individual funds running into large figures, the average amount received by each member is $59.50, a slight increase over 1928. New York State leads in Christmas Club disbursements with $141,000,000, while Massachusetts has the largest State total in proportion to population—over $70,000,000. F. W. Rawll, President of the Christmas Club Organization, estimates after a direct mail inquiry that more than 10,000,000 permanent savings accounts directly traceable to club membership have been brought to the banks during the past nineteen years.  He estimates that the 1929 Christmas Club money will be spent about as follows:

Christmas purchases …… 38%   $228,000,000

Permanent savings and investment ………….. 30%    180,000.000

Year-end commitments…. 13%     78,000,000

Insurance premiums……. 6%     36,000,000

Mortgages and mortgage interest. …………… 5 1/2%   33,000,000

Taxes……………….. 4 1/2%   27,000.000

Education and travel…… 2%     12,000,000

Charity… ………….. 1%      6,000,000

DON’T OVERPAY YOUR INCOME TAX!

IT SEEMS strange that after all these years of income-tax paying, the Bureau of Internal Revenue should find it necessary to warn taxpayers making income returns not to pay more than they actually owe. But such is the case, observes Bradstreet’s, noting that the issuance of such a statement was found necessary by the Bureau “because the earliest returns received this year showed a wide-spread failure on the part of taxpayers to give themselves the benefit of the 25 per cent. deduction credited to earned income under the new law.”   As Bradstreet’s gives the substance of the official statement:

In explaining the provisions of the law, the bureau calls attention to the fact that all net income for the year 1924 up to $5,000 is considered to’be earned income for the purpose of the 25 per cent. deduction. As an example, the bureau’s statement cites the case of a taxpayer whose net income from salary in the year was $2,000, and who made a profit of $3,000 in a real-estate transaction, his total net income amounting to $5,000. Such a person, according to the bureau, is entitled to consider the whole amount as earned net income in computing the 25 per cent. deduction allowed him. On the other hand, the earned net income for 1924 is not to be considered as in any case exceeding $10,000, so that a person having a net income of $15,000 from salary is only allowed to consider $10,000 of that amount as earned net income in deducting the credit of 25 per cent. The substance of this statement has been made public before, but, as has been wisely said before, mankind needs to be reminded.

Source: The Literary Digest for February 14, 1925

LARGEST AND FINEST LINER EVER TO CIRCLE THE GLOBE

ON November 25th the Red Star Liner Belgenland sails Westward from New York on her second World Cruise of 132 days. The 475 fortunate voyagers will visit 60 cities in 14 countries throughout the world—60 cities which have been carefully chosen because of their charm and their appeal to those who would know the world —its races, customs, civilizations, beauties.

Steaming Westward—and in late Fall, in order to follow Springtime round the globe—is an all-important factor, which means that each country is visited at the season best for travel there, that Cairo is reached at the height of the Egyptian season and the Riviera in time for Spring sojourns in Europe.

Every day on the Belgenland is a delight. Teas, card parties, concerts, lectures, amateur theatricals, dances, swimming, recreation on deck, are a few of the entertainments afforded her passengers. Yet there is quiet rest and relaxation for those so inclined. The ship’s huge size is pleasingly apparent in the spaciousness of her luxuriously fitted public rooms, the broad sweep of her deck spaces and her roomy private accommodations. Cuisine and service are in keeping with the highest standards of ocean travel.

Trips ashore are doubly attractive because of the skilled guidance of the American Express Company and because of the distinction with which the passengers of this outstanding world cruiser are received throughout their entire journey.

Sailing Westward from New York November 25, From Los Angeles December 11, San Francisco December 14, Returning to New York, April 6, 1926. 132 days, 60 cities, 14 countries. Restricted to 475 passengers.

Advertisement by the Red Star Line for the Ocean Liner Belgenland.

