St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-12-21
A STRANGE YOUNG WOMAN.
New York Graphic.

| ~ . ~ - ~ u ANs
New York Graphic.
| Once upon time there lived very
strange young woman. AS child she had
been peculiar. AS a young woman her
peculiarities became more marked, and by
! the time she grew to be a marion she be-
came quite widely known for her idiosyn.
cracies. pieces" got into the papers about
her. Her pastor" used her as an ex-
ample-whether good or bad YOU must
judge for yourself.
Other women talked about her whenever
they got chance.
Now. what do you suppose all this was
about? Just this: When that strange
young woman was little girl she awoke
the spirit of the inquisitor in the breast of
her mother by fatty refusing to have her
straight brown hair braided into pigtails or
twisted into brown paper humps
every Saturday and Wednesday night
IF God had meant her to have curly hair
He would have made it curly" was her ar
gument, or sophistry, nor sense. Such
dreadful Sacrilege was straightWay taken in
! hand by her well-meanng mother who
told her that God wouldn't love her if she
didn't obey her mother and have her hair
curled for her, and otherwise behave her.
self as little girl should. The mother was
the biggest. The hair was curled, but not
without much lamentatiOn.
The next struggle against the powers that
be came when she was set before pair of
stays and told to get into them. Up came
the old argument-if it had been intended
she should have had shell like futile. or
waist like wasp. it would have been
/ done without her interference. Despite her
| objections she was incaSed i'll her diStaste-
ful shell and the strings given one more
! pull each day. One week she slept
in them. The only relief that she
had during this period was an obiging
tendency of the strings to break. As
consequence OF rigorous training or by ma
ture this young girl at 16 was very slight.
| This was the cause of new struggle no
| less divided. EXtraneouS development Of
one sort and another were brought for
ward in turn and their use requested. A
refusal Oh the plea of being born thin was
no use. They were applied, and nothing
| inappropriate seen in young girl with
plump figure and thin face and arms like
a chld's ''Other girls wore 'improvers,'
WHY'S 'uldn't she?"
thu matters went on until the poor girl
wa l ;. A sensible man offered to marry
| her and she accepted-thrOugh her mother.
who told her to do so. In truth the girl was
little loath. This constant naggng and
worrying of years to make her look and ap-
pear what she was not, and what she did not
care to look, had had the worst of all pos
| sibe effects. It had made sweet-temp-
cred. affectionate girl of Is glad to get away
| from her mother to home of her own.
Once her own mistress-at least as far as
ralmpnt wpDt-Onr Sfr0UUR nr.laturp
began like butterfly to come out from her
cocoon. She shed her waddings, and her
paddingS, and her little rOtundities. She
hung her switch" up in the apple tree for
the birds to make their nests with, and
hung whole rolls of cotton wool beside it.
She wore the shoes that fitted her feet, and
she let out her stay laces.
L do not believe any woman ever had
happier honeymoon than did she.
This principle of comfort and her ideas
of beauty she kept with her, and it was this
that made her looked upon as peculiar"
Married at Is she was handsome as ever at
30. She recognized, in fact, that even
beautiful woman has one attribute in COM
mon with kitten. colt. or baby. Her
stomach may be a proSaic organ. but it is
more useful to her when it comes down to
every day happiness than is her back hair
or her hoOpskirt. She had her principles
and she determined to live up to them. She
did not believe that pastes or powders did
| bad complexion any good. She would
not use them.
She did not think because everybody else
wore their hair in tremendous waterfalls
on the back of their heads that she must
take hers down from the crown. when it
looked well and was becoming to her. She
did not do it, either
She did not think that just because she
was thin she needed to swaddle herself to
look fat She dressed comfortably, ate
good things at proper time, looked out
for her digestion and her temper, and at
the end of year was as plump as har-
vest partridge.
And when she got fiat" as her feminine
friends called it. she did not lie awake
nights wishing to be thin again. She SIM
ply liked it, and kept honestly at work try
ing to keep her good looks as long as posi-
BILE. We cannot follow her much more
closely or much longer. At 45 we will
leave her. She was still round and straight.
She could wear corsetS or go without, Just
as she pleased. for she had never worn
them tight enough or long enough to de-
StrOy the muscles that surrounded her nat
ural waist Neither was her nose blotched
or nandS req from any Sucn reason. her
hair, not much thinner than it had been be-
tore-thankS to the exquisite care she had
always given twas still arranged in the
SOFT pretty. becoming way she had always
worn it, modified but very slightly to suit
the fashions of the day. Her skin was still
pink and white. blessing as much due
to long years of perfect health as to never
ceasing care. She had taken care of her
teeth and nails with as much concern for
the last ten years as when she was bride,
and her husband was pr0uder of her than
when he married her. Now, despite all
this, women did not approve of her mild
uenunciations of fashionable foibles. but
still persisted III calling her strange"
peculiar" and so on. Such is the ncon-
ceivable blindness of the sex to real beauty
and common sense.
HER HI BAND.