The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-08-16

followed by her pupil and protege, Miss
Florence Sears, of Buffalo, who is doing for
the four hundred of that city what Mrs.
Russell is for Newport.
What does this woman who has set New
port agog by her sayings and doing look
has the gift of making herself look taller
than she really is. She is we'll rounded. but
in some mysterious fashion will make you
swear she is slender. She is as 1.-the as a
serpent, and as capable of vibrations as a
violin string. Her eyes and mouth are her
dark lashes, and express all sorts of emo
tions in swiftly changing chances. Her
flexible, curvinR lips, parting over ~2listen-
ing teeth, are quite as suggestive. She is
not a handsome woman, but fascinating
and magnetic. Her gown? All! Well,
some soft, crepe fabric of gold
most graceful lines and and statuesque
folds, and clasped and caught here and
there with bizarre of carved
ivory. The hair is cut in a p~re-Raphaelite
brow, and over it is set a tiny Venetian cap
OF bronze and copper embroidery. 1t is a
curious medieval figure this. set among all
these modern frills. flounces and fripperies.
And it is a moro curious sight to watch
these women, bound in steel and whale
DOu0, OOE60t0O " bu6 ldbG uObCu, Wy TO 1Ill~
tate the free, perfectly easy and subtitle
movements Of their teacher, whose every
joint is unfettered. There's no use-soci-
ETY. will have to take of its corsets before it
can be as graceful as Russell.
Mrs. Russell puts her class through first,
the relaxing motions, consisting of shaking
fingers, rolling the head and hips, then the
opposition of movement to get balance and
poise, then the succession of movements
during which the arms make one motion,
while the hips are doing quite another.
Then to finish the exercises every blessed
swell save Mrs. Aston falls on her face. OF
course one could not expect such q per-
Torrance from the stately leader of the
four hundred.
And now the men are getting the Delsarte
fever. Mrs. Stnyvesant Fish gave a lunch
con this week and Mrs. Russell was called
upon to do some of her work for the men
who were present. So the lady posed and
bowed and famed for their benefit and re-
ceived a storm Of applause. The result is
that next season men are to be ADMITTED to
Mrs. Russell's classes. Several prominent
social leaders have formed dinner clubs.
Each takes her turn giving a dinner party,
after which there is to be a DeIsarte dance,
paces and the women shall laugh at their
awkwardness.
The question arlses is this merely a fad
or craze. or is there something real and
substantial behind these seeming eccentric
tiles and posinRs?
Mrs. Russell declares that there is a great
misconception in regard to the scope of the
work of Delsarte. sDslsartism,' she SAYS,
ca 'nestly, lis the analysis of human ex-
preston and the science of art. The trou-
BILE Is that his ideas have been presented to
the American public by people who have
only learned the tudiments of his theory,
Accordingly, the idea has gone abroad thai
1t means only a kind of aesthetic gymnastic,
or a new method of elocution. But it means
much more than this. 1t Is the theory of
all art, and it's principles are AS applicable
to music. painting and sculpture as to act
ing. Gounod was a pupil of the elder Del
sarte, and Schumann studied with the
younger Delsarte. Gladstone says it should
be taug t in every school in England. /
am merely trying to show people how by
studying principles of the art they NAV
make an art Of life itself. We cannot all
be poets or painters, but We can convert
our daily acts into graciousness and let our
conversation be with beauty
Mrs. Russell does not hesitate to attack
slang, boistsrousness, bluntneHs and hauteur
In most uncompromlslng fashion. She is
not one bit awed or overwhelmed by the
exalted character of her audience. She is n
lady born and bred, id accustomed TO the
best London circles of society and can hold
her own anywhere with perfect sasc. She
enjoys teaching these lovely and refined
women and Gays that she nnds their intetli-
Renoe far over the average mark. They
acquire physical execution faster than any
other women, owing, she thinks, to tho fact
that the greater portion OF their summer
lives Is passed in outdoor exercise, driving.
horseback riding and sea bathing. at II
the quiet middle class women who none in
! the house all day, who are most difficult 10