The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-07-12
The American Lean Type.

The American Lean Type.
What gives us all the tendency to
,piritualiZe and thin away, we have not
yet seen very satisfactorily explained
tor certain it Is that we are proverbial
for our lean type of beauty-but it may
be instructive, meantime, to discuss, alb
stractly, the question of fat and lean
beauty. A London paper thus sermon
ICES, apropos of Banting's attack on the
English Disagreement by corpulence:
More people, we imagine, wish TO be
fatter than wish they could diminish
their fat. It is true, the desire is more
closely confined to women, men being
tolerant ofleanness in themselves, apt
to believe, indeed in spite of scores of
examples, that want of flesh increases
the appearance of intellect. Pallor and
thinness are, in fact, nearly as much
cultivated among certain classes az
white hands and general listlessness,
and mainly for the same reason--that
they show their possessor has neither
necessity nor inclination to do any
thing useful-that he is dollhouse
plant, and not an ear of grain
The preference among men for sallOw-
ness over color, sharp lines over round
ness, attenuation over muscular develop
ment, is one of the oldest results of a
civilization which does not profess to be
ascetic. 1t is passing away, we believe,
under the influence of healthier mode
of life; but ten years ago robust health
was considered obtrusive, strength de-
cidedly low, and high color the first
mark Of an utter plebian; and the in
rooms still. Women, however, have
never fallen into them for themselves;
have always, by instinct, preferred soft
outlines and changing colors; have been
ashamed of the obtrusiveness of their
bones; and have tried hard to keep their
faces from falling In. A charge of Lean
ness is nearly the worst woman can
bring against herself and the highest
art of the miliner is exerted to soften
off the harsh lines which in men are adj
mired, to give the fullness and round-s
ness Of contour male coquettes so earn
estly avoid. The true principles of
beauty are the same in both cases, but
civilization has not in woman cor-
rupted natural taste, and no wo-
man was ever proud of sunken
cheeks, Or hollow eyes, or bony arms, or
figure without infleXions. The differ
ence of feeling has even affected the Ian
guage, and the word scragginess, as a
| fined to a woman as the word buXom is,
and is at least as much dreaded by them
as the accusation of compliance is by
men. It is held to indicate age; and
while men care nothing about their ages.
women very justifiably do care, being
well aware that the other sex, with their
habituaI tendancy to the evil, prefer the
bedute de didbie, the spell of youth and
freshness, to almost any other. There
must be hundreds of thousands in this
country, where the climate softens moth
ing and dress Is specially adapted to
make leanness ridiculous, who would en-
dure any course of diet, abstain from
any indulgence, to put more flesh on
their bones, yet no DR.. Harry or philan-
thropic undertaken steps forward on their
behalf. Brillat Savarin, who taught Mr..
Banting 80 much on the art of reducing
flesh, gives only page or two to that of
increasing it; and, though his theories
are sound, he misses what physicians be-
lieve to be the great panacea.
Fattening, too, would seem from anal
ogy to be easier work than reducing fat.
/ All domestic animals in health can be
fattened, and there is not farmer in the
country who does not think he under
stands toperfection the great art of pro-
ducing flesh. Skilled breeders will fat
| ten a bullock, or a pig, or sheep, to
| pound; but they would only laugh If
| told that they could also fatten their
daughters. Yet the only difference in
favor of the beast is that it is not bother
ed with a mind, cannot worry itself
about papa's dispIeasure or dear Char
LEWIS inattention, or the blunder it has
made inlselecting "ruching" little too
bright. By the way, cattle must have
some theory of good taste in color, or
they would not be so vehementIy irri-
tated by the sight of red, and it would
| be a curious experiment to ascertain
4 ture that love for Gobered brightness,
that dislike to all things SO very con-
| spicuous, which cultivation gives to most
! human beings, or are particular colors
signs to them, as they are to the Pope,
| of a hostile bravado? the mind, no
doubt, is nuisance which physicians
| find it hard to deal with, but still all
scraggy girls are not scraggy because
they have got, as Lord Westbury says,
what they are pleased to call minds, and
the very large remainder ought to be just
as amenable to the influence of good
feeding as lambs, or cattle, or turkeys.
OF course, there are women who cannot
be fattened, even when their minds are
at rest; Just as there are others who, un-
der the fercest iicsad of anxiety, still ac-
cumuiate fat. The H.. "'ority, hoWevei'
IL not I'll, or consumptive, O, "fe'e Innt
tuIally active or feverishly eager a.,
affairs, must be capable, like all other
domestic animals, Of being fed into de-.
cent enadonpoint. The only question ia
as to the regimen which will aecomnlish
the end, without too much annoyanee'
or disturbance of the domestic economv,
or risk of producing habitual and exces,
sive laZiness.
Milk is of all things the great fattener,
and it would seem probable from the
African evidence that it is one of the
very few articles of diet the effect of
which is not perceptibly diminished by
the dislike of the drinker. So long as
it can be kept down at all it will fatten,
and in the African States it is often adj
ministered by force through horn, just
as horse is drenched. The rest of the
diet matters little-except that acids
must be avoided, that bread should be
the staple, and that sweet things are
beneficial-for milk in large quantities
is sufficient with this other rule. Never
begin to employ yourself particularly
Nth mental work tho p,on,ant w., -