St. Landry democrat., 1888-02-18
THE BEILES OF 1910.
St Louis Gentleman Compares Them
with Girls of the Present Day.

and sweeter than they could possibly
have been at any other period in the
worlds history, but the question prop
erly has reference to avoirlupois and
to nothing else The girl of the period
ranges in weight from one hundred and
forty pounds down, in some cases to
eighty pounds or less Between these
two limits may be found almost all
the healthy loneliness of the fair sex
in America. In England and Ger
many the figures are higher; in
France and Southern Europe they
are the same as in this coun-
try, or smaller. Eighty pounds of
femininity is, of course. not much,
viewed from q material standpoint,
although it was probably about the
weight of Cleopatra, if archaeological
research may be depended upon, and
she was rather more than too much
for any of the champions of her day.
Cleopatra is the exception which
proves the rule as to progressive thin
ness. All the other bellies of antiquity
were large, ample ladies of generous
proportions and great health. Semi
ramis was taller than most of her
guardsmen. The mind fails to con-
sent to a petite Boadicea. Charlie
magne's mother was nearly six feet tall.
Margaret of Anjou was large. Eliza
beth could not be described as small,
or I'd Of r 1,n hi
DANES of whose size we have any
vague idea, were big beyond all
modern ideas of what woman
should permit herself to be, begin
ming with our great Mother Eve. who
was giantess. according to the Arab
tradition, which still points out her
tremendous tomb. The facts are
meager, but even within the expert
ence of men now living the move
ment towards osseousness has been
apparent. All of these reflections
We're caused by q statement made to a
reporter by. the oldest inhabitant,
who was at his usual task of de-
picting the glories of the Con-
sulshlp of Plancus. Il just came
across in the garnet the other day
he said, "a corset that has history.
1t is a souvenir of the girls of half a
century ago. 1t belonged to one of
the prettiest young ladies' who lived
in St. Louis in 1886. She was an
acknowledged belle, and by common
consent her form was model of
beauty. I can tell you, sir, she was
none of your ethereal creatures, but
a magnificent woman that weighed
$50 pounds easily, and yet in those
days she was considered small. She
was certainly below the average size
of the girls I knew
How did you get the corset?"
THAT would be long story. 1t
was sold to me by the lady's darby
maid. Oh, we had some notions of
gallantry in S.. Louis in the old times.
That, however is neither here nor
there. What | want you to do is to
compare the solid and severe simplici-
ty of the garment of 1886 with the
cling of the one worn by the ladies
nowadays. Not alone is the older one
modest and pretty, and plain, but it
means health and vigor. You natur-
ally associate it with rosy cheeks, and
black eyes, and slightly-tumbled hair,
and general atmosphere of gayety
and good heartedness. The modern
sophistication looks to me almost i'm
moral. 1t implies all the demands of
society. late hours, idleness and fash
ionable dissipation. Il tells of heal
aches, and backaches and all manner
of physical and moral shams. "
But you were speaking of the COM
parative size?'
'Well, dom these corsets show it?
Say that they are both averages of
their time, and one is only six inches
greater in circumference than the
other. But that isn't all of it. The
mothers of the past generation
were built. as rule. more nearly to
the old Roman model They were
large-limbed and strong, with a
healthy chest capacity and conse-
quent ability to draw a long breath.
when | was young man heladies
used to eat something. A common
lunch in 1910 was a piece of cold beef
off the round, a lot of bread and but
ter, and couple of glasses Of porter
or wine. The girls were not ashamed
of it. They would very honestly get
away with substantial snack. and do
it as though they liked it. Go bless
them. But nowadays lunch is a
very different thing indeed. The
common menu is II little sour lemo@l-
ade, small piece of cake, and
some chocolate candy, or some other
sort Of indigestible monstrosity that
people ought to be put into the pcni-
Tertiary for feeding to their girls.
You can't expect to build up muscle
and health on lemon juice or pie, and
the result of it all will be that our
women will go on getting thinner and
thinner until they disappear. 1t has
happened in Boston already. The
American stock, born of such mothers
as we are cultivating, can't hold it's
own against the big-boned, strong1
built foreigner Tue Irish have crowd
ed the Yankee cut of New England,