Billie Burke's Advice

Selected entries from actress Billie Burke's regular column in the Fort Wayne Sentinel Billie Burke on Beauty

1st August, 1912
Billy Burke on Alcohol as Beauty's Enemy

The First Word: LIQUOR NOT ONLY RUINS BEAUTY BUT IT KILLS.

The other evening in one of the splendid restaurants in New York I saw a number of young girls, none over 18 or 20, having what they thought was a glorious time. There were six girls and six men somewhat older than themselves and the girls had been drinking wine until their faces were flushed, their voices loud and strident and their manners most noticeable. How I wanted to whisper to these thoughtless maids that if any one of them wished to stand well with any one of the men present she had better make some excuse and go home immediately.

No man on earth wants to see the woman for whom he cares even slightly under the influence of drink, and the man who will encourage a girl to take a drink of liquor does not care what happens to her, she is nothing to him.

Nothing will steal away your good looks as will intoxicating liquor. I have a friend who is over fifty and who when asked the other day how she retained not only her beauty but her youthful contours and expression, answered, "In the first place, I never touch spiritous liquor." Not one young woman in the crowd about her could vie with her in appearance and not one young woman in the crowd who did not think it necessary to occasionally at least sip a glass of wine. It was an object lesson that I am sure they will remember.

Just One Last Word: LIQUOR MAY EXHILARATE FOR THE MOMENT BUT IT LEAVES DEVASTATION IN ITS WAKE.

3rd September, 1912
Billy Burke Says: Look Only for the Best

The First Word: TRAIN YOUR EYES TO SEE ONLY THE BEST.

I wonder if you realize that your eyes are being trained all the while to pick out certain things which form the every day pictures of life about you. Two people will go along the same road and see totally different things. One will pick out the best and the other the worst.

One of the greatest illustrations of this eye training is the way in which we lirst dislike a fashion and then after seeing it on our friends come to like it and at last reluctantly put it aside for something new. You can remember how you laughed the first time you tried on one of the hats that came down over your head. You would probably laugh just as heartily today if you should find one of your old head covers and perch it up on your crown. Your eyes have become accustomed to the hat which covers the head and they like it.

It is said that people with scarred and marked faces become so accustomed to them that they have no idea of how the sight of them affects others, and it is very probable that we become so accustomed to our small imperfections of physique that we forget about them.

Once in a while when I am shopping I take a little time and study the faces of the women about me, for you know it is much easier to see a fault in others than in yourself, and after you have found it in the other woman you can look over your own face to see if you have it or not.

One of the things which girls and women neglect more than almost anything else is their eyebrows, and yet, NOTHING WILL MAR A FACE MORE THAN UGLY EYEBROWS. Eyebrows to be fine, should curve slightly over the eyes and have plenty of space between them over the nose. The hair should be of uniform length and dark in color. EVERY WOMAN IN THE LAND CAN HAVE NICE EYEBROWS IF SHE WANTS THEM, but only about one woman in ten does have them, consequently she must look at them with unseeing eyes many times a day. The ugliest eyebrows are those which meet over the nose, as they make one look very hard. This can easily be obviated by pulling out the hairs with tweezers and dabbing the place with ammonia and peroxide of hydrogen. If this smarts use a little cold cream afterward. While you are about it, pull out all the scraggy hairs and shape your eyebrows to a pretty crescent, beginning with near the nose and trailing off to a point near the temples.

In the larger cities there are men who do nothing else than shape the eyebrows of society women and actresses. They do it with a razor and carefully shave off one hair at a time until the desired shape is reached. A friend of mine who found this rather expensive, does it for herself, using one of her brother's safety razor blades. She cuts the hairs off one by one, using no soap and water, for that would make them stiff. She tells me she only has to do this about once a month, and her eyebrows are very much admired.

I do not blame any girl who has very light scraggy eyebrows for darkening them. The best thing to use for this is mascara, a water color. Put it on very carefully, using the little brush that comes in the box with the colors. This is perfectly harmless and if used with discretion cannot be detected, but you must train your eyes to detect the first bit of paint on your skin. Just lightly darken each hair.

Just One Last Word: IT IS THE LITTLE DETAILS WHICH MAKE GREAT BEAUTY.

5th September, 1912
Billie Burke Says: You Can Improve on Nature.

The First Word: YOU ARE NOT THE CHILD OF NATURE.

Many women will remark with much complacency, "I am as nature made me," not realizing that they are NOT in any way as nature made them; their physical characteristics, their mental bent, their moral bias, being always the effect of heredity and environment and the care and thought they give themselves.

One might as well say she would never try to improve her mind because she was born with a mind, as to be perfectly satisfied with her physical attributes as nature gave them to her.

YOU CAN IMPROVE UPON NATURE. Dentists have demonstrated that it is not necessary to be without teeth, even if the victim has through neglect lost those useful parts of the human body.

THERE IS NO REASON WHY ONE SHOULD NOT ALWAYS BE GOOD TO LOOK AT FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE IF ONE TAKE THE PROPER CARE OF ONESELF.

The most of us are very apt to neglect our bodies as they are such wonderful machines that the finite mind cannot conceive of their supreme power and beauty. We clog them up with waste fuel, we run them without lubricating oils, we allow them to get rusty for want of proper care and exercise. And then we wonder why our machine looks ugly and stops before the allotted three score years and ten.

WOMEN MUST REALIZE THAT BEAUTY MEANS PERFECT HEALTH AND STRIVE FIRST TO ATTAIN IT. Without a basis of health no woman can be beautiful, no matter if her features are absolutely classical, consequently she must first learn how to aquire health and having aquired it, how to retain it. There are also many little individual details to which one must give a great deal of attention if one would be fair to look upon.

Never be satisfied to remain as nature made you, but go on improving yourself physically, mentally and morally as long as you live.

Just One Last Word: YOU CAN IMPROVE UPON NATURE.