The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-02
LOIB FULLER's SKIRT.
How the Dancer Discovered its Won
derful Qualities.
From the NetC YORK sun.

| from the Net1 YORK sun.
| II was during her unfortunate expert
ences In England that Miss Fuller conceived
the idea that subsequently led her into
| fame, fortune and Minister Coolidge's re-
| ception room. Caprice" was playing TO
| poor business. London would not accept
the American comedienne in an emotional
! drama any more than the West Indies
| would accept her in Shakespeare. Loie
| Fuller lay disconsolately in bed in her apart
| ment thinking, with some bitterness, that
| it might have been better, after all if she
| had stuck to temperance lectures and left
the stage alone The way matters were
then going Caprice" spelt bankruptcy
| With that end staring her in the face were
| threatened ell the young woman's hopes Of
reforming the stage. Miss Fuller idly
| opened a package that had been sent
! to her apartment and presently forgot
| her troubles in the amaZement of beholding
gown made Of some sixty yards of dia-
| phanous silken stuff light as air and flimsy
as gossamer. She remembered that young
] officer home from Calcutta on furlough
had said at supper some evenings before
that he would send her gown Of Indian
| silk that he had bought from a Parsee, the
| like Of which no woman in England had
ever worn before. Loie looked at the thing
in establishment. The bodice was all right
but the skirt contained such an interminaDle
| amount of material that it seemed 80 her
| only crazy woman would wear iG. Miss
! Fuller studied the garment, laughed at it.
ana threw it oontemptuously aside, and
finally got up and put 1t on.
The average London boarding house is
queer, and one of the queerest elements of
the actress room consisted in the fact that
its full length mirror, instead of being be-
tween the windows was against the oppo-
81 70 yunn Ffnr into Aha
Loie stepped up to the glass and surveyed
herself. The spectacle was not satisfactory.
Lote Fuller has face more piquant than
classic, but her figure Is the perfection of
feminine shapeliness. In this new-faugled
costume she looked pudgy. Indignant at
having the beautiful lines of her form lost
even for a moment, the actress gave her
skirt a soornful kick. Then ensued
| an extraordinary thing. The sun
was shining brightly in the
windows. Its rays shOne through the
thin stuff OF the gown, and Loie saw with
| bushes that the mirror reflected the outline
| and modelling Of her figure as clearly as IL
it had not been covered. The young woman.
who had tried on the gown Just before
plunging into her morning bath tub, wore
nothing underneath, and the transparent
silk, interposinR but gauzy hindrance to
the sun cams, presented her torso and legs
with dtstinctuess in the mirror. Miss Fuller
| kicked again and again, and each time the
result was equally astonishing. In repose
the folds of the silk gathered closely and
were Opaque. In action they separated and
allowed the light to peep through. Loie
stopped down, caught the end of the
skirt on either side, lifted it until only
| single width of the material covered her.
| The disclosure was startling in the sunlight
effect from behind. Miss Fuller blushed
modestly, dropped the enveloping folds, and
sat down to think Suddenly she stripped
off the dress, pulled on a suit of black tights,
got into the gown again, and once more
studied the effect in the mirror. An hour
later the prenatal influence had fallen on
her. When Loie Fuller pulled on her tights
she was an actress and a moralIst When
she took them off she was dancer, who
held that the morals of the public could take
care of themselves
An interview with the manager of the
Gaiety theater resulted in Miss Fuler's ap-
pearance, later in the week, in "a new and
original dance called the Serpentine" There
was no particular reason why this title
should have been applied to the step But
! Loie Fuller, after studying the effect on the
posters of Lime Light Dance" Calcium
! Glide" and butterfly Ballet" thought that
| "Serpentine" would look best in large letters
Next morning after its performance the crit
! les pronounced Miss Fuller's dance indecent,
| and so far as the revelation of feminine
limbs went they were right. At that sine
| Loie was sensitive. She became furious at
the newspapers and left London in high
! dudgeon, with a contract in her pocket
| signed by Louis de LANCE, agreeing to pay
her $3.50 a week to take the leading part in
| his farce, "Quaok M. D." The first pro-
duction of this unhappy piece was at the
| Columbia theater, Harlem, sixteen months
ago. This was also the first performance
in America Of her famous dance. The
! Harlemites are an eminently proper peo-
pie. and they were duly shocked to see a
pretty woman expose her contour so freely.
! The play was failure and Lole was out Of
pocket by it. But she secured an engage
ment at the Casino, and subsequently, at
the Madison Square. Then she went to
| Berlin and electrified all Germany. She is
at present in Paris. bringing bushes to the
| innocent cheeks Of our minister to France
and driving Yvette Guilbert to desperation.
| Loie Fuller is not a good dancer. A
twinge of rheumatism in her right knee
! precludes any such fancy gyrations as LEFTY
Lind end Amelia Glover disport themselves
with. But what she lacks in agility she
| makes up in allurement. The French
dancers ere vulgar. The American is fas-
clnating. Although apparently decorously
clothed, Loie can be wickeder than the
most lawless kickers of the Moulin Rouge
or Bal Butler. This result is owing en-
tirely to her Indian gown. No other dancer
can get material like that which her adj
mirer brought from Calcutta to the little
Yankee actress, Loie herself cannot dupii-
cate it, inasmuch as the secret of its weav-
ing is lost. Her success depends entirely on
that gown. When it is worn out Loie will
! have to return to the drama and the IncuI-
! cation of morality.