Source: The Literary Digest for September 19, 1925

CONCRETE REINFORCED WITH BAMBOO

Bamboo, which has been chemically treated, is used as a reinforcing for concrete in Japan and, we are told in Concrete (Detroit):

“According to Henry C. Hitchcock, the American consul, Nagasaki, Japan, the chemicals used in treating the bamboo are apparently known only to the few who have made use of them. Bamboo is occasionally used without any chemicals to protect it from decay, in the construction of concrete ditches, small culverts and the like in districts where there is a great deal of sulfur in the soil and sulfur gas in the air, for the reasons that it is believed that bamboo is not so quickly destroyed by the sulfur as ordinary reinforcing would be.”

Source: The Literary Digest for August 11, 1923

DO MOTOR CARS MAKE US LAZY?

THERE CAN BE NO QUESTION about the usefulness of automobiles, says a writer in The Medical Review of Reviews (New York), nor about the desire for leisure
which makes up the large number of people who drive, not because they are in a hurry or have to cover long distances, but because they are lazy and so drive everywhere instead of walking. He asks, “Are we going to become a physically lazy nation, and, through lack of exercise, a people of pendulous abdomens and small legs?” To quote from his article:

“Walking is one of the best forms of exercise, and one of the best means of keeping healthy. It will often prevent obesity, and will cure many cases of indigestion.                

“Oftentimes walking will reduce flesh five or ten pounds in a short time. A walk a day, from three to ten miles, should be a health rule for every one. During the war when doctors were sent to training-camps, it was easy to tell a new man by his appearance; his skin was yellow, his abdomen pendulous and he was fatigued on slight exertion. He probably had not walked in several years, driving from one house to another. After a month in camp, with setting-up exercises, drills twice daily, equitation, long hikes, a change was noticeable; the skin lost its yellow appearance, the superfluous flesh disappeared, and in every way the man looked more healthy.

“Women often consult a physician because they are fat and want to reduce; they diet (by eliminating food they do not care for), follow every fad, from rolling to the Bergonie treatment, yet they are leading exponents of a sedentary life. They hate to walk. When they are advised to walk to reduce their weight they invariably say that they can not because their feet are sore. The very woman who tells her children about the old custom of the Chinese women pinching their feet, unconsciously follows the same custom by wearing pointed-toe shoes which are so uncomfortable that she is crippled as far as walking is concerned.”

 Source: The Literary Digest for August 11, 1923

STANDARD OIL’S INDUSTRIAL PLATFORM

WHAT might be called “the industrial platform” of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey was recently summed up by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., at a dinner of the employees of the country. It seems to Mr. Rockefeller that the great corporation with which his name is associated has taken a high stand in regard to industrial relations. This is the way he interprets its attitude from the public utterances of officers and published reports of the Company, as quoted in the New York Times: -

1. That there are four parties to industry—the stockholders, who provide the capital; the management, which brings technical and managerial ability; the workers, who furnish manual skill, and the public, which supplies the market. All four parties are essential; their interests are common interests; the well-being of each is dependent upon just and proper consideration of the others.

2. That labor and capital are partners, not enemies; that the bitterness, antagonism and warfare that too often exist between them is quite as much the fault of capital as of labor, and can be replaced by confidence, cooperation and friendliness only as misunderstanding gives way to a common appreciation of the other’s problems and point of view; that this result is most readily brought about through frequent contact between the employees and the executives of the company, for the discussion of matters of common interest.

3. That the seven-day week and the twelve-hour day are uneconomic and anti-social, hence bad business; that the worker is a human being, not a machine; that he does his best work when he has adequate opportunity for home life, recreation, self-improvement and worship. One day’s rest in seven and a working day of reasonable length is the standard which has been set up in the company and is being extended into the various branches of its business as rapidly as is practicable.

