St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-12
ARE GIRLS GROWING sMALLa

They Are.
The girl of the period ranges from 40
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 Germany
the figures are higher; in France and
Southern Europe they are the same as
in this country OF smaller, says the st.
Louis Republican.
Eighty pounds of femininity is, of
course, not much, viewed from ma
terial standpoint, although it was
probably about the weight of
Cleopatra, if archaeological re-
search 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 thinness. All the
other bellies of antiquity were large,
ample ladies of generous proportions
and great health. Semiramis was taller
than most of her guardsmen. The mind
fails to consent to petite BOadicea.
Charlemagne'S mother was nearly six
feet tall. Margaret Of AnjOu was large.
Elizabeth could not 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 woman should permit herself
to be, beginning with our great Mother
Eve, who was 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 to-
ward OSseOuSneSS has been apparent.
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. III just came across in the
garnet the other day." he said, "a corset
that has a history. 1t is a souvenir of
one of the prettiest young ladies who
lived in ST. Louis in 1886. She was an
consent her form was model of beauty.
l tell you, sir, she was none of your
ethereal creatures, but magnificent
woman that weighed $50 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 long story. It was
sold to me by the lady's darby maid
Oh. we had some notions of gallantry in
st. Louis in the old times. That, how
ever, 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 meretriciOnS ornamental
ton 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 atmosphere of gayety and
goodheartedness. The modern sophis
ticatiOn looks to me almost immoral.
1t implies all the demands of society,
late hours, idleness and fashionable dis
sipatiOn. 1t tells of headaches and back
aches 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 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 inhabitant'
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
young man we used to collect them and
keep them. That garter belonged to a
lady who is still living, and she has
eight children and dozen grandchil-
dren. The smaller garter was worn by
one OF her granddaughters. now a
woman grown. Now, if anything could
prove the case more strongly l would
like to know what it is. Both were
worn by the owners when about the
same age, and got the second one only
month or two ago. But what else
could you expect? When l 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 couple of glasses of
porter or wine. The girls were not
ashamed of it. They would very hon
estly get away with substantial snack
and do it as though they liked it. God
bless them.
LUZ hOWoudyo a luHCO 10 q SSIy I'LL
ferent thing, indeed. The common
menu is little sour lemonade, small
piece of cake, and some chocolate candy,
or some other sort of indigestible mon
strosity that people ought to be put into
the penitentiary for feeding to their
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 until they disappear. 1t
has happened in Boston already. The
American stock, born of such mothers
as we are cultivating, can't hold its own
against the big-boned, strong-built for
eigner. The Irish have crowded 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 l look
around at the way this present genera
ton is managing things, sometimes
actually feel glad that i can't, in the
course of nature, live very much Ion
ger"
Glasses at the ODera