Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-09-10

special Correspondence OF Gazette and journal
New YORK, Sept. Ali the things in
the shop windows are any indication of
what the women in New York are buy
ing, one would have to conclude that all
their ducats were spent In getting what
Is commonly known as underwear"
but more elegantly as "lingerie."
Whether it is that the dress reform
movement has brought abominably
shaped garments to the fore, or whether
II is that the shop-keepers feel that there
Is going to be a reaction set in and they
had better get rid Of the. old stuff,
nobody knows, but this is quite true, the
white garments that our grandmothers |
of making to public that doesn't seem |
20 yearn for them. 1t may be regarded |
rs due entirely to the influence of man |
lovely man, faithful man, athletic
mamie has talked and preached, and |
he has had pictures printed in the news
papers of what woman should wear
under her dress, and the pictures repre-
scented nine Of the most diabolical gar
ments upon which even the eye of the
printers devil ever rested. Now, | am
reformer, but in the course of a long and
varied experience have never met any
woman who wore nine pieces of under
wear at one time. The reformers are
little off there, or else 1t wasn't the
women they meant, it was the bargain
counter.
NCHAuTAUoUA DRESS REFORMS.
Like everybody else, have little
theory of my own, and think it will be
the one that will get ahead of the ladies
at Chautauqua, who are so very kind as
TO- I'M or ri ne ua IN tuhat xaya chai
and how we shall put it on. Starting
with the fact that ones skirt has firm
foundation, as firm as Plymouth Rock,
and much better shaped, the average
woman who is in good health needs only
to assume the somewhat long silk I'M
dervest, perfectly well-fitting pair of
satin stays, matching the silk vest in
color, long pair Of stockings and the
proper kind of shoes. When | say
proper, mean proper to the hour of the
day. am not going about advocating
flat heels and broad shoes, because, per-
sonally, am addicted to the vice of
wearing narrow ones with high heels.
/ have but one question to ask of my
brother man, and that is this: Can any
dress reformer in the world put fewer,
prettier or more useful underwear on a
woman than that have describedp 1t
Is what half the women of any sense
wear during the summer, and 1t is com
nended not only by the women them
selves, but by the doctors who are not
cranks. A woman walks well and
easily when she hasn't got lot of
starch stuck about her, and the line that
the Chautauqua people are so fond Of
talking about shows to much better adj
vantage than when she is uncomforta-
BILE in muslin, has strings cutting her
because she has no stays on, and is alto
gether flurrled and flat looking.
THE HUMAN FROM DIVINE,
especially the feminine edition of it,
came in for SO much discussion. They
talk about the line of woman's figure
with the JUNCTION of Dumas, and they
print the picture of the Venus, and call
on every woman to look like that.
think the first one that looked like that
on the streets of New York would be
run into the station to spend the night
there. Fancy wearing such draperles
Why, you would have oput heavy iron
weights In them, and then they would
bang against your knees, and you would
sit on them, and you would wish that
Venus had stayed down in the sea and
been comfortable. Then, too, isn't it q
little queer for people who are supposed
TO cultivate the mind, or the soul, or the
brain, or whatever the thinking part oil
,people-sometime 1t is the stomach
to take up such a question as this
Would YOU or your husband go there
and let a lot of cranky women exploit
underwear unto them? No, of COURSE
YOU wouldn't. It's much safer to lie
him go out and look into the shoI
windows, because then you can g
along and tell him what really Is anC
really Is not pretty, and you can edu
cate him by adding to the dry-good
bill.
INFATUATED WITH DELsARTE.
Apropos Of not being hampered whei
in walking, between wearing the prope
sort of lingerie and being drunk wit
Delsarte, it is possible that during TIL
next winter New York will exceed Ney
Orleans In the walk of its women. Jus
now, the New York woman is littl
too emphatic-she places her foot o.
the ground as if she owned it, and sh
has got nasty way of planting he
heel first. But, when she is thorough
decomposed, after Delsarte, not afte
the undertaker's idea of 1t, she will wal
like a goddess. In the first place she
bigger and better developed than th
men, for New York, while it has fey
great big, fine-looking men, runs rathc
to the other extreme, and II wome
want to see big men, they have got I
seek them in the south or west, or els
90 over the ocean blue and find them !
merrie England. Decomposition, 20
must know, is the ability to becom
suddenly limp, and then to use wha
ever part of your body you wish IN u
most graceful way. Mrs. Russell, OF
Of the very best Delsarte teachers, sa.
she can tell southern woman as SOC
as she comes in the room and sits dow
for she sits naturally, and her arms al
legs fall in easy poses. II is unnece
sary to say that after she told me this
bushed But at the same time credit
it TO my natural Incidence rather thi
my southern blood. The great trout
with woman of to-day, according
Mrs. Russell, is that she hurries; eve
movement expresses her haste. al
there is no time for grace You knc
you can get to place just as quick
by walking we'll and evenly as by tr'
ting and stumbling. The inclinatl
Of the New York woman is to trot, :
she is going to reform next winter, a
she is going to walk SO well that it rea
will amount to more than having
Worlds Fair here.
THE DEAR ATHLETIC YOUNG woMl
The athletic young creature W
according to novels, simply "strid
across the avn to meet the young N
who she has condescended to knock
out in one round with the tennis racl