The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-18
They are the Subject Of Much Con-
Germ Among the Fair
Owners.
Sleeves and Long Gloves Banished
by the Possessors Of Shape
ly Arms
Attitudes and Movements Discussed--The
Arms of Noted Women, Some Of
Them Actresses.

long glove has moderated its ambition; it
stops as soon as it has turned the corner Of
the elbow. One woman in twenty has q
prettily modelled elbow, and she, you may
be sure, does not cover its dimples with
either glove OF sleeve. Glove etiquette
seems to be a little more liberal than it was
before we wore the Greek gown. There are
daring spirits who regard its classic folds as
warrant for barring the arm from fngertip
10 shoulder. There are oven those who
dress the same dispensation from gloves
may be obtained. Ella Wheeler Wilcox,
for example, when she puts on short
WASTED white silk is never shy about expos
ing her long, rounded arms.
The smoke of the fight about the decollete
bodice has never enveloped the arm. Annie
Jenness Miller says that if woman's arm
Is pretty she should give its shapeliness
frankly to the world; if it is not pretty she
should study sleeves. The ideal arm has a
beauty of wholesome, almost OF pastoral
order; it bears showing. 1t is clear skinned
and rounded and there is a gracious dimple
Just at the side of the elbow. The skin is
soft, but the flesh is firm. Beneath it's
smooth contour it is instinct with the
strength that supports tired child. 1t is
blemish if the lines are so full as to suggest
the seraglio rather than the green fields.
Women who know ANYTHING about arms
have thrown their bracelets away. 1t is
mistaken policy to call attention to poor
arm and good one is never SO beautiful as
when naked. One often sees the value of
wrist absolutely destroyed by bangle.
Gloved or ungloved, sleeved or unsleeved,
braceleted or without jewels, the arm grows
in Importance every day. Genev,ieve, Steb-
bins Thompson and Nine. Alberti and Hen
rietta Crane Russell and Mabel Jenness and
the rest of the aesthetics and physical cultur-
lists and Delsarteans have been teaching us
all winter to pose, and the pity is we begin
to make our arms before we have taken
our degrees. The results are commonly
ridiculous or harassing.
The arms of the woman who is not natu.
rally graceful always looks stiff and harsh
as they lie in her lap motionless., If she is
not bitten with any Of the artistic fads she
makes an awkward loop of them with fingers
interlaced. If she has been doing little
amateu,ish studying of classical collections
she extends them or let's them hang at full
length unfexed in hard, straight lines. The
first piece of advice which we'll wisher
would give such woman would be that she
allow both arms to fall in free. easy posi-
tions, slightly relaxed at the elbows or with
the hand dropping little at the wrist, but
that she should not allow her left arm to
know what her right arm is doing. One
position from the other. else you ovderdo
the bilateral symmetry and look like a
jointed doll. sg+.eg.
But it is when woman moves that real
difficulties arise: Many girl who makes
capital out of handsome arms when she
throws them into relief on the tennis
ground flaps like a seal if she shakes hands
in drawing room. The difference is part
ly in the environments; partly, sometimes,
in the gown. There's no getting a grace
full motion if your dress has French fit at
the shoulder seams. Most women
gesticulation, and it is true that
the woman does not exist who can atti-
tudinize in private life without considerable
danger in making herself ridiculous. 1t is
commonly assumed that the effect has been
calculated if pretty girl INDUCES in q
as that of raising her arms to adjust
her hair. But because woman's arms
must be kept we'll within the picture
and backed against the person, it does
not follow that she should move her arms,
as most women do, only from the elbows
No gesture could be worse possibly. 1t ex
presses the little, the petty, the ungracous
the over anxious to enter the camp of the
400. 1t stamps the woman at once a.
nervous and awkward. an overgrown school
girl. Every dignitied arm motion starts
from the shoulder. In this way only car
mechanical. all angles.
You can tell much about woman by tn,
way in which she shakes hands. TIL,
pump-handle motion, fashionable this pas,
winter, was distinctly vulgar, almost n
much so as the present squaring of tn,
shoulders, extension of the elbows an,
staggering clutch of the pockets which i
sold to one girl in every four with he
spring jacket. Many woman who
graceful cordial with an intimat
falls back on mamonette-hke Vaughn
from the elbow if called upon to say "Ho,
do you do?" to an important person o
whom she stands somewhat in awe. Tn
giving of the hand must be a Whole-arl
motion, but the arm should not be extende
at full length. except in impulsive welcom.
it may be kept rather near the body and tn
hand allowed to fall low.
The harp. the either, the violin are s
many chances for arms. If girl is rount
limbed it is getting almost impossible fc
her to look at the pictures Of the Pom
peian pipe players and the Greek girl
playing the tuba without going straightwa
to join ladies' orchestra. Mrs. Ella Diet
Clymer owes much of her reputation as til
beautiful president of Sorosis to her us
OF her arms. She never forces then
If she disposes herself statuesquel
against the high back of her carve
chair she is content wit
so much of picturesqueness as is compat
Bile with the calm poise of good presidin
officer. If occasion arises for her to thro,
an active expression into her posture sh
gets just the permissible effect. no more, n
less, out of her graceful arms. But n
woman off the stage has the actresses or
portunily.
Lillian Russell has splendid, ripe, full
colored arms; litele heavy, perhaps, an
suggesting the Turkish bath rather tina
the sunshine, but strong throughout an
firm: such arms as speak of the fullness
recognition before the coming of the mari
of times invasion.
Julia Marlowe has 1.-THE, graceful
young arm; it reminds one of Margar
Mather's before that young woman qua
relied with her manager and began to gro
feshy. And yet Miss Mather's arm W;
always too long. Miss Marlowes is exau
sitely proportional and clearly, dainti
modelled. 1t is Diana arm. or rather thu
of one of Diana's nymphs, more YOUTH
than the huntress. 1t has about it no mai
of passion.
Mrs. kendal's arm when she is on Il
stage is like her face as one sees it off Il
stage, serenely and BEAUTIFULLY matronl
Her upper arm is peculiarly muscular, H
skin has a creamy tint and the elbow is i
reproachable; but there is certain exac
ness, not amounting to precision, about h
arm motions which contradict the youthful
ness Of some of her parts and remind one
her children and her many virtues.
Carmencita could not have become Il
rage she is but for hersoft, oliye-tinted e
pressiye arms that dance quite as much
her feet. but are even more graceful as thu
lie heavily on her knees after the impassiout
performance than during their music
Quicked life as they wave and circle abo,
her plQuant. dark-eyed face,