The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-03-01
GIRLS GROWING SMALLER.
Reasons Which Compel an Observant Citi-
zen to Believe That They Are.

Reasons Which Compel an Observant Citi
zen to Believe That They Are.
The girl of the period ranges from
40 pounds down, in some cases tC
eighty pounds or less. Between these
two limits may be found almost all til,
healthy loveliness of the fair sex in
America In England and Germany
the figures are higher; in France anC
southern Europe they are the same a:
in this country or smaller.
Eighty pounds of femininity is, o.
course, not much, viewed from a ma
terial standpoint, although it wa.
it archaeological research may be de.
! pended upon, and she was rather more
than too much for any of the champion:
OF her day. Cleopatra Is the excep
tion which proves the rule as to pro-
gressiye thinness. All the other
bellies of antiquity were large. ample
ladies of generous proportions and
great health. Semiramis was taller
than most of her guardsmeu. The
mind fails to consent to petite Boad.
icaea- Char1emagnes mother was
nearly six feet tall. Margaret OF
Anjon was large. Elizabeth could moi
be described as small, and, in fact,
most of the historic danes of whose
size we have any vague idea were big
beyond all modern ideas of what q
woman should permit herself to be. be-
ginning with our great Mother Eve,
who was a giantess according to the
Arab tradition, which still points to
her tremendous tomb. The facts are
meager. but, even with the experience
of men now living, the movement
toward osseousness has been appar-
ent.
All of these reflections were caused
| by statement made by the Oldest in
habitant, who was at his usual task OF
depicting the glories of the consulship
of Plancus. 'l just came across in the
garrei t e other day" he said, ga COR
set that has history. 1t is souvenir
to one of the prettiest young ladies
who lived in st. Louis in 1885, She
was an acknowledged belle, and by
common consent her form was a model
of beauty. l tell you. sir, she was
none of your ethereal creatures, but a
magnificent woman that weighed 15O
pounds, and yet-in those days She was
considered small. She was certainly
below the average size of the girls
knew"
''How did you get the corset?"
''That would be a long story. 1t
was Sold to me by the lady's darky
maid. Oh, we had some notions of
gallantry in st. Louis in the old times.
That, however, is neither here nor
there. What want you to do is to
compare the solid and severe simplicity
of the garment of 1886 with the mere
tricious. ornamentation and modelling
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 naturally associate it
with rosy cheeks and black eyes and
slightly tumbled hair and general at
mosphere of gayety and goodhearted-
ness. The modern sophistication looks
to me almost immoral 1t implies all
the demands of society. late hours,
idleness, and fashionable dissipation.
1t tells of headaches and backaches
and all manner of physical and moral
shams."
"But about the average size?'
''Well, don't these corsets show it?
Say that they are both averages of
their time. and one is fully six inches
greater in circumference than the
other. But that isn't all of it. The
mothers of the present generation
were built, as rule, more closely to
the old Roman model. They were
large limbed and strong, with a
healthy chest capacity and ability to
draw long breath. Here is another
proof of it"
And he produced two garters, one of
the good old times, marked exhibit
"A" the other recent one, marked
B." The longer one was of sort of
felt cloth. the other of silk. 1t was but
one more curio out of the oldest in
habitant's museum, and he gazed at it
proudly as he drew it out of the bureau
drawer.
1--we got lots'of those sort..of things"
said he, with sigh. when / was a
young man we used to collect them
and keep them. That garter belonged
to lady who is still Using, and she
has had eight children and a dozen
grandchildren. Tie smaller garter
was worn by one Of her granddaugh-
teIs,, who is now a woman grown.
Now, if anything could prove the case
more strongly would like to know
what it is. Both were worn by thei1
owners when about the same age, and
l got the second one only a month or
two ago. But what could you expectf
When | was young man the ladies
used to eat something. A common
lunch in 1910 was piece of cold beef
off the round, lot of bread and butter,
and q couple of glasses of porter OF
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. God bless
them.
But nowadays a lunch is a very
different thing, indeed. The common
menu is a little sour lemonade, a small
piece of cake, and some choco-
late candy. or some other sort of in
digestible monstrosity that people
ought to be put into the -penitentiary
for feeding to their girls. You can't
expect to build up muscle and health
on lemon juice and pie, and the result
of it all will be that our women will
go on getting thinner and thinner and
thinner until they disappear, 1t has
happened in Boston already. The
American stock, born of SUCH mothers
as we are cpltiyating, can't hold its
own against the big-boned, strong
built foreigner. The Irish have crowd
ed the Yankee out of New England,
and the German and the Irish will
crowd us out of the valley if we don't
change our ways. | tell you, sir, when
look around at the way this present
generation is managing things l some
times actually feel glad that I can't.
in the cOurse of nature live very much
longer. Mississippi Republican.
A Well-Prepared Farmer.