St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-26
take notes.

Demonstrators of anatomy may now
| tear down their drawings from their
| lecture room walls. and refer their stu
| dents to the glorious original repeated a
| hundred times day in the fashionable
| parade along Broadway and Fifth ave-
| nue.. There is no real necessity for the
| great and gullible public to crowd the
| theater where the ''Clemenceau Case"
| is in progress, and pay $50 head TO
view an artists studio and its model at
traction. The artists studios are turned
loose on the public street.. The news
boy and the bOotblack may gaze on
Venus, not in repOSe, it is true, but
Venus in action, with all the lines of
her. exquisite figure moving in fasci-
mating harmony. Those who walk may
| gaze. Those who may run may read.
Those who have never enjOved an art
education may now be educated in art
and nature.
VVhich9
A hundred questions are suggested bv
the appearance on the street of a fash
iOnable woman in the gown of the pres
ent fashion. is she slave of fashion,
to whom the dressmaker, who is fash
ions apostle, has said: This is the
frock to wear. and you must wear it.''
and has she obediently drawn it on over
her form, as she would kid glove over
her hand, with be ating and rebellious
heart and her moral consciousness in q
state of revolt? Or is she really mis-
tress of the occasion, and has she
ordered this scant and sensational raj
ment just as she ordered her dainty
luncheons between the hours Of the
dresSmaker'S pinchings and fittings?
But outside of this and whatever may
be her secret attitude towards this latest
md 1.ziy Of .E
mIiliner'S art, does she appreciate the
effect of its display on the population
of the town? Does she know that she.
is creating various kinds of sensations
among various classes of people, the ag-
gregate result of which is sensation
whose proportions are absolutely un-
precedented? If she does know it, is
she sorry? Or does she glory in il? Does
she understand that she is thrilling the
artists? Does she know that in her new
guise she appeals irresistibly to the
sense of humor possessed by some OBJ
servers, and that she shocks a small
army of puritanical witnesses, and that
they throw up their hands in holy hor-
Tor over the unwonted spectacle pre-
Sented?
And those severe men and women, bv
the way, who shrek over the decollete
dress and exhaust the vocabulary of
condemnation in reprobating the dis
play of neck and arms Incidental to its
assumption, why are they silent now?
Are the glorious lines of the hips aud
limbs more moral than the gentle con-
tour of the shoulder? Or is it that they
have not yet formulated their arg,i-
mentS and outlined their Indignation?
Surely it cannot be possible that they
have not yetdecided as to the wicked
ness of the current costume. Let them
hang up Metropolitan opera house
gown and modern walking costume
side by side, and they are apt to dis
cover that there is really less skirt in
the one than there is bodice in the
other. Surely if the morality of the
matter has anything to do with the
scantiness of the material, there is very
little to choose in the two cases.
Looking at the woman of to-day
CARRIED in the present fashion of skirt it
seems scarcely credible that such a
thing as crlnoline was ever in exist
ence. Die women really walk about in
skirts which were practically full blown
tents and offered no indications of the
motive power concealed within the in
closure? Ii the fashiOn-plates Of few
years ago did not declare this to be the
case we certainly should be inclined TO
entertain great deal of doubt over it.
w ACu VIC COluc W ItuGCl, however, Oh
the question of skirts we are able to
mark the progress from one extreme to
the other. 1t was a long time before we
could distinguish the steps, but we can
now watch the strides. Che grandual
disappearance of the cumbersome ro-
tundity which distinguished the
women's costume two years ago
may be traced from fashiOn-plate to
fashion-plate until rotundity less gross
and artificial and more 1.-THE and nat
ural swelled on the captivated vision.
Siayery's Beginning.
marked the new departure, according
to the statement of frankly-spoken
woman VINO considers matters OF dress
philosophically, and brought about