The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-12-13
NEW YORK BEAUTIES DEFENDED.

A Critic who Declares That the Women
at the Horse Show Were All Right
have been very much amused by
Mrs. Gertrude Atherton's letter in
which she sweepingly condemns the
women Of New York seen by her at the
horse show for the reason that they
lack, in Mrs. Anterior = judgment the
beauty Of the southern and (sic) Cali
fornia women. While / must admire
the instinct which makes one stand up
for ones native state as producer Of
the most beautiful women, especially
when the writer IS a woman, 1 am
moved to mirth by the ridiculous crit
icislns of our representative New y Ork
women seen at the great annual festival
Iheard a travelled and titled Englishman
declare last week as he walked past the
glowing parterre of radiant womanhOOd
at the Madison Square Garden that he
had never seen at any court gathering
or in any city in the world such a dis
play Of beauty of form and face,
showing that gave to New 7 ork city
the fame it has throughout the civilized
world, even in California, for its mag
nificent feminine population We do
not need d foreign cachet, however, for
l think it was our own Mark Twain
who remarked, 'sThere is a goddess
grace about a New York woman, some
thing more than mere clothes, that can
be recognized the world over
OF course I am forced to agree with
Mrs. Anterior that our New Y ork beau
ties do not boast the prepOnderance of
nose which the talented authorizes has
vainly sought for. If she had looked
inside the ring, she would have found
nose enough to satisfy her cravings in
this direction, but I really have yet to
learn that q superabundance of probes
els Is a necessary adjunct to beauty.
But that such faces as those Of Mrs
Burke Roche, Mrs Suffern Taller, Mrs
Elisha Dyer, Jr, Mrs. Duncan Elliott
and others equally beautiful should be
called merely commonplace is dis
tinctly humorous assertion
The beauty of the southern women
that Samuel Minturn Peck has made as
SO well acquainted with is something
we are all proud OF. Her modesty and
vomanliness are among her greatest
charms. The face of the wild and more
or less woolly western female is some
thing of another type, Of which we will
not speak IN the same breath. The
greasy female, with badly fitting
clothes, as portrayed in the modern
erOtic novel, is not to be found at the
horse show. She would find it difficult
t. obtain admittance, and if she did so
would find herself IN uncongenial COM
pany.
Mrs. Anterior naively remarked,
''The New York woman Of fashion
without her bright complexion and hair,
her admirable grooming, her superb
gowns and acquired air could only DO
described as commonplace. This re-
minds me Of the real estate man who
was praising the lOts-western lots, by
the way-which he offered for sale.
s'All the place wants, = said he, ''is
more water, a cooler climate and good
society to make it \ perfect paradise =
well, that's all hell wants, y re-
sponded his client.
Take any woman-a Californian
woman even, with all her general raw
ness and her bury speech-give her
bright complexion and hair, superb
gowns and an air, natural or acquired,
and you viii have a very fetchy female.
Take a New York woman under these
circumstances, with all her esprit, chic
and POise, and you have the most
charming of results-the New York
woman as seen at the horse show. can
not believe that Mrs. Atherton saw any
representative woman at the show She
must have come across a bevy Of house
maids allowed to use q box for an after
noon and mistaken them for society
leaders. Kate Masterson in New York
Sun.