Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-01-28

ously to feed the artistic eye.
We are not satiated, but we con-
fess that a long enjoyment of the
feast has had its effect in enabling us
to pass even the most prodigious of
novelties with tolerable equanimity.
We are not naturally of an exclta-
BILE disposition and perhaps not very
demonstratiye-wbich is fortunate
so that when even the Grecian
Bend, in in all its caudal luxuriance
dazzles the eye of the casual observ-
err, we manage to retain sufficient
presence of mind to philosoplize on
the grandeur of the discovery which
gave such attractive elegance to
certain part of the female form.
We are sometimes wrapt in admi-
ration at the immensely of that intel
lect which fashioned for such place
such magnificent belongings. We
conjure u before imagination's eye
what ought to be the grateful feeling
of amlable women toward him Tor
her) who first conceived the means
of piling so much honor upon what
has hitherto been comparatively neg
lected.
The task ofdetracting from Amer
lean loneliness would not be pleas
ant to our tastes, but while we are
forced to acknowledge the existence
Of those who are engaged in it, we
can not but admire the boldncss o.
the man Cor woman who exaggera-
ted Il line of beauty to perfect line
of deformity.
Sometimes our cogitations take a
different turn. Perhaps it is that our
admiration for our contemporaries
mere living illustrations of hu-
mainly, like ourselves-gets weari-
some, and so we dream about the
past, and are carried back in spirit
to the glorious day when the fash
ionable bend. which now SO forci-
bly, deforms, was the signilication of
n virtue and the evidence of. right
eOusness.
We see in the innermost recesscs
OF our brain-for, as may DC well
imagined. we have many-the rich
productions ofancient sculptors that
once delighted us in the old world
There pass before our mental eyes,
too, some of the works of recent ar
tists-men of our own time, men of
our own country-men WHO loved
beauty as too divine a thing to be
hidden or yelled, still less to be bu. :
lesqued And the bend" becomes
to us a Specification of modcstv; a
token of the divinest virtue which
adorns woman; an emblem Of clias-
tity and type Of love.
And while we think over'tllis, and
contemplate in the innermost recess
es of our heart the cause for so sig
nilicant diifcrence--that there n
form should be indicative ofso much
vi tue, while here, in its exa@gera-
tons, it is used TO represent so much
that may not be virtue-it suddenly
occurs to us that in those ancient
where the bend is so
eXquisitely beautiful, the figures are
nude, whereas IN the modern exag-
ecrations-well, the figures are moi
nude.
What, then, is the logical conclu
sion to which we are necessarily driy-
en-? The suggestion may he alarm
ing, but in these practical da~s we
must not be terrified into inaction
or silence Ivy any result to which q
truth or fashion may lead us HE
W. men are not; why should we lie?
We walk down Broadway aud there
we see the ladies assuming a form
which they seek to refine 10y calling
it bend and it conveys the idea
of ugliness, deformity, dcpravity of
art, and reck!essness of character for
modesty, good sense and purity. We
turn into the ,tudio of the sculptor,
we wander in spirit through the art
treasures viii h for centuries have
there see the same form-the genu-
inc Notwithstanding and IMPLYING
the highest virtues which adorn the
sex. Wherefore, then, the differ
ence? Only this: the one figure
the Broadway pedestrian--faunts
herself in padding and gew -gaws and
.roy drappries and tho Othpr fipu O.
the Athenian models nude. How
violent the antithesis. Immodesty
draped, and modesty naked. I'm
modest because so draped; modest
because thus naked. There is. then,
out ole conclusion: That the Grecian
Bend, to be acceptable under the
ethics of true art. must be accompa-
MED with the conditions under which
it was originally made familiar to
us. And ladies who persist in ADOPT
ing it must either exhibit the natural
contour of their persons. or be the
exemplifications Of questionable mo-
rality, and very questionable bad
taste.
AS We already have said, the con-
clusion is slightly shocking-espe-
cially to prudish people like ourself
but how are we 10 avoid it? We
state nothing more nor less than tie
logical inference. We do
not wish to become fashion mongeIs
and oven If we did could NOT with