Morning journal and courier., 1883-05-07
SuurnaI arto Courier.
SINGLE COPIES THREE CENTS.
Monday, May 2. 1883.
AMERICAN WOMEN AS SEEN BY MRS
 LANGTRY.

AMERICAN WOMEN AS SEEN BY MRS.
 LANGTRY.
 Many of the American women have had " their say" concerning Mrs. Langtry. They have criticized her with great freedom and frankness- Many of them, too, have undoubt- edly decided in their own secret minds that they know women who are quite as beautiful as Mrs. Langtry, and..who could, if they had the chance, act great deal better All this has not hurt the charming Engiishwoman, and has benefited her bank account She has not hitherto given herself the pleasure of talking back" to any great extent but she has, now that her theatrical and successful tour is drawing to 8 close, unburdened her mind of some of it's impressions and opinions concerning the women of America. As she has had great opportunity to see them when dressed in their best and on their good be havior, and as she may fairly be called judge of what constitutes beauty in 8 woman, her utterances are entitled to respectful consider ation by the women of this country who have had and used the opportunity of criticisine her, and, in our opinion, these utterances are well worth attention.
 Mrs. Langtry thinks that American women have very pretty faces, bright and winning, and that one sees many more pretty faces here than in England. She thinks, too, that American women have very pretty hands and feet, and beautiful hair But she must take the liberty to say that their figures are gen orally bad The American standard of figure is altogether too plump to please her, but as she has been called "scraggy,' she does not see why her opinion should be of any interest in the matter. She saw the prettiest women in Baltimore, where every woman seemed to her beauty. She does not admire the dress of American women. On this point she said: "On the whole, think they dress too smartly for the street and too simply for the theatre I think they mix their colors badly and have too many bows and ends on their dresses. To my taste 8 woman cannot be too simply dressed for the street. A dress of simple neutral tints plsases me best" But while she cannot say much for the dress of Ameri- can women she can for their manners. This is the way sue talked about them, (the man. ners): CT think them charming, so free and open. The American women are so inde- pendent and there is such a delightful lack of self-consciousness about them They are, too, very bright in conversation, and the freedom and frankness of their manner im- presses one instantly; it is so different from the reserve of the general run of English wo- men," She likes to see ladies in full dress at the theatre; or they might, if they come in h0, ako kha abov one seea in the French thaa4ses.- She thinks the big hats women wear in American thea tres are abominable, as they are. She is "down on'' tsbows and ends' and won't have any bows about her, not even on her parasol As far as her observation has gone the Amer ican style in dress, in cutting and Gall that ]" is about year behind that of Paris. She thinks American women think English wo- men dress very badly, but she believes that they dress admirably, and says the Princess of Wales has set the women of England charming example in simplicity of dress.
 We do not know how this kind of talk about dress will strike the femstet mind, but it will, we venture to say, appear pretty sen- sible to the male mind. Mrs. Langtry is believer in simple and appropriate costumes, and she shows by her own clothes that she knows how to dress we'll. American women spend great deal of money in clothing themselves, but too many of them do not pay much attention to simplicity. and exhibit a regular passion for conspicuous and inap- propriate attire and for the ''bows and ends'' which Mrs. Langtry eschews. But, as we know very little about the feminine mind or the clothes in which it manifests itself, per haps we had better stop before we get into trouble.