The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-23
ENGLISH BEAUTY.
The Women Flesh and Blood Venuses in Ill
Fitting Clothes.

Fitting Clothes.
Lucy Hooper, in Philadelphia Telegraph.
The feature of London that always strikes
me the most forcibly when | come here from
Paris is the superior physique of the people.
The average British male is a fne-looking
creature. The great broad-shouldered,
sinewy looking men look as though the old
legend of one Englishman being a match for
ten Frenchmen was strictly founded on
fact. And the young men are such fresh
checked, clean-limbed, clear-eyed fellows,
that it does one good to look at
them, after a long course of gazing
at the small, sallow, keen-eyed Parsians.
l am beginning, TOO, to wake up to an APP
probation of the remarkable beauty of the
English women. They do their best to blot
it out under garments hideous in shape
and exasperating in color, but the beauty
is there, and an analyst of feminine charn:S
can recognize it, despite the drawbacks of i'll
dressed hair, and ill-fitting gowns, boots and
gloves. Such beautiful hair as one sees on
the heads OF young girls, who can do nothing
better with profuse silken locks of paly
gold that would drive Partisan coiffeur half
wild with admiration, than to scratch them
back off of their foreheads and twist them
up i'll a hard little ball behind. And then
their mplexlons-cream and roses afford
the only comparison possible. Add to this such
arms and necks as sculptor would be proud
to model, and the result is-a dowdy. Well
uItSSeu, Ou6-IHl1 Oh IDe Young English WO-
men that one sees would be fesh-and- blood
Venuses As it is, they are merely
commonplace girls with touch of the ABB
surd about their appearance. Now and then
one sees face so fresh, so fair so charming
in its blooming youth and innocent oandor,
that 1t is loving in spite of combed- back hair
and horrible bonnet. But it must be very
lovely to stand such test, and not one in q
thousand can do so. One thing that is very
odd about English ladies is the fact that thew
never care to have their dresses fit. They all
wear gowns the cut of which would drive an
average American female wild with misery
l was at the opera last night, and in front of
me sat a young lady wearing dress of pale
blue brocade trimmed with pearl passemen-
terie. 1t laced up the back, and one side of
the back of the corsage was fully half an
inch higher than the other to say nothing Of
such minor defects as sleeves cut out very
much in the back, and general series of
wrinkles all over the corsage This
is rather an extreme case, but as a rule, the
dresses worn by Englishwomen do not make
even feeble pretense at fitting them. The
English dress and cloakmakers complain
greatly at the business and exactness of their
American clients, who are used to well-fit-
ting garments, and who insist upon having
them when they pay good price for the ar
ticles. The cases of the Messrs BENJAMIN
the ulster-makers, in Conduit street, may be
remembered They put a placard in the
window saying that no orders from America
would be received without prepayment of
half the price of the article. The reason of
this was the simple fact that their American
customers would not take ill-made, ill-fitting
ulsters They sent one, remember, to ali
American lady, which was three inches
longer in front than it was at the back So
the lady refused to take 1t, and considerable
unpleasantness was the result