The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-01-22
NEW YORK GIRLS.
Are They Losing Their Beauty
Effect of Athletics Upon the Men.

The stranger, especially II he be a
western stranger, will be struck by
two things-oDe, the extreme sim
plicity of the woman's dress, the other
that the men are so superior in looks
to the girls. A western ma lately
told me that this latter was the most
striking thing he had noticed ia New
York, and that In most OF the vest
especially the Pacific slope-the
women are far in advance OF h men
as to looks. But in New York for
every pretty girl you saw you met a
dozen splendid looking fellows. ath-
letic, intelligent and manly.
There is no doubt about it-in the
last ten years the New York type has
undergone a radical change. Consult
an old inhabitant if you want to YER
ifv this. We used to be just like
any other American city, filled up
with pretty women and sadly deficient
in good looking men. Now the
New York women seems to me to
have sacrificed a great deal of her
beauty for the higher development of
that cold elegance, that i~rreproach-
able STYLE which distinguishes her
from any other woman in the country.
The men. on the other hand, have
gone on improving. Each generation
has given up a little more time to
athletics, to freedom from that ter
| rible business strain which made their
u~rocenitors old before their time, pale
as plants grown in a cellar, weedy and
iberless.
The women who were the flower of
the Four Hundred, are getting to have
a mingled look of French and Eng
lish women, which, II you remember,
is what some one or other said Amer
lean women really are. They have
the calm and superb indifference and
repose of their English sisters and the
delicacy and exquisite trimness of the
French. They are all wonderfully
fine in their finish; they have a sug-
gestion OF mingled completeness and
delicacy which makes them perfect in
detail as a line engraving. And they
one and all have a remarkable air of
distinction which would make them
striking If they were dressed in rags.
As for clothes, you have never seen
anything simpler than their costumes.
The word Just now is everything as
neat, as quietly rich, and as incon-
~spicuous as possible. But oh, my,
how that simplicity does costle
You have to be a woman, or a very
| acute observer, or the intimate friend
of a woman to know that these chilly
and soberiy CARRIED creatures, looking
demure and quiet as nuns, have run
through an appalling number of 500
bills to achieve that s%ingularly incon-
spicuous air. The dresses are slim
| and narrow and dark, tailor made and
.--uxx ol1az Effinn Soma ~ than haxra
a little fur about them, coming out
round the edges in narrow rims. There
are small, close hats, setting tight
round their heads, some punched up
in the back with a bristle of birds
wings, other low, and snug Oh the
smooth drawn glossy hair. They
wear thin wells over their cream COM
| plexions, generally nc bang at all. OF
al odd curl or rough end of hair on
thsir temples, and long, comfortable
looking boots, with a narrow, pointed
toe, and terribly sensible, low, fiat
heels. Judging by these boots, the
girl who, ten years ago, wore a No. 3
shoe will today wear a No. 8. You
very rarely now see the infinitesimal
! feet which have to get children's sizes.
They went out with sloping should
ers and wasp waists.
All these women have the most rig
idly erect carriage-the shoulders
squared and held web back, the chin
up, the back perfectly flat and stiff,
| and the hands held crossed over the
waist in font. This comes from Eng
land, where the women are all stiff
and straight as billiard cues. 1t is
not particularly graceful, but it is
healthy, and it gives them fine, Wig
orous looking figures. The only thing
about it is that it is so unbending.
They never lounge or loll negligently.
You see one of them sitting up as if
she were built on a poker, and you
cannot imagine her in any other atti-
tude. You picture her in your minds
eye sleeping that way. as rigid and
erect as if she had looked at Medusa
and been turned to stone.
Where there can be no question
| about the good looks of the men, there
will be a good many about those OF
the There are quantities of
pagan outsiders who will see among
the patrician an immense
amount OF style, of tone. OF air, OF
distinction, but little raw beauty.
sixteen is seen who has the
evanescent, ethereal loveliness of
a tea rose; but among the older
women style is the thing. They are
perfectly satisfied themselves, and the
me- are perfectly satisfied with their
good looks, too. The New York man
thinks the New York woman is the
noblest work of the world. He would
not have her changed in one slightest
respect, and if you do not admire her
as much as he does, he merely thinks
that is your misfortune and not his
fault.