Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-07-11

unaSSuming Jeanie Deans little body. |
Sir Thomas Moore was actually Jealous
Of the attentions bestowed on his tiny
country woman. Altogether Maria
Edgeworth filled a place in the world
of fashion and letters of her time alto
gether disproportionate to her Size.
Most Of the blue stockings of the
eighteenth century seem to have had
bodies overweighted with brains
There was Mrs. Montague, 1.-The Eng
fish woman Of LETTERS of the eighteenth
century, as Boswell ponderously
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 feast which she gave the chin
ney sweeps of London. If one Were a
celebrity. one was sure to bring up At
Mrs. MOnt3 CUES sooner or later, for
there gathered all the wits and
scholars and artists and beauties of
her time.
Do you know that small women have
a way of living on to old age? To be
sure Cleopa TIA died young, but it was
| her own fault. There was Mrs. Mon
tague, who was still loving ribbons and
diamonds after four score. and good
solid, TINY, goSsip-despiSing Hannah
| Moore, who at eighty tripped about
the drawing room in a pea-green silk
| gown.
The list is endless. There was
Frederika Bremen, the German novel
list, a plain little