The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1891-07-29
The Beauty OF Women.

1no women at SnuuChuQuH arc worry iuuch
interested this year in the subject OF dress
reform. The reformcrs crlticise and de-
nounce the present dress OF women because
1t dcforms the beauty OF the feminine figure.
They are teaching that to conserve and de-
velop bodily beauty is duty, and that to
impair 1t and detract from 1t by unsuitable
raiment is to commit grievous sin. One OF
tho leaders. accordingly, counsels women to
study photographs Uf the VENUS OF Milo
and TrT1AN's nude figure in the picture OF
Sacred and Profane Lore until their beauty
Is literally felt"
This is very novel doctrine to he taught
at camp meeting OF Methodist originatlon.
Not many years ago pious Methodist and
Baptist women would have fled In horror
from such instruction. They accounted it
sinful to give thought to tho enhancement
Of the beauty OF the perishable body. believ-
ing that tho cultivation and the salvation OF
the soul should be tho only care. Therein
they followed the example OF the early
Christians, who admonished women to con-
ceal their natural loneliness with dsfiguring
garments, SO that it should not attract tho
gaze Of the beholder. The Puritan preach.
ers Of tho old days in this country were fond
o, denouncng the frivolity OF gay raiment
and the deceitfulness Of physical beauty.
They said that 1t was the devil who put it
into women's hearts to thus charm the eyes
OF men; and therefore in some OF the New
England colonies dress which displayed the
nakedness OF the arm was made illegal. Even
In very recent years the wearing OF Mother
Hubbard gowns has been forbidden In vari-
GUS parts Of the Union, because they reveal
the contour OF the figure 80 generously.
The ballroom costumes OF ladies are as
sailed to-day by preachers and by feminine
moralists on the same grounds. DR.. DIx's
Lentcn sermons of few years ago were
devoted to their denunciation as unbecom-
ing Christian women, elevating the carnal
and degrading the spiritual nature. He
cassed the women who thus took pains to
display their personal charms with the
shameless and the abandoned whose purpose
is sinful provocation. A woman essayist in
lead ding magazine describes the horror with
which she beholds women with arms and
busts exposed at public balls. and robes which
exhibit the actual contour OF the figure.
Yet the Chautauqua teaching is that
women should study the more perfect delin-
cations OF tho feminine form produced by
art in order to criticise their own figures by
them, and to emulate the beauty and the
symmetry by careful exercise and helpful
dress. 1t is only recently that the exhibi-
ton OF such nude statues and pictures has
outraged the propriety OF Philadelphia and
other provincial communities; but now
Chautauqua commands that they be dis
played for the benefit Of women especially;
for II women may study them they must be
morally innocuous. II they present ex-
amples OF beauty OF proportion which 1t is
desirable and profitable for women to OBJ
serve and emulate, and il bodily perfection
in itself Is duty and the Disagreement OF
the body sin, they should DO put before the
people as an object lesson OF primo impor-
lance.
Thus we see that Chautauqua is broaden.
ing the views OF the women under its intlu.
ence, and is falling into line with the present
movement for tho physical development oil
both men and women, q movement which Is
animated by the spirit OF the old Greeks sc
passionate in their love for the beauty OF the
human figure.