THE THREE-CYLINDER LOCOMOTIVE

WHAT HE CHARACTERIZES as “perhaps the most significant of our modern locomotive advances” is described in The Scientific American (New York, February), by Albert C. Ingalls. It is the first successful development in America of the three-cylinder locomotive. There is nothing complicated about this new development, Mr. Ingalls assures us. Simply, instead of the two cylinders of the average locomotive there are three. These are all practically alike, they all use steam at the same pressure and there are three evenly spaced power-thrusts in each direction. He goes on:

“The three-cylinder locomotive is in no sense a compound engine. Two of its cylinders are placed identically as the cylinders are placed on the ordinary two-cylinder locomotive, but there is an additional cylinder in the center, its connecting rod attaching to a crank-bearing in the center of one of the drive-wheel axles.

“The advantages of the three-cylinder locomotive are: more power, steadier pull, greater economy in the use of steam, and more economical combustion of the fuel.

“Nearly every one is familiar with the reason for the advantage the six-cylinder automobile engine has over the four-cylinder motor.  The over-lapping power strokes give a more uniform torque or twist to the crankshaft. The same principle applies to the three-cylinder locomotive. This even torque is especially valuable for starting heavy trains, as it takes more power to start a train than to keep it going. The addition of the third cylinder also permits an earlier cut-off which effects a saving in steam.

“The purring exhaust results in a much steadier draft on the fire than is the case where the more pulsating draft of the two-cylinder locomotive is used. This promotes fuel economy.

“At the time when this article is being written there is just one of these locomotives, designed and built as such, in operation in America; but so successful has been the operation of that one locomotive that the eyes of every railroad official in America have been on its performance, since it was put in use on the Lehigh Valley Railroad a little over a year ago.

Three Cylinder Train Engines continued here

BASEBALL SHUDDERS AT THE HOME-RUN MENACE

THERE were too many home-runs last summer—so many, in fact, that the popularity of baseball is said to be facing something like a crisis. As a result, the best minds and magnates of the Major Leagues will spend much of this winter, reports a sports writer, Irving E. Sanborn, devising ways and means for “the rescue of the home-run from the ranks of the commonplace, and its restoration to its distinguished position in the esteem of baseball fans.” The average fan, says Mr. Sanborn, may be more forcibly imprest with the necessity for breaking the New York monopoly of major pennants and World’s Series, or the resumption of the privilege of drafting recruits from the high-grade minor leagues. These reforms may be important enough, admits Mr. Sanborn, but they are not so important as “to stop the cheapening of the home-run, which has been in progress for several seasons.” The average fan. he predicts, is going to lose one of his main reasons for being interested in baseball unless this is done, and when the average fan does that, as everybody knows, it is time for the best minds and magnates to get busy. Mr. Sanborn reports, in Baseball (New York):

There was a total of 976 home-runs registered in the American and National Leagues in 1923, as against 1,054 in the two major circuits in 1922. National League batsmen contributed 536 toward the 1923 total, and American League sluggers made 442. These figures are taken from the unofficial averages, but their only difference from the official will be due to possible clerical errors, because there is seldom any argument about a home-run. The umpire decides 99 1/2 per cent. of them—not the official scorer.

That slight decrease in four-base hits will not restore the feature to its former exalted position for a good many years yet unless some method is found by the rule-making members of the magnate oligarchy to bring about quality instead of quantity production in the home-run department. The Philadelphia Nationals, as usual, led the majors in four-baggers this year. The total number of drives which floated out or bounded out of the cigar-box in which the Phillies play their home games was 110. Ten or fifteen years ago that would have been a respectable total for the whole eight teams in either big league.

During the past season 18 home-runs were made in one minor league ball park in one afternoon when a double header was played. That happened in the bushes, of course, and probably the fences were shorter than in the bigger circuits. But it makes a joke out of what ought to be one of the most inspiring features of baseball to have it happen eighteen times in one day even on a bush-league field. And the men who frame the rules for big-league games make laws which govern all contests wherever baseball is played. There is no more tempting appeal to an epicurean appetite than quail done to a turn and served hot. But history does not record the fact that any one has yet been able to inhale thirty quail in thirty days without nausea.

Home-runs continued here…