St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-08-07
ARTISTIC BATHING.
Obesity in Bathing Suits Of
tends the Artistic Sem
Sibilities.
While on the Other Hand
Agile Figures Please
the Eye.
How Somebody's Mother
Makes Herself a Blot on
the Landscape.
Some Hints as to Correct
Fashions in Seashore
Attire.

NEW YORK, Aug. 8, 1S92.-By this
time we have all Of us come to the con-
cluSion that at the sea is the only place
where life can be tolerated just now.
Sporting in its briny waves, tossed like
she'll in its Surfy arms. we are content
for while to cease slpping iced claret
and taking Turkish baths. We are
cooled down and freshened up so as to
lake faint interest in the world about
us. That world just low is jumping.
struggling, leaping and screaming, and
showing itself in the most primitive
form that it has ever attempted to eX-
hibit since the time Of Adam. A bath
ing dress is the next best thing
to the human form divine, or
the next worst thing, as the
debar any one from innocent enjoyment
in this vale of tears, but | am an artist
in sentiment. and it seems to me that
there ought to be some law to prevent
very obese people from exhibiting their
forms in the unblushing way they do.
We sit on the sandy beach, bathed in a
flood of glorious golden sunshine, and
the emerald sea melting into the har-
mOnlouS sky seems the fitting setting
for the agile figures in their brightly
eOlored costumes, and the whole scene
seems artistic, iubilant and gay. A few
promenading tigarcS in quaint and bi-
Zarre suits, number or groups reclin-
ing in picturesque abandonment, the
yachts and sailing boats in the distance,
all these together combine to make
picture that stamps itself pleasurably
Oh the Imagination.
But what is this blot upon the land
scape that comes toward Us, progressing
with clumsy jog trot? 1t wears
bathing costume that in the happy past
may have fallen in graceful folds, but
there is no room in it for folds now. 1t
moves on legs that are all calf and no
ankle, and these over-sturdy legs seem
almost incapable of supporting a figure
whose frontal development is quite dis
proDortionate to the rest of the figure.
This grOteSQue figure wears the usual
jaunty blue and white suit, low in the
neck and guiltlesS of sleeves, with con-
tinuatlonS of abbreviated length suita-
bic for bud of sixteen, and under it's
treble chin scarlet bathing hat is
firmly tied. On the whole. 1t is not
spectacle to command respect. There
Is want of symmetry about it, an eX-
cess Of fat, that mars the rest of the
scene. And then this scarecrow, as it
promenades about, invites rldicule,
which is grievous thing when you re-
fleet that 1t is somebody's mother
That's the worst of it. You feel that
you ought to respect her, but you can't.
1t really is astonishing how much
easier the fifth commandment is to
keep when the object of veneration is
clothed in long petticoats instead of
short ones. Unsllapely fat disporting
itself i'll the tossing ocean is not a pleas
ant sight. AS Digby Bell says, If had
my way, ''1'd make law to stop it."
Very unjust and selfish, of course, but
then L am afflicted with an eye for the
picturesque.
White flannel skirts are worn with
blue or pink silk shirts which have
guipure vokes and deep cuffs, sometimes
transparent, sometimes mounted on the
silk. Baby ribbon is run through these
lace Jokes and tied IN a series of little
bows from the termination of the yoke
to the throat. Sleeveless vests of white
flannel are often worn with these col
ored blouses turned back with revers of
white MORE. The old-fashloned organ
die muslins of our mothers and grand
mothers are coming into fashion again,
trimmed with Nalenciennes lace and
baby ribbon or very narrow velvet.