Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-13
VICTIMS l OF OBESITY.
Dom Piatt's Observations on the
ScOurge Of freshness.
now fashionable Women Fight to Get
Rid of Their Fat. - as 6

do you know, my dear boy y L said t
Trend who had opened his doors to m
on Madison Avenue a little before Len
set IN, and / saw beautiful rooms croyde
with men and women in their best attire
do you know that America is gettin
dismally fat ?''
More SO than was always the case p
he asked.
well, l should think SO, !" responded
when was night-blooming, serious
young man, girls were delicate and slen
ger the women appeared at parties lik,
inverted tombs, with all the bones ontb,
top. Now the girls are stout and the
mothers mountains of flesh.'
My friend essayed a speech in renlv
but had to, get one side for a gorgeous
creature, who rose like Venus from . see
ofskirts, and swept between rs. InoticeG
her superb head set on her statuesque
neck, while over her full bust, and from
the snowy precipice of her shoulders fell
tnln, gauzy stuff that, like the smoke OF
pattle about the "Star Spangled Banner
halt concealed while revealing all the
beauties of a form divine. After her
painted the mother. Holy Moses, what a
mass OF adipose, that no gauze could con-
ceal or soften! r,..-~
II don't know" said my host. getting
round these feminine specimens of ami
mated adipose, "what we had in the past
to which you refer, but female New York
OF the aristocratic sort is being agitated
with an effort to throw off its obesity, and
come down to its fighting weight"
What do you mean ?" asked.
II mean that clever woman has dis
covered the process of reducing the flesh
without injury to the health, and she has
more patients and heavier income than
the most noted specialist of New York. !"
'sWith. drugs ?' 20
"No, believe Motives, certainly, she
has medicine. To tell you the truth l
don't know much about it, not being
troubled myself. All know is that a
line appeared in the Herald one day:
''Obesity treated and cured by Helen
Barnard Densmore," and she had two or
three remarkable cases, and then all
New York-all fat New York-took after
her, and she has certainly been re-
markably successful. can point you
out half a dozen cases in this room.
There, do you see that lady near the
door, talking to that man of heavy
moustache and hairless skull? Her
physique is perfect now !; a year ago she
weighed two hundred and fifty, if
pound" ,l.
l did not scrutinize the lady closely,
for the name of this curer of excessive
fat carried me back, in memory, to days
in Washington, when / edited insults for
fl,a fnT ire ~
a noted woman in the journalistic and
political circles of the national capital.
l remembered her as a tall, handsome
woman, who sat for years the only female
in the reporters gallery, taking notes and
writing letters as if mainland clever
man-knocked off the sentences.
The fact is that Helen Barnard was
more of man in her intellectual turn
than woman. Her brother pen-driyers
always spoke of her as a perfect gen.
tleman." While with her shapely head
and its profusion of nutbrown hair, and
a sweet womanly outlook from her eyes,
there was a jaw below and a firm set
mouth, that indicated more force of char
acter than is given to woman. once in
hundred years. KS il
Helen Barnard was admired, respected
and feared by the leading men of Wash
ington. Lamar, Garfield, Benjamin
Franklin Butler and old Jerry Black were
wont to talk political matters with her
and be influenced by her opinions.
When a commission was organized to
visit Europe and look into and report
upon the abuse of emigrants in the steer
age while crossing the Atlantic, Helen
Barnard said that one of the commission
ers should be a woman. Certainly"
snorted the Hon. Ben. Butler, and,
making his way to President Grant, he
had Mrs. Barnard made one of the COM
missioners. =
g Now, alf-the gentlemen on thatscom-
mission regarded it as merely holiday
outing, and to Europe they went, visited
the exposition at Vienna, and returned
in the fall without seeing an emigrantor
caring continental copper whether they
died in the steerage or not. Not so with
our brainy woman; she had purpose,
and worked it out in her own way. She
visited the homes of the class from which
we get our emigrants, to see for herself
what they were and how they lived. In
Ireland, Wales and Germany she lived
among the poor, studied their condition,
and then returning to Liverpool, put on
an old dress, changed her name, and re-
turned to New York in the steerage of the
Inman line.
To one acquainted with the hardships
of such a passage it is hard to realize
that a refined, delicate woman should
brave its privations and face its abuse.
She did this, however, and her report is
one of the abest state papers on lille at
Washington.
Subsequently she did the same sort OF
a thing for our blanketed wards, the In
dams, in the far West. ne.
So altogether she is one OF the few re.
member of Washington who are stars OF
the first magnitude, and / fastened to
look her up. New York, however, is not
only a busy place, but great center
One hour on Broadway brings in review
all one is familiar with in New York. A
month in New York brings one IN con
fact with all whom he knows the CONT
nent over. I forgot my resolve, and would
have passed it to the limbo OF unremem-
hered things but for the accident OF meet
inc the Hon. P. II. Watson. 1 did not at
first recognize the Assistant War Secre,'
tarv Of the great Stanton, who organized
victory during the great civil confllct.
The late Assistant Secretary seemed 70
have ry lr renewed his youth. When 1 saw
him before he had taken on more flesh
t thor WIS comfortable. On this occasion
the ,e excess of adipose had not only disap,
, ,n but in face and bearing he had
evidence of the highest health.
On remarking this he told 1me that ne
oTed his present condition to treatment
. oSa hands of DIR. Helen Barnard Dens-
~ a lS That same name again L Sc
nnuad her address, and in few minutes
c ci i.U ot,Saif Of 13O West Forty-fourth