St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-02
PLAIN GOTHAM GIRLS.
Women Of the Metropolis Get
ting Less Pretty and Men
Finer Looking.
What a Western Critic Con-
cludes in Regard to the
Ladies.
The Tendency Toward the I'm
handsome but Elegant
Type.
Some Rigid Attitudes - The
Blonde Is Going Out OF
Fashion.


The stranger, especially II he be
Western stranger, will be struck by two
things-one the extreme simplicity OF
the Women's dress, the other that the
men are so superior in looks to the girls.
A Western man lately told me that this
latter was the most striking thing he
had noticed in New York, and that III
most Of the West-especially the Pa
cific slope-the women are far in adj
vance of the men as to looks. But IN
New York for every pretty girl you saw
YOU net dozen splendid-looking Eel
lows. athletic. intelligent, and manly.
There is no doubt aboutit--in the last
ten wears the New y ork type has under
gone radical change. Consult an old
inhabitant if you want to verify this.
We used to be Just like any other Amer
lean city. filed up with pretty women
and sadly deficient in good-looklhg
men. Now the New York woman seems
to me to have sacrificed great deal OF
her beauty for the higher development
of that cold elegance, that lrrepfoacHa-
bic style Which distinguishes her IRON
any other woman in the country. Inc
men, on the other hand, have gone On
IN little more time 10 athletics, to
freedom from that terrible business
strain which made their prorenitOrs old
before their time, pale as pl hts grown
in cellar, weedy and fiberless.
These men YOU sec at the horse show
are a magnificent looking lot. They
have lost the pinched and haggard look
which made English people wonder If
all Americans were always i'll, and they
have retained that appearance OF IN
tellectuality, Of refinement, OF thought
fuIness which marked them with GER
tain distinction, and will always pre-
vent them from getting that coarse,
beefy air which spoils so many good
looking Brtons. They dress perfectly
and with All individual taste marked by
elegance and neatneSS. Ihey were no
more conspicuous i'll their dressing than
the women. There was not one dude
there-the race seems 10 nave died
and there were very few angl0manlacs.
There were no eXaggeratiOns in style.
such as used to he so common. TO un.
duly aggressive heil-crOWned or Alpine
hats, no happingly wide or surprisingly
narrow trousers. The one suggestion
of apglomania surviving from the Old
DAYS was the prevalence OF single eye
glasses. And one and all OF these
naughty siX-foOterS-tCr most of them
were iX-footers-turned up their
trousers round the ankles, no matter
what was the state Of the weather.
This, indeed, seemed to be the sole new
fashion of the winter
The women. who were the flower of
the Four Hundred, are getting to have
a mingled look of French and English
women. when, il you remember, Is
What some one or other said American
women really are. They have the calm
and superb indifference ana repoSe OF
their English sisters and the dellcacy
and exquisite trimnesS OF the French.
They are all wonderfully fine in their
finish: they have suggestion OF min
gled completeness and delicacy which
makes them perfect in detail as 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
rs inconSpicuous as possible. But, oh,
nv. how that simplicity does cost!
You have to be a woman, Or very
cute observer, OF the intimate friend of
Il woman. 10 know that these chilly and
sobery-garbed creatures, looking de-
mure and quiet as nuns, have run
through an appalling number Of 500
bills to achieve that Singularly lncOn-
spicuOus air. The dresses are all slim
and narrow and dark, tailor-made and
very close fitting. Some OF them have
little fur about them, coming out round
the edges III narrow rims. There are
small, close hats, setting tight round
their heads, some punched up Ill the
back with brlStle of birds wings, 9TH
erS low and snug on the smooth drawn,
glossy hair. They wear thin wells over
their cream compilations, generally no
bang at all, or an odd curl or rough end
of hair on their temples, and long, com
fortable-lOoking boots, with a narrow,
pointed toe, and terribly sensible, low,
fiat heels. Judging by these boots the
girl who, ten years ago, wore No. 3
shoe, will to-day wear No. 5. You
very rarely now see the ihfinteSimal
feet which have to get children'S sizes.
They went out with sloping shoulders
and wasp waists.
All these women have the most rig
idly erect carriage-the shoulders
SQUARED and held well back, the chin up,
the back perfectly flat and stiff, and the
hands held crossed over the waist in
front. This comes from England. where
the women are all stiff and straight as
billiard cues. Ii is not particularly
graceful, but it is healthy, and it gives
them fine, vigOrouS-looking figures. The
only thing about it is that it is so un-
bending. They never lounge or loll
negligently. You see one of them sit
Ing up as If she were built on poker.
and YOU cannot imagine her in any other
m q n m e
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 locks of the men, there will be
good many about those of the women,
There are quantities of pagan outsiders
who will see among the patrician con-
course an immense amount of style, of
tone, of air, of distinction, but little raw
beauty. Sometimes a very young girl
of sixteen is seen who has the evanes-
cent, ethereal loneliness of a tea
rose; but among the older women
style is the thing. They are
perfectly satisfied themselves, and
the men 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 cnangeQ Ill one SlgnleSl
respect, and if you do not admire her as
much as he does, he merely thinks that
is your misfortune and hot his fault.
1t is the mems admiration for this ele-
CANT and highly finished type that is
Slowly making it the type of Gotham.
Students of these subjects say intense
admiration for style causes thatstyle to
prevail. Statistics show that more bru-
nettes marry than blondes, hence
blondes are year by year growing rarer.
A young New York man once, in speak
ing of some exceedingly handsome girls
living on Long island, said he did not
admire them because their genre was Sc
bad. They wore conspicuous and ag-
;s>sSsiye clothes, big hats and gaudy
ISIns. Their very beauty was striking,
being of a hlgh-colored, yellow-locked,
blue-eyed type that people stared at in
the streets and men looked at III the ell.
evated over their morning papers. 81
think they're awfully handsome and al
that" said the hoy, "but they're toe
loud looking. I'd rather talk to a cir
who was not so conspicuous and better
style. hate conspicuous people, ever