Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-12-21
THE ATHLETIC MAIDEN.
She Must Give up Her Freckles II She
Would Win a Duke

A London letter in the San Francisco Arco-
maui says: If one may judge by the constant
reference to the fact in the American papers. IL
would seem that the American girl Gas she is to
be found at home, for certainly have seen no
sample on this side) has become an athlete.
l, of course, refer to the fashionable girl.
Whether this is another phase Of angiomRnia
or not do not know, but am inclined to sus-
pect IT Ia All can say is, if this be true, and
there ought to be no reason to doubt it. the
American girl is making a big mistake. Her
mistake is two-fold In the FIRST place, in
'gong in" for athletics, either for sport or ex-
ercise. she is not initiating the best class Of
English girl, as no doubt she fondly imagines:
and, In the second, III thus masculining herself
she Is destroying her greatest charm and at
traction IN English eyes. Apart from her easy,
se!f-possessed manner, her conversational
powers, her store of information on ali subjects
and her money. her delicate skin. peach-like
complexion and fragile frame have given her
that delightful effemInacy of tout ensemble
which ID rarely, II ever. seen in English women
outside Of old family portraits in the picture
galleries OF the artist Jcracy. Sun-burned cheeks,
throats and foreheads and freckled noses may
betoken health. but such so-called indications
OF health are not indications of beauty.
THE ENGLISH IDEAL.
If so. why are all the portraits of the English
nobility's mothers, grsndmothers, great
grandmothers and great-aunts, which one sees
staring down from the walls of every great
house in the kingdom-why are they of pink
and-whlte-sklnned women, with soft, pale
faces and slightly-built fragile figures? Now
and then you may see u fat old dowager in a
turban and with bust to out-Juno Juno, but
1t Is the fat OF Incidence and ease, not the de-
veioped muscle of the dumb bell, the foil and
the boxing glove. All. however, have pale
faces and delicate, transparent skins. / do not
mean TO say that all the women who sat for
these portraits had pink and-white cheeks,
soft, pale skins and slight, willowy figures.
doubtless the ma ority had. Why noG Who
can say 10 the contrary?
THE AMERICAN GIRLS GREAT CHARM.
There can be no doubt that Englishmen con-
slider their old family portraits as models Of
womanly beauty. They look on them as sort
OF ideals. however, and simply because they
never nowadays see IN real life their counter
part, not i'll feature. but in color. Now and
then, perhaps. there might be a complex Of
that sort, put very rarely. l speak, of course.
OF their own countrvwomen. Therefore has it
been surprise to them, which might be termed
an awakening from a delusion, 10 find the
skins, compiexions and slender outlines OF their
female ancestors portraits reproduced in the
American girl This Cwith her own or her
peppers" money! has been her greatest
charm IN their eyes.
do not mean to imply that her own or her
peppers money would not have suficed il
her complexion had been that of and Iroquois
squaw. Stiil, let US, for the romance of the
thing believe that it would not AT all events,
we can assume that in all the titled marriages
which American girls have made of late years
among the British nobility, their beauty was
what first attracted the Englishmen's atten-
ton.
So, therefore, I say to American girls who
want to marry English dukes and marquises.
earls and barons. lords and honorables and slrs.
preserve your beauty; wear your wells and
broad-brimmed hats; keep out of the sun and
wind; dread tan and freckles as you would the
bite OF a rattlesnake; retain your peach-like
skins and your fragile figures.