The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-10-27
American Girls Abroad.

Then why is it that the eye is more at
tracted in watering places by American
than by English girls? The reason is
that American girls know how to dress
and English girls are devoid of all no.
ton of this most praiseworthy accom-
plishment. l am not speaking now of
irreclaimably dowdy girls, but of girls
who really do make an effort to fulfill
their duty to the male sex. These girls
seem, however, unable to understand that
what suits one person does not necessa-
rily suit everybody If a tall, thin En-.
glish girl sees short, dumpy girl in
dress that sets off her charms to advan-
tage, she appears soon afterward in an
exact copy of this dress, and then in
dulges in the pleasing delusion that she
looks well in it. Thus it is that dumpy
girls go about in clothes befitting tall
girls, and tall girls in those betting
dumpy girls; that long faces have hats
made for fat faces, and fat faces
have hats made for long faces; that
blondes array themselves in colors that
look well on brunettes, and brunettes in
colors that look well on blondes. Now,
American girls do not fall into these er-
rors. The other day, at Hamburg, was
standing near the spring, talking to an
American girl, who looked like a picture,
so tremendously did all the colors in
which she was arrayed match, and so per-
fectly did she seem to make one with her
clothes, like bird in its feathers. How
do you manage it," asked. "1'he root
of it all is" she answered, "that we each
study our own style. We never wear
dress as it comes from dressmaker, but
we drape it ourselves. 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 by
tying piece of lace around it. If we
are short-necked we don't dress it
high If we have long faces we don't
wear tall, peaked hat, but if we
have round faces we do. Most of US
have large 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, wev very seldom
wear any jewelry at all, because it looks
vulgar. When we are tall we wear
quantity of petticoats; when we are short
we hardly wear any. Our petticoats, too,
have their fullness in the back, so our
figures are always well draped, while the
petticoats of English girls have their
fullness in the front, and this is why their
dresses seldom hang well. Now, look
at that lady," and she pointed to an En-
glishwoman towhom nature had not been
unkind, but who resembled handsome
giraffe, so tall, so awkward and gawky did
she seem, " She's got no petticOats on to
speak of, continued the American. "She
makes her face longer than it is by wear
ing that hat, and she makes her cheeks
hollow by wearing long earrings. Her
dress is straight piece of cloth tied back
and has no overdress. To save the
edges, she has looped it up over her petit
coat, which is much too short. As the
dress is purple she must needs wear red
stockings, and as she is flat-footed she
makes her feet still worse by her low
heels. Her neck isugly, for it is long and
thin and the skin is all crinkly, so she
shows it at its ugliest by having an open
cut dress. Her arms amt much and her
wrists bony and quite horrid AS her
sleeves are too short, her gloves have
only two buttons Round each of her
wrists she has tied bit of ribbon, with
the ends floating and between the ribbons
and her gloves there is 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
very small parasol. Now, do just watch
her. She knows that 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 her
gums in way that's quite lamentable
She's got good eyes, but this is no reason
why she should glare in that bold and
audacious manner at anyone who comes
near her." Then my fair friend pointed
to short, squat English girl. "Observe
how that fat girl" said she, brings her
hair down on her forehead, like Maltese
dog. Look at her round hat, which
makes her face still rounder. She's COW
cred that green dress all over with bows
and beads and ruffies, by which she adds
pounds upon pounds to her natural fat,
and it's all Jumped up round 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 if she were
brunette, and, as she has only fixed 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 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 a suspicion 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 stock
ings 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"