Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1892-07-30
THE LATEST FASHIONS.
Only Occupation for This Tenn
perature.
AN ARTISTS VIEW OF BATHING

Shall Our Fat Aunts and Mothers Battle
in the Abbreviated Costume of the Day
Tempted to Break the Finh Command
ment.
NRw YORK, July 30-By this time we
have all come 10 tho conclusion that the
sea is the only place where life
can be tolerated Just now Sporting
in its briny waves, tossed like a
she'll in its surfy arms, we are content
for while to cease slipping iced claret,
and taking Turkish baths. We are cool
ed down and freshened up so as to take
n faint interest in the world about us,
That world just how is jun ping.
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 worse
| thing as the case may be- | don't want
TO debar anyone from innocent enjoyment
in this vale Of tears, but / am an artist
/ in sentiment, and il seems to me that
there ought to be some law TO prevent
very obese people from exhibiting their
forms in the unblushing way that they
do. We sit ON the sandy beach bathed
in n flood of glorious golden sunshine,
and the emerald sea, melting into the
harmonious sky, seems the fitting setting
for the agile figures in their brightly col
ored costumes, and the whole scence
seems artistic, iubilant and gay. A few
promenading figures in quaint and bizarre
suits. a number of groups reclining in
picturesque abandonment, the yachts and
sailing boats in the distance, all these
together combine to make picture that
stamps itself pleaasurably on the imagi-
nation.
But what is this blot upon the land
scape that comes towards us. progressing
with a clumsy jog-trot2 II wears bath
ing 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 inca
pable of supporting a figure whose
frontal development is quite dispropor-
tionate to the rest of the figure. This
grotesque figure wears the usual iaunty
bue-and- white suit, low in the neck and
guiltless of sleeves, with combinations of
abbreviated length suitable for bud
of sixteen. and under its treble chin q
scarlet bathing hat is firmly tied. On
the whole it is not spectacle 10 com
mand respect There is a want of sym
metry about it, an excess of fat, that
mars the rest of the scene. And ther
this scarecrow, as it prominades about in
vites ridicule which is a grievous thing
: when you reflect that it is somebody
mother-that's the worst of it-you fee
that you ought to respect her, but you
can't II really is astonishing how mucl
easier the Fifth Commandment is to keel
when the object of generation is clothed
in long petticoats instead of short ones
Unshapely fat disporting itself in TIN
tossing ocean is not a pleasant sight. A
Digby Bell says. If ! had my way, IL
! make law to stop it. " Very unjust an'
{ selfish of course but then | am afflicted
4 with an eye for the picturesque.
s Some of the costumes at the seaside lie
sorts are very charming and show grea
I deal of novelty. Those of light silk
trimmed with profusion of lace, seen
, the most fashionable, but these hardl
look as suitable and pretty as the ligh
serge blazers and skirts worn wit
! colored blouses.