Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-21
THE REIGN OF LEAN
WOMEN.

ground.
By way of preface TO the following
philippe against little women, we may
state that "Howard Glydon" is the nom
de plume of Miss Laura c. Redden, who
is deaf and dumb, but is said TO be beauti-
full and highly educated. Some of her
poetic illusions are among the best pro-
auctions of the day. 1t may be safely
assumed that she belongs to the tall sis
terhood:
The present style of costume is ex-
pressly adapted to certain type of wo-
man found mostly in America and in
France Perhaps if l were TO say in
Paris and New York l should be nearer
the truth; but this type of woman Ger
tainly does not flourish in London. The
woman who can bear a great deal of ruff
fling and frizzing, and putting and pad
ding, and flouncing and crinolining and
high-heeling, and other promiscuous tink-
ering of this sort-not to speak of being
turnoured and panniered- look all the
better for it isn't your tall Juno or your
Diana of q woman-tbe stately, full
blooded, well-made type, oftenest found
in Great Britain and in some of our
Western States, Michigan and Wisconsin,
for instance-but a creature whose bones
and nerves and muscles are not well
cushioned with solid, substantial flesh.
Some of this sort were meant to be
plump, but wrong way of living has de-
frauded them of their birthright, and they
are horribly bony. Then again there is
another class so extremely fragile that
they don't seem to have any bones at all.
So the absence of flesh in such cases does
not seem TO be such glaring defect.
They are so light it almost seems as if a
puff of wind would blow them away.
From fifteen TO twenty-three, this sort
have what the French call LG 6eGute du
djGbLe-that intangible freshness and
softness and downiness and pinkness
which comes with early wOmanhood and
goes with it. ill twenty-three and
twenty-four they are piquant with
small features which are to be mean
and sharp by and-by, have keen, bright
eyes, pretty hair, delicate hands and feet,
a little waist and nice complexion. At
ter that they subside into sallowness,
wrinkles, meagreness, have claws instead |
of hands and feet, and furry kind of |
substance in place of hair, and very lit |
Tie even of that, it having been mostly |
dragged out by crimping pins and heavy |
chignons.
These two classes of women-the griz- |
Fly woman and Ld Oetite-are the ones
for whose especial benefit the present style |
of dress was invented. The bony woman
&c ol, ~ L. u ,,
ply irresistible. She flutters along as if |
the false curls and the short skirts and the
hOunces and the ruilles and the tOUmours,
and the odds and ends of ribbon, lace and
flowers were her natural and rightful
plumage. Despoil her of them and she is
quite another thing-a mere little manikin,
as il were-an old woman cut short Part
her hair smoothly on her brow, draw it
straight away from her face, put a plain
dress on her, and plain shawl over it.
and quiet hat or bonnet on her head;
forbid the crinoline and the pannier
and the pearl and powder, and all that.
mon DjeU! you would not know her
again. She's nobody You took away
the bird-like flutter from her walk when
you took away her high heels; and now
in its place there's nothing but an in
significant wiggle. She's nothing but a
plain little atom of a woman, with small
feet and hands and bright eyes, and rather
delicate features
No wonder, little woman, that you
cling so fondly to your f1ounces and fur
belowsl Keep them as long as you can,
hold on to them with a death-grasp! for
you are not one of those who will look
well in everything, or in anything; you
predominant to-day. You have put your
tall, well-made sister to shame. she is
in the minority. You reign. 1t is you
who have well nigh banished the sublime
cashmere-the drapery fit for a goddess,
but which needs TO fall from perfectly
proportional shoulders anG sweep down
over a graceful and stately outline to be
a success. And so goodbye cashmeresl
till tall and well-made women come in
fashion again. OF no manner of worth
are the desperate efforts made TO utilize
cashmeres by punching them up and part
ing them in the middle so as to form two
wings on each side. There is but one le-
climate way to wear a cashmere shawl,
and that is the old-fashioned way.
The tall women are under cloud The
magnificent women are at a discount!
Take such one. Friz her hair about the
round, full face, till il. looks like an over.
grown moon; spoil the classic outline of
her fine figure with putting; make bur
lesque of her stateliness by fixing a huge,
Overgrown bush of a thing at the back of
Der waist cut her skirts off to the ankles
make them scant instead of flowing; add
to her height and hObble her walk with
high heels, and, oh, Ciel! what have you
as a RESULT Imagine Venus in a tour
.nour? Minerva in chatclaine braids Di-
ma in flounces Juno in high-heeled
boots (By the way, there wasn't sin
Gle goddess Of them all, according to the
accounts that have come down to us, who
in the least condcsccnded to being petite,
unless il was Hcbc, and even she made up
in plumptitudc what she lacked in magni
tude.)
The little women are having fashions
all their own way now, but the tail ones
ought not bc discouraged so far as TO Sc
ouestrate themselves from the public re-
gard. Only they oughtn't to allow them
selves to be shown oft as foils TO their pc
lite sisters. They can easily avoid this,
by avoiding the extremes of fashion.
Their heels should not be too high, their
tiOunces too many, their paBiers oOpuffy,
their friZzling too unlimited, and their
skirts should come as near the ground as
cleanliness will permit, always be longer
- rhind than in front, 20 give the appear
lance, at least Of train. Let them rig
idly eschew short skirts for all indoor