Mitts And Clean Fingers

[.rromiljB uuHiou iraiitunpi.j Aftcr giving Daisy the most judicious advice as to sunsbades, Bhe proceeds to mitts, saying: " Well, Daisy, if you will haye the Iruth, you ought not to wear mitts until you know how to wash your hands and clean your finger nails. Don't flush and get angry. You are no worse than most girls and most women. I dislike mitts because I see them go out oí fashion, and I always think of them as wom ou big red paws, graspicg a market basket, but 1 also like them becanse tkey disclose such a mnltitnde of small sins against neatness. Pretty girls come here and play Mendelssohn and Chopin to me, and I am grateful, and wish that I dared to teil them how much prettier their hands should look if I had the care of them. The little ladies mean to be nent, but thoy think that they cannot make their dimpled ringerjoints perfectly clean without roughcning the skin, and so they make no eflbrt to do so. Very likely they have a hangnail or two, and seem to regard it as a dispensation of fate for whioh they are notaccountable; and, as for their nailg, I have not seen a pretty set on that keyboard. Somebody wrote a long story the other day about a nail doctor who, for a stated fee, keeps the hands of French ladies in order. We need a legión of nail doctors here." "I'm sure," said Daisy, with a pout, "I wash my hands often enough." "But you never wash them thoroughly," is the sharp retort. "Go and do it now," Daisy obeys, and, after a great splashing and rubb'ing of soap and ecrubbing of nail-brush, and a hasty polish with a towel, holds out ten pink digits for'inspection. " Washed !" says the fairy godmother with intense scorn. "Frightened with water, as my grandmother used to teil me ! Now do as I bid you. First, soap your hands, brush your nails insideand out ; now rub on Indian meal, and then rinse your hands. Tbink they are clean, do you ? Oblige me by washing your left hand in the liquid in that bottle. You see that it is ten shades wliiter than the right. Whatisit? Oxalicacid. Now rub a drop of glycerine on your hands, and then dry them. Pictty weli; but, Daisy, what do you do to your nails V' "I clean them with a shaip penknife," half sobs Daisy, looking ruefully at the contrast between her broad, irregularlyshaped nails and the fairy godmother's with her smootbly-rounded edges, polished pink surface, and pale crescent at the root. "And I can't help it," Daisy goes on, "if they are not pretty. They are just as they were made." "That is quite true," said the god mother, " and much to your discredit. Suppose you left your hair just as it was made, and never braided or combed it; would that be meritorious ? Never touch a penknifo ïi your naiis. Use a blunt point to clean them, snd a rile to trim them. Follow the line of the finger-tip iu shaping them. There is a little instrument made of nickel, and combining point and file which you can buy at any apothecary's. Remember that the skin about the root of the nail should be carefully pressed back every day, and that the corners of the nail should not bc filed too closely. It takes time to do all these things, but there are few toilet offices of more real importance. A wellkept hand will retain its beauty long after the hair is gray, the eyes dull, aftf r the teeth have departed and the figure is only a memory of the past ; but an ill-kept han is a blemish that nothing can counterbalance. Moreover, Daisy, men notice it ten times more quic&ly than women, and nothing provokes more invidious remarks f rom them than ooiled öngers and nails in mourning. You don't care for men ? Of course not, Daisy, but I mention the fact. Now, a3 for mitte, you may have a pair of white silk ones to wear with your white snit, but no black ones. VVear gloves, Daisy, and keep your hands soft, and envy not the ladies in mitts - If to their sharo somc manly praise should fall, Look at their nails and y m'll forget it all.