Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School - Collegiate Yearbook (Sarnia, Ontario Canada)

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94 THE CO LL EGIATE and strange thoughts will be crys- tallized about these frivolous toilet accessories. The philosphers would be wrong, however, in declaring that the sun of our century has not brought us anything new. It has really ac- complished a genuine revolution in this sphere. Mr. Marcel Boulanger has just invited us to admit that modern civilization has introduced an element of unquestionable novel- ty into the history of cosmetics in the course of centuries. lVe are witnesses this moment of the suc- cessive abandonment of the ances- tral traditions of feminine allure- ment. Our fair friends repudiate today the aesthetic intangible ideal of the woman-flower of all the centuries, the lily and rose com- plexion. lt is a fact: the lily and rose com- plexion is no longer worn. Sport and sea-side heliotherapy have kill- ed it. Thus they have determined the style and present new sociologic tendencies. The delicate shades of a pearly cuticle have given way to for more vigorous colors harmonies of a more de- the search and to the cided tone. The face, the arms, the shoulders have thus movement of our lady companions followed the irresistible which inspired our paint- ers, our artist decorators, and our furniture manufacturers to seek for tonal effects more decided and more bold than those of their ancestors. Formerly in the midst of apartments in which neutral tints dominated, a lady's toilet served only to frame a face, in which the finest qualities of white and rose were cultivated with care. At this time, some peo- ple were contented with the modest contrasts which the young Grecian of Olbia has already created with her red paste and black pencil. lVe are no longer in that age. Rice powder can no longer preserve its ingenuousness. The light mist, in which a pretty face was wrapped, has taken the copper tints of a storm cloud. It is no longer a ques- tion of the distinguished pallor, sought for by the contemporaries of the Lady with the Camelias. The young girls in bud, blossom out in tonalities which recall those of the Mohicans on the war-path. The Redskins of Mayne-Reid on meeting a Parisian girl of today would not be able to call her Paleface and would take her for a woman of their own tribe. A lady of fashion now disposes of an arsenal of rouges and powders that run the gamut with the bistres and ochres, which per- mit her to resemble the squaw of the Sioux warriors. The progress of hygiene and the development of physical culture tend to cause the lily-like young society girl to disappear, fading a- way in the back of the gyneceum under the anxious watch of her mo- ther. Our young sports intoxicat- ed with the sun, fresh air and ac- tivity, take pride in hoisting a strongly fortified epidermis, tanned legs, choclate-coloured arms and Havanna-coloured face and shoul- ders done to a turn. A sign of the times: there exist specialists entrusted with artificial- ly tanning and bronzing refactry bare necks by the action of the sun or sea-salt, in order to allow our worldlings afflicted with lily and rose complexion to show next Oc- tober in the lobbies of the Opera, a cutaneous disguise of which they need not be ashamed. This is an evil epoch for the grandsons of Ronsard who can no longer invite Mignone to come and see if the rose can call a rival colorour into her cheek. The poet who wishes to Hatter his beloved and to prove to her that her beauty surpasses nature, will soon have to conduct her gallantly into the pre- sence of a tomato or an apricot.