The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-09
THE DoINGs OF WOMEN FOLK.
Gossip and Scattering Gleanings in
Feminine Fields.

iCllliA4lAlC l. AOANAos
New YORK, April 7-"NewYork women
have reputation the country over for ex-
travagance in dress, but bless you they don t
deserve it, said one woman to another as
they ratified up town yesterday in a Fifth
avenue stage
! IL went from this city two years ago to a
town OF 5000 inha bitants in Southern In
diana and there found out for the first
time " hat it means to dress. ! was just
married and my outfit was partly imported
and partly made up at one of the best
houses in town, but when | reached my
new home | soon found out that was not
| fine enough to shine. The first lady who
| came to pay me wedding call came in a
| white silk gown at 2:30 o'clock in the
afternoon When | started TO repay my
! visits the colored coachman, who had
| bee in the family for great many years,
made bold to tell me that something was
! wrong.
specs you don't know how dey do tings
in dis part de country, an l hev ter tell
| yer, he said, Zen lady go for tn turn
weddin' call she alters put on white bunnit
an white glove
II was wearing French tailor dress, it
| happened, in brown, with bonnet and gloves
to correspond, and it didn't suit the local
ideas of prOpriety at all. People who had
| incomes of $4,000 and SIS 900 year spent
the largest part on their clothes, and the
rivalry IN dress was like nothing ever saw
In the East. The dry goods store sold readily
hrocades at $50 the yard. for which the de-
mand i'll New York, with all its millonaires
is quite limited. This is an economical city
by comparison, after all "
Soross will discuss next Monday the ad-
visibility of buying or building a clubhouse
for women in New York city. The pro-
| Ject has come ~ a great many times in the
course of the last few years. and its com
! plete ventilation at this time has been pre-
ciptated possibly by the recent action of
the Brooklyn WOmen'S Club in taking pre-
| llminary steps looking to the requirement
OF clubhouse as a central rendezvous for
the clubable women of the City of Churches
Mrs NJ. Louise Thoma-, the President of
SorOsiS is an advocate of the clubhouse
scheme and urges it at every opportunity.
Mrs Croly Jenny june the Vice Presi
dent, Is not definitely committed either
way. The proposal has many warm friends
in the club, and probably as many hot op-
pone1ts. If it should go through at all, it
would probably be pat through in hand
some style, for there is money enough in
the organization, which has many rich
women among it's members, 20 house itself
as it pleases A clubhouse for women. as
understood by Sorosis, would mean an es-
adjustment big enough to afford club par
lors, dining rooms, reading rooms and
library, possibly a gymnasium, and some
minor conveniences.
''woMEN ARE CERTAINLY LARGER
than they used to be-" said dressmaker
Yesterday
What makes you think SOL" was the
query.
My order books, for one thing, kent bv
mother and myself for almost forty years
Every dressmaker has record of the
measures OF regular customers. | have
never destroyed any of ours, and the older
books are entertaining memoranda See,
this little black covered book is for 1859
Open ii anywhere you please. There YOU
have 1t, ali the proof YOU wanted. Miss
-, waist measures Is inches; Mrs. -,
20 inches; and the bust measures and skirt
lengths are in proportions. Turn the leaves,
you will find II inches, Is inches, 49,
inches, 10 inches repeated continually
Sometime, you come across one as low as
Is inches. think can remember making
DIR ssses where the waist was only Is inches
Nearly all the entries are for slender
women, narrower chested than | cut for
now and not 50 tall. / took a fancy to 20
over the list quite Systematically few DAYS
ago. | took fifty women whose gowns my
mother and cut in 1855 aud 1857. The
average waist measure is only 81 inches,
aud / can tell by the ames that some were
middle-aged heavy women whose figures
carry the average up. | should say that
most of the young women had waists not
over so inches. Indeed / know the Girls
used to come to me when their wedding
trousSeauX were ordered and tell me they
must be laced to Is inches for the bridal
gown to be fitted, for it wasn't the proper
thing to be any larger than that on ones
wedding day.
"'How big are girls nowP New York
girls Of 20 or 20 years old will average
waists Of % inches at least If they are ;
feet FOR 8 inches tall they will have p or
26-inch waists. There are plenty of women
who are not ashamed of waists considerably
larger than that if they are well formed in
proportion. l should say that women
were an inch or two taller and 3 or
4 inches larger round than their mothers
were. Healthier oh, that goes without
saying.
MRS. LEONORA NJ. BARRY,
whose clear-cut eloquence was the surprise
of the International Council of Women in
Washington last week, to which body she
was accredited asa delegate of the Kni shts
of Labor, is woman whose first appear
ance in public was made Just a year ago
but who has already made her mark as
one of the most powerful speakers of all
American women who have ever faced an
audience from "A platform. Mrs Barry is
women somewhat over 30 years old, tall
extremely graceful, with dark hair, high
white forehead, eyes like n lid and a clm-
plexion OF clear pallor that is as far as pos
sible from indicating Ill health She has n
commanding figure, but it is so quiet in
bearing that until she speaks one gets no
hint Of the personal magnetism, the in
tense feeling, the gift of language that make
her an orator, a genius. Sle is a woman
Of the people aud wa factory hand for
years She has organized a Semblies of
women Knights in New York State, in
Ohio in Teauessee. and devoteS herself TO
he work If enrolment in different sections.
Her influence over other women and over
men is almost unlimited. She has family
of little girls and it was her hand TO hand
fight with starvation 20 feed them that in-
spired her and is making her what she un-
douhtetly will be, the mouthpiecs of the
working women. or the stage, reticent.
modest 70 the verge of shyness, on it she is
revelation, speaking soul.
OF the ninety-twO members of the recent
graduating class of the New York COLLEGE
! of Pharmacy two We're women Miss de
Socarras and Mrs. r.. :. Bruaner. who
passed her tiual examinations much better
than the large majority of the men is the
wife of n Brooklyn druggist, and proposes
10 assist her husband in the comuoundinr
of prescriptions and other work in a phar-
| fuacnutical line She is a tIaos,ut ga.ad