St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-23
FEMININE BEAUTY.


I'm what it Consists and How to Pre-.
serve it.
''The beauty of the female figure" saws
Leigh Hunt, consists in being gently SER
pentine." Stiffness is utterly ungraceful.
The movements of an unconscious child are
the perfection of grace; they are easy, I'M
studied, natural. The throat should be
round and pillar like. The waist should be
twice the size of this ''tower of ivory" not
as fashion has too often made it, nearly the
same size. The shoulders should be sloping
and not too broad; neither should they be
too narrow, but occupy that soft and rounded
mean that is offered in Milo's Venus. The
figure should be, above all, easy; too small
a waist is an actual deformity, and young
ladies who are foolish enough to imagine
that waist of eighteen inches is lovely
should bear in mind that the famous
statue of the Venus de Medici. the
acknowledged highest type of female
beauty, measures twenty-Seven inches.
The hips should be high in woman, and
wide; the feet small, but in due proportion
to the height of the figure; high instep
is beautiful, and following of the sole is
considered by the Arabs mark of high
birth. The arm is seldom sufficiently de-
veloped in woman of fashion to reach
the standard of classical beauty; she
does not use her limbs, particularly
her arms, sufficiently to give them
the muscular growth of which they
are capable. The arm should have a round
and flowing outline, with no sharpness at
the e bow; it should taper gently down to
a small wrist. Thin arms are ugly and re-
quire graceful movements to conceal their
sharpness. A white arm is beautiful, but
dark complexioned arm may be more beau
tiful if it is better shaped, form being the
chief loneliness of the arm. Keeping the Z
elbows away from the sides, sticking out
at an angle, is very ungraceful, and folded
arms, a la Napoleon, or hands in
the jacket pockets, detracG from
feminine grace. Too great stoutness or
thinness is to be avoided, the former by
vigorous exercise and careful diet, eschew-
ing those foods which are known as flesh
forming and fat-creating. Animal food is
less fattening than bread, vegetables and
buildings; beer and ale are to be avoided by
too fat people and claret substituted in
their place. But starving the figure is a
folly, and draughts from the vinegar
cruets and So-called anti-fat remedies
are both condemned as Injurious:
plumpness, it must be remembered, is
beautiful; thinneSS or scraggnesS, is ugly;
and one thing, says the writer, is certain,
the compression of the figure, even if too
much inclined to embonpoint, is mistake:
and right here she takes occasion to pitch
into another feminine folly. and says:
CORsETs.
"COrsets have been the bane of Ameri-
cas- figures. The models for sculptors and
painters in Italy are never allowed to wear
corsets for fear of spelling the figure. This
fact speaks volumes in explaining the de-
fects of American shapes. Happily, fash
ion has introduced the short French
corset, and our women have
escaped. if they please, from the
iron cages in which their grandmothers
lived-the high, long, stiff stays which
made them stiff, straight and unshapely, and
precluded every shadow of grace. If the
future generation were never to wear cOrsets
at all, we might hope for general i'm
provement in the race, but this, at present,
seems consummation only to be hoped for"
next to perfection of figure, grace of car
riage is desirable, a gait, easy, undulating
and vigorous, is an accomplishment which
no pretty woman can dispense with; this
is impossible unless the feet and ankles
are allowed the utmost liberty of mo-
ton: tight dresses and narrow shoes
with high heels will ruin any womans
walk. To attain grace in walking
the movement must be from the hip;
it will not then shake the garments.
Mrs. Langtry walked with this motion and
most English ladies acquire and possess it.
Its effect is that the waist is still, except
for that gentle, willewy, swaylng motion
which accompanies the movements of the
most graceful figures. One of the best
modes of attaining a walk from the hip
is to practice walking with something
poised on the head. The graceful Hindoo
girl can bear pitcher upon her head,
unsupported by the hand, simply be-
cause she moves from the hip in
stead of from the waist-a mode of walk
ing which the necessity of pitcher carrying
probably originally induced. A pretty face
is always attractive, and to be pretty it
must be perfection in all its parts. The
forehead must be of the same height as the
nose. and it should be free from wrinkles
and Irregularities; frowns should not dis
figure it. If it grows rough or colored from
rowing or riding it may be brushed
lightly with fine olive oil, but cold cream or
animal grease should never be applied to
the human skin. If it is pimply. solution
of borax mine grains), rose water Zone
tablespoonfuD and orange flower lone
tablespoonful. may be used on it.
EYES AND EARS.
The eyes are perhaps the greatest per-
sonal beauty. The soul looks out of them.
All colors may be beautiful. Black ewes
are supposed to be the most intellectual:
blue eyes the most soft and tender; gray
eyes are capable of wonderful expression,
and there is hazel eye with tinge of
green in it which is singularly handsome.
Happily, says Frances Smith, the eyes can
not be subjected to the destroying arts of
the toilet as the hair and COM
plexion are. The only thing that
can be done to them is to
darken the edges of the lides with kohl or
to stimulate their brilliancy by the applica-
ton of balladonna to the certain and per-
haps swift injury of the organ. Both prac-
tees are silly. If girl wants to give
luster to her eyes she should keep early
hours, take regular exercise, live moder-
ately, use cold water plentifully, and not
read or write by gaslight.
Early to bed and early to rise,