nstead of natural complexion, false hair instead of
real, and flesh-painting of every description. I have even the
hardihood to think and assert, in the presence of a generation whereof
not one woman in twenty wears her own hair, that the simple,
short-cropped locks of Rosa Bonheur are in a more beautiful style of
hair-dressing than the most elaborate edifice of curls, rats, and
waterfalls that is erected on any fair head nowadays."

"Oh, Mr. Crowfield! you hit us all now," cried several voices.

"I know it, girls,--I know it. I admit that you are all looking very
pretty; but I do maintain that you are none of you doing yourselves
justice, and that Nature, if you would only follow her, would do
better for you than all these elaborations. A short crop of your own
hair, that you could brush out in ten minutes every morning, would
have a more real, healthy beauty than the elaborate structures which
cost you hours of time, and give you the headache besides. I speak of
the short crop,--to put the case at the very lowest figure,--for many
of you have lovely hair of different lengths, and susceptible of a
variety of arrangements, if you did not suppose yourself obliged to
build after a foreign pattern, instead of following out the intentions
of the great Artist who made you.

"Is it necessary absolutely that every woman and girl should look
exactly like every other one? There are women whom Nature makes with
wavy or curly hair: let them follow her. There are those whom she
makes with soft and smooth locks, and with whom crinkling and creping
is only a sham. They look very pretty with it, to be sure; but, after
all, is there but one style of beauty? and might they not look
prettier in cultivating the style which Nature seemed to have intended
for them?

"As to the floods of false jewelry, glass beads, and tinsel finery
which seem to be sweeping over the toilet of our women, I must protest
that they are vulgarizing the taste, and having a seriously bad effect
on the delicacy of artistic perception. It is almost impossible to
manage such material and give any kind of idea of neatness or purity;
for the least wear takes away their newness. And, of all disreputable
things, tumbled, rumpled, and tousled finery is the most disreputable.
A simple white muslin, that can come fresh from the laundry every
week, is, in point of real taste, worth any amount of spangled
tissues. A plain straw bonnet, with only a ribbon across it, is in