The bible is subtitled: "As Laid Down By Our Saviour--The Christ."

Got my gnarled, greasy, grimy, grubby fingers on a copy of a Cornerstones of Christianity bible that was owned by a Presbyterian family in Ripley, New York, in the early 1900s. While the good book itself is a standard hardcover copy of Testaments both New and Old (published by the John A. Hertel Company), there was a stash of newspaper clippings, personal letters, general-store receipts and other ephemera still pressed in the pages. The latest item appears to be dated 1916. One of the letters involves a missionary expedition to India.

I’ll bring you a transcript of each item in the days ahead. Today I’ll start with a newspaper article that was clipped from a local Ripley journal. I’d like to say it’s a horribly stupid, sexist piece that could never be published now, but is it really any more reductive than much of the the junk in today’s women’s magazines? Here’s a word-for-word transcript of the unbylined “Cultivation of Facial Beauty”:

“The woman who spends all of her money upon clothes and neglects her face and hair is no more interesting than a wooden figure decked to a gorgeous gown in a show window. A great artist once said to me that no clever woman would wear a garment or jewel to outshine her face. Meaning that the face should be the ornament and the garments should form the frame surrounding it.

Nothing looks more grotesque than an expensively gowned woman who has allowed her hair to become faded and neglects to dress her face. When I say ‘dress her face,’ I mean not only to wash it but to treat it with a pure face cream, which cleanses the pores of the skin, and the use of a little delicate, pure powder. Every woman past the age of 25 requires a little powder upon her face. There are secretions of dust and grease in the pores of the skin which cause a shine upon the surface that has an appearance of neglect.

The face, neck and hair should first be considered; the dress should be a secondary consideration. The quality of the hair, its care and manner of arrangement is a question only of attention. The quality of the complexion, its bloom and smoothness, is simply a question of exercise, cleanliness, and quality of creams and powders used.

First beautify your head, then fit your garments to suit it, and you will have a harmonious symphony pleasing to the eye and mind of all who behold.”