Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1893-02-02

The weights of the first and the last
are between 13O and 1S5 pounds, while
the New York girl weighs about 128
Polycletos, an old Greek sculptor from
Licyon, left rules governing the relative
proportions of the female frame. He
said that twice the thumb was once
round the wrist, which it is not, unless
the thumb is unusually large and the
wrist unusually slender; that twice the
wrist is the size of the neck, which is
about the case in a well proportioned
woman; that twice the neck is once
round the waist, which is about so. But
he also says that the hand and foot and
face should all be of the same length,
which is very rarely the case, and that
the body should be six times the length
of the foot, which would limit most
men, whose feet average ten inches in
length, to a stature of five feet. The
gentleman from Licyon is evidently not
a trustworthy guide.
Referring to the above table, it will be
observed that the waist of the New
Yorker is much smaller than that of the
other two. The fashion of small waists
is the rage in the east, and the desired
result is obtained by tight lacing, which
is carried to such an extent that the
physiognomist is lost in amazement as
to where the lady has bestowed her vital
organs. No statue in existence exhibits
such disproportion between the waist
and those portions of the trunk which
lie above and below it. The compression
of the girth is a mere fashionable fad
which good taste must condemn. Our
California girl wears a 24-inch corset,
which might easily be reduced to 23-
inch if the wearer saw fit to sacrifice
comfort to eastern fashion. There are
bellies in New York who are not satisfied
till they have squeezed themselves into a
17-inch corset. Such persons, it would
seem. would have enjoyed the Scottish
boot.
The bust and hips should, in perfect
ly formed woman, be exactly the same
in circumference. They are so in Bal
lows ideal, in the Venus of Milo, in the
Cnidian Venus and in the California
girl In the New Yorker the circum
ference of the bust is half an inch
greater than that of the hips, which is
probably the work of art, not nature.
Ballow does not give the dimensions
of his ideals feet or hands He merely
says that they are ''in proportion, which
is rather vague. The rule among sculp-
tors is that the foot should measure one
head, which is unsatisfactory, as some
l.. L.,
small women large heads.
The female foot is probably smaller in
New York society than here, for the sim
pie reason that it has less to carry. Shoe
makers say here that they sell more 4
and Al shoes than any others, but many
ladies in society buy 81, 8, and even p
shoes. The knights of st. Crispin do
not believe in the sculptor's rule about
feet. They say that small feet, like large
wits, are gift from heaven, and may
be found attached to persons of any di-
mensions. Everybody has observed that
there is no necessary connection between
the hands and the figure; that some slim
girls have large hands, and some girls
with opulent figures small hands and
fingers.
Take all the measurements together,
and the conclusion is forced that the
Californian girl more closely resembles
the Cuidian Venus than the Venus of
Medici, and that representative Cali
fornian statue should be cast after a
study of that masterpiece as well as of
the Venus of Milo and the Venus CALI
pyge-San Francisco Argonaut.