Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1868-10-29


we'll"
Who would believe the ungrateial
return for my troublci Mary threw
the plaster in my face, (whcre II stuck
30 fast that il pulled out one whisker
bv the roots,) burst into tears, and
ran up stairs sobbing out that she
never was 80 insulted in her life
Pretty Maria Lamantha came down
stairs and began TO give mo HAL
Columbia in the scolding way; and
III tell you when that girl goes in Tor
a good square jaw she can't bo beat
by anything that wears "back hair"
She told me that | had insulted her
friend and abused her, and she was
going to leave and go right home. l
tried to find out what all the row was
about, and explained to Miss Laman-
tha that | wanted 10 do Mary Magee
a kindness, and had offered hor the
plaster to take the "crick" out of her
back.
"Crickw said Lemantha, in her
most vicious and spitefnl way /;
"CRIcK You must be fool that's
no crick-that's the GREcIAN BEND"
"Well," said l, "whatever you may
call it, Mary Magee has got it bad ;
but I'm sure that plaster would cure
IL before to-morrow morning"
At last, after long series of scold-
ing on Lemantha's part, the whole
thing came out. The Grecian Bend
is not q deformity to be pitied--it is
fashion to be followed. 1t seems that
Mary had seen a giIl who had become
Grecian Bender in England, and she
had told the girls that all the aristo.
cracy are Blenders" and go all the
time half bent, as if they were anxious
to become humpbacks, and had just
got the hunch well started.
Lemantha said that all the girls in
America who cared for style, were
practicing walking round-shouldered
and were becoming Greeian Blenders
as fast as they could.
noticed next day in the street thai
Lemantha had told the truth Every
unmarried woman we met was walk
ing with her head thrust forward, hei
shoulders bumped up, elbows drawn
back, and her arms raised to leve
with the stomach, while the hands
were hanging loosely from the wrists
as if there was no bone there. YoJ
can't imagine a more awkward, un
graceful, ungainly posture. Every
woman looks like kangaroo in petit
coats.
Lemantha says that, for fear they
should forget fashion and SHOULD
straighten up for minute as natur'
intended them TO, they wear sort o
harness called "pannier," which an
swers a double purpose-it adds Il
the size of the hump, and it keep
the poor, deluded patient all the tim'
bumped.
Can anything be imagined NOR,
hideous? Just think Of a graceful
well made woman, making GreciaI
Bender of herself, by crooking he
spine, humping her shoulders, ant
strapping herself into the shape Of I
dromedary as near as she can !
l observed carefully yesterday al
tho "Benders" / met in the street
They all wore an affected idiotic smil,
which they can't help. They all look
ed ashamed of themselves, for they
knew everybody was laughing a
them, and so they walked two to
gether TO keep each other in counte
nance. Not aa"Bender" could fac,
the jeering crowd alone. They al
carried their hands tapping up anC
down, with the fingers wide apart fo
all the world as if they had been boil
ed and the bones taken out. Thei
humps looked as though each had I
peddler's pack on her shoulders hal
covered up with a shawl.
They all looked like,-well to pu
in sentence, my idea of Greciar
Bender-the hump on her shoulder
makes her look to me as if she hat
done hard days work over her wasl
tub yesterday, and couldn't straighteI
her back to-day; and her Tapping
hands look as if she had just takel
them from bowl of starch, and tina
sticky fluid was dripping off the end
of her fingers. | think, in fact, th'
Grecian Bender should be called "Th,
Washer-woman's Stoop."
Q. X. PHILASDER DoEsTIcK's, p. b
->->-S
i WONAN'g lava vnmop'a lov,