and loss of time.

I can spot this class of women a block away. In my mind's eye I can see
them fussing and primping for hours before they are ready to don their
street clothes and get down into the shopping district for the day's
work of pricing real lace and buying hairpins. And I always look around
me and think of what a vast deal of work there is in this great, big,
sorrowful old world, and what direful need there is of every one
pitching in and helping. To me, the useless woman is not a pretty
woman. She is an ornament, like the shepherdess on the mantelpiece or
the Spanish lady in the picture frame that hangs in the hallway. But
the other woman--the pretty and the useful woman--oh, but she is a
sight to make old eyes grow young. Her gown is spotless, her hair all
fluffy and lovely, her hat just at the correct angle. She steps along
quickly, and you know by the very air about her that she is a worker,
be she of the smart set or of the humdrum life that toils and spins
from morn till eve. Her eyebrows are not penciled, there is not a trace
of rouge on her cheeks, but she is a healthy, well-built, active woman,
whose very appearance of neatness, sweetness and buoyancy tells all who
see her that she is a devotee of the daily bath, the dumb-bells, the
correct and hygienic life.

In half an hour any woman should be able to take her plunge, coddle her
complexion, dress her hair, manicure her nails, and attend to her
teeth. If more time be needed, then the work is hardly worth the while,
for life is mighty short, my dears, and things that must be done pile
up as the years go by. At night in fifteen minutes the face and hands
can be well washed, the hair brushed and combed and plaited, the teeth
well cleaned, and the complexion massaged with a little pure home-made
cream. Of course, when the hair is shampooed or the nails manicured
with particular care, or the complexion subjected to a thorough
cleansing by steam or massage, then more time is necessary.

But the gist of it all is this: Let us not spend so much time on the
exterior effect that we will forget that which is most necessary to a
beautiful woman--the bright, interesting mind, the love of learning
things, the desire to be keeping apace with just a little bit of the
world's progress, and, best of all, teaching oneself how to live wisely
and well. There never was--to my way of thinking--a brainless, silly
woman who was beautiful. It takes the light of intellect,