The Washington times., 1895-03-29
COMFORT FOR SMALL WOMEN
Diminntiye Femininity Has Been
Loved Most of All.
And She Has Made History, Too as Is
Proved by Long and Most
Glittering List.

CLEOPATRA AND LEoLA MONTE.
In these days when the public seems in
danger of eoirg Trlby-mad, and the ideal
woman is big-footed, begged. and big
boned, it's a good idea 10 refresh our IN inds
! on the subject of tie little women. It's
! Just as well not to forget that most of the
! women who have helped TO make history
either by their wit or beauty. or both, have
! belonged to the diminutiye variety of their
! sex.
There was Cleopatra IL she couldn't
have given Trilby cards and spades and
beaten her at her own game. even to the
altogether, who could? And Cleopatra.
mind you, stood less than five feet in her
] highest heeled sandals. If you don't be-
lieve it, all you have 10 6o-is TO run ever
10 London. where you'll find her mummy
carefully preserved. and its only fifty
four inches long. It's the little women who
twist big men around their little fingers.
/ Shakespeare knew that, and no doubt the
Queen OF Italy is quite right when she says
Mrs. Macbeth was a little dark shrewish
woman.
ADN ANtAiAiAAbSl " iAtlN etAG
Cleopatra's first anxiety about odavia's
height. Bring me word how tan she is,''
she says lis she as tail as me?" And
again, eXulingly. duh of tongue and
dwarfish. What majesty is in her gait?"
No doubt ii was this ma jesty in her
gait which made Cleopatra the regal com
/ manding parsonage she eOnid be when occa-
sion demanded
If j woman knows -hew to dress and
Z -.
/ appearance. Before Queen Victoria be
! came rheumatic and a tnfIe square as 10
/ figure, she impressed everyone who saw
! her Win such a sense OF majesty and
] Stateliness that il was very difficult TO
/ believe that She lacked two inches OF
being five feet tall. The erectBess with
/ which she carried her body-spne stra ight
! as an arrow, shoulders well back, lead
I Wei 20 sod. together with the sweeping
! robes OF state-all combined To transform
the royal midget INTO an imposing COM
| mandiug woman. In her younger days
I Queen Victoria was very sensitive about
! her height or rather lack OF il.
They tell pretty story about dear little
Nara Edgew orth, from whom Walter
/ Scott got the inspiration that led him to
/ mmortalize observation-disclosures of his
( native hills. One day she was travelling
in stage coach. - Among the passengers
| was a bright little boy. Presently he
! worth TO stand up tat he might look for
| il under the seat She told him she was
1 standing. and the little fellow looked at
1 her with distended eyes and exclaimed:
Well, you are the very littlest lady
! eyer did see - Sir Walter Scott ad-
I m!red the famous ITishwom3n because of
l'her dminutive size as well as for her
| vii and keenest OF observation. Byron
/ was another of her admirers, though he
| spoke OF her as an unassuming Jeanie
! Deans little body. Sir Thomas Moore
/ was actually jealous of the attentions be-
/ slowed on has tiny country woman. Al
/ together Nara Edgeworth filled a place
| in the world OF fashion and letters OF her
/ time altogether disproportionate to her
size
Most of the blue stockings OF the eigh-
/ ieenth century seem to have had bodies over
/ weighted with brains. There was Mrs Mon
tague, 'the English woman OF letters OF
the eighteenth century" as Boswell ponder
ousiy called her. What Mrs. Montague
| lacked in height she made up in breadth, for
| she was as broad As she was long. She was
the leader Of the famous Blue Stocking Club,
/ and her house was famous for It's entertain
/ ments, not the least of which was the annual
1 feast which she gave the chimney sweeps OF
! London. IL one were celebrity. one was
/ sure 10 bring up at Mrs. Montague 'ssoouer or
/ later, for there gathered all the wits and
| scholars and artists and beauties OF her time.
DOyou know that small womeRhavea way
4 of living on to old age? To be sure Cleo
/ patra died young, but il was her own fault
! There was Mrs. Montague, who was still
! loving ribbonsand diamonds after fourscore,
and good. solid, tiny, gossip-despisiug
Hannah More. who at eighty tripped about
her dra wing room in a pea green silk gown
The list is endless. There was Frederika
! Bremen, the German novelist. a plain little
specimenof womanhood. Aud Lady Morgan,
who wrote The Wild Irish GirI''-nobody
thinks of looking at its pages nowadays, but
I IL was populaf once-was hardly four feet
! tan. She loved to appear in gay red Celtic
/ cloak. These, too. are obsolete, but in her
day, they were the Sunday garment of every
woman in Ireland, that is, every woman who
didn't belong To the gentry
After she had turned sixty she affected
white frpclls and green seShes. She had,
indeed. many peculiarities, not the least
amusing one being her dislike fordates. II
I protest against dates. What has woman
TO do with dates?" she asked Indignantly.
/ And some or her aequaintanee loved to
tease her by referring to her as Lady Nor
] gan, OF the eighteenth century. But Lady
Morgan. for all her little weaknesses,
was much sought after and admired for
her ready wit ana fluent pen.
Rosa Bonheur is another famous little
woman, and one evening in London she met
many other famous folk at the salon of
short Miss Spence. Miss Spence vas not
/ tall. but she was very, very broad. and
rather remarkah BILE character in her way
! She seems never TO have done anything in
/ particular herself, except 10 draw about
her many people OF world wide regulations.
\ And this, mind you. when her salon meant
two small rooms. and she made tea in
4 closet. II was there Bulwer- Lytton and
/ Rosna Wheeler made their first appear
ance after their betrothal
And there was Lola Montez. that famous
infamous woman whose influence nodded
nations. And there is Patti and the tiny
Letta of the enchanting ,het.s and perpetual
youth, and Mrs. Frances Hodgeson Burnett
I and Harriet Prescott Sfsofford. The. list
might be continued indefinitely, but it is
quite long enough how TO Show that the
little woman is worthy OF more consider
alton than she gels sometimes.
PATRICIA MOORE.