Smyrna times., 1877-10-10
American Girls Abroad.

take it that there are as many pretty
girls in England as in the United States.
Then why is it that the eye is more at
tracted in Watering places by the American
than by English girls? The reason is that
American girls know how to dress and
English girls are devoid of all notion of
this most praiseworthy accomplishments
| am not speaking now Of irreclaimably
dowdy girls, but of girls who really do
make an effort to fulfill their duty towards
the male sex. These girls seem, however,
unable to understand that what suits one
person does not necessarily suit everybody.
If tall, thin English girl sees a short,
dumpy girl in dress that sets off her
charms to advantage, she appears soon
afterwards in an exact copy of this dress,
and then indulges in the pleasing delusion
that she looks well in it. Thus it is that
dumpy girls 20 about in clothes betitting
tall girls, and tall girls into those befitting
dumpy girls; that long faces have hats
made for fat faces; that blondes array
themselves in colors that look well on
hrunettes, and brunettes in colors that look
we'll on blondes. Now, American girls
rarely fall into these errors. The other
day, at Hamburg, | was standing near the
spring, talking to an American girl, who
looked like picture, so harmoniously did
all the colors in which she was arrayed
match, and so perfectly did she seem to
make one with her clothes, like bird in
its feathers. :" How do you manage it?"
asked. "The root of it all is" she answer
ed, "that we each study our own style.
We never wear Il dress as it comes from a
dressmaker. but we drape it ourselves.
1--WE know what cOlOrS match, and we
take care not to produce discords. Nature
has not made us all perfect If we have
too long neck we reduce it 10y tying
piece Of lace round it, If we are short
necked we don't dress it high If we
have long faces we don't wear a tall peaked
hat, but if we have round faces, we do.
Most of US have small feet but if our feet
are large we don't utterly neglect our shoes
and our stockings. Then we never forget
smaller details. We know where to put
bow, and we don't have too many Of them.
If our foreheads are high we don't draw
our hair back, and if they are low we don't
drag our hair over our eyebrows. We
don't wear outlandish jewelry because we
happen to haveit. Indeed, we very seldom
wear any iewelry at all, because it looks
vulgar. When we are tall we wear a quan.
tity of petticoats; when we are short we
wear hardly any. Our petticoats, too, have
their fulness in the back, so our figures are
always well drapped, while the petticoats of
English girls have their fulness in the front,
and this is why their dresses so seldom
hang well.
Now look at that lady" and she pointed
to an English woman, to whom nature had
not been unkind, but who resembled
handsome giraffe, SO tall, so awkward and
50 gawky did she seem. "She's got no
pettcoats on to speak Of" continued the
American. "She makes her face longer
than it is by that hat, and she makes her
cheeks hollow by wearing long earrings.
Her dress is a straight piece of cloth tied
back, and she has no Overdress. 70 save
the edges, she has looped it up over her
petticoat, which is much too short. As the
dress is purple she must need wear red
stockings, and as she is hatfOoted she
makes her feet still rse by her low heels.
Her neck is ugly, for it is long and thin
and the skin all crinkly, so she shows it at
its ugliest by having rn open cut dress.
Her arms amt much, and her wrist bony
and quite horrid. As her sleeves are too
short, her gloves have only two buttons.
Round each Of her wrists she has tied a
bit of ribbon, with the ends floating, and
between the ribbons and her gloves there
is a very disastrous interval of red skin.
Then, why has she tied that queer bow at
the back Of her neck, which makes her
look from behind as if her head had been
put on the wrong way? OF course, as she
is tall, she has a very small parascl. Now,
do Just watch her. She knows she's got
good teeth, so she's always on the broad
grin. If she would just keep to smiling,
her teeth would come in well, but she
opens her mouth like horse and shows in
way that's lamentable. She's got good
eyes, but that is no. reason why she should
glare in that bold and audacious manner at
any one who comes near her"
Then my friend pointed to a short. SQUAT
English girl. "Observe how that fat Girl :"
she said, "brings her hair down on her
forehead like a Maltese dog Look at her
round hat, which makes her face still
rounder. She's covered that green dress
all over with bows and beads and Yuffles
by which she adds pounds and pounds TO
her natural fat, and it's all jumped up
around her neck so as to make her head
start out direct from the shoulders. She's
got on black veil with yellow dots on it..
as II she were a brunette, and, as she's only
liked it with one pin, it hangs all awry.
Her hair is dressed out behind, much too
large for her style. She's got on half a
dozen petticoats at least to swell her out.
Her belt has quite number of chatelaines
attached to it. Her parasol is big and
covered with bows, and, to take away even
soupcOn of waist, she's got on one of
those round, short Norfolk jackets Well,
to be sure, do declare that the girl has on
yellow stockings with brown bars to help
out the thickness of her ankles, though her
dress is so long and dragging that, luckily
for her, one can hardly see them and Just
do look how she has clad her feet. She's
got on things she calls shoes, suppose, but
what l call old mems slippers" "But," !