The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-17
Driving Has now Jumped to Very
High Favor Among FASH
ionablo Women.
wheeling, Fencing, Swimming and
Other Forms of Exercise
Beneficial.
h0ancipr Holds Its Own-Styles of the EN-
excise Most Popular-To Give
q German.

But u /! she dances Sueh o way
No sun upon an Easter day
Is half SO fine a sight.
Sir John Lacking.
The London Times says that the present
season has seen ''drivinR jump to a great
height of favor amongst fashionable
women"
Il is a curious expression but enlightens
as as to the liberty which even SO great an
authority takes with our common language.
There is no doubt of the fact that the pony
phaeton and the pair of ponies are becom-
ing a great necessity to an energetic
woman. The "little pony land the Ralli
cart, as q ladies', pastime is a familiar tlg-
ure at Newport in the season, at n thousand
country places, and at the sea side. IN our
own Central park and all through the west
and south.
II has been much more the custom for
ladies in the west and south to drive them
selves than for those at the north; conse-
uuently they drive better. Only those who
know how to drive we'll ought ever to drive,
for they not only endanger their W lives
but a dozen lives beside.
Whoever has seen a runaway carriage run
Into another carriage, md has beheid the
breaking up, can realize for the first time
ENG tIoul6lOOuS AOASSo AL oOJoo' IA oSeAoNs
The little "Ralli carts can become a bat
tering ram of prodigious force.
No form of recreation is SO useful and so
becoming as horseback exercise. No Eng
lishwoman looks SO we'll as when turned
put'' for out-of-door exercise. And our
American women who buy their habits and
hats in London, are getting to have the
same tchio." Indeed, so immensely su-
perior is the London habit considered, that
the French circus women who ride in the
Bois, making SO great a sensation, go over
to London to have their habits made, and
thus return the compliment which English
ladies pay to Paris. in having all their din
ner gowns and tea gowns made there. Per
haps dislikino this sort of copy, the English
women are becoming careless OF their ap-
pearance on horseback, and are coming out
in a straw hat, a covert coat" and a cotton
skirt.
TIL soft felt hat has long been a ~favorite
on the continent at watering places for the
English; and it is much easier for the head.
Still, in case of a fall it does not save the
head like a hard masculine hat.
We have not yet. as a nation, taken to
cyclinR for women; but many English
women 20 all over the globe on a tricycle..
"A husband and wife are often seen on a
bicycle near London; and women who lead
sedentary lives. in offices and schools. make
much of their Saturday afternoons thus.
Boating needs to be cultivated in Amerl-
ca: It is a superb exercise for developing
q good figure, and to manage q punt has
become q common accomplishment for the
riverside girls. Ladies nave regattas on
the Thames.
Golf has vet to be introduced among us,
to rival lawn tennis, archery and ball.
Fencing, which many actresses must learn,
ID a very admirable process for developing
the figure.
The young princesses OF wales are aoepts
in this. 1t requires an ousAt OF a dainty
tunic to the knees. a fencing jachst of soft
leather with tight sleeves, gauntlet gloves,
a mask, a pair of foils, and costs about $l5.
American women as q rule are not fond
of walking. One must put IN something
like an attraction or a duty to rouse our
delicate girls to walk. They WILL not do 1t
for their health alone.
Gymnastic teaching is, however, giving
our girls more strength, and it would te
we'll if in every family of daughters there
were some calesthenic training, to develop
the muscles and to give a more graceful
walk. "
To teach q girl to swim is almost a duty
and these splendid physical exercises Will
have a great influence over that nervous
distress which our climate produces Will
ats overfullness of oxygen. r..
But if girls do not like to walk. they al
like to dance, and it is not intended as
pun when we mention that "a great jump
has been made back to the old-fashlonet
dancing in which freedom OF movement ]
matchless grace in the ''Winter's Tale" al
tried to 90 and dance like her, and to Sc
Ellen Terry's spring in the pretty Ollvl
teaches one how entirely beautiful is thi
strong command of ones muscles.
From the German cotillon back to tn
Virginia reel, is indeed a bound.
Our grandfathers knew how to dance. w
are fast getting back to them. The earlies
dancing masters were Frenchmen, and on
ancestors were taught to ~"piroutte" as di
Vestris when he was SO obllglng as to sa.
pfter a royal command: "The house c
Vestris has always danced for that c
Bourbon"
The palop has, during the long lanquor c
the dance, alone held its own, IN the matte
of iollity. The glide waltz, the redow'
the stately minuet. give only the slow an
The galop has always been a great favo
tie with the Swedes, Danes and Russian
while the redowa reminds one OF the grac
ful Viennese who dance it so we'll. The mi
zourka, danced to wild Polish music, is
poetical and active affair.
The introduction of Hungarian bant
and Hungarian musici is another reason WI
dancing has become a chop. skip and
bound" without losing dignity or grac
Activity need not be vulgar.
The German c%otillon, born many yea
& at Vienna to meet the requirements
court etiquette, is still the fashionab
dance with which the ball closes. Its favor
beginning with flowers and ribbons ar
bits of tinsel, have now ripened into fan
bracelets, gold scarf pins and pencil cas-
and many things more expensive. Fayo
may cost $4,000 for a fashionable ball
sdance," as they say in London
The german is a dance of an infinite v
riety, and to lead it requires a man of hea
One such leader, who constructs new fl
ures, becomes a power i'll society. Il
waltz. galop, redowa and polka step can
be utilized IN it. There is q slow walk
the quadrille figure, a stately march, t
bows and ~curtsies of the old minuet. a.
above all, the tour de valse. which is t
means of locomotion from place to plat
The ~changeful exigencies of the vario
figures lead the forty or fifty, or the t.
hundred to meet, exchange greetings, dan
with each other, change their geographic
position many times. Indeed no army &C
through more evolutions.
A pretty figure is l. Corbeille I Anne
ct la fleur." Thu first couple performs
tour de yalse, after which the gentlem
presents the lady with a basket contain
a ring and q flower, then resumes his Sc
The lady presents the ring to one gent
man, the flower to another, and the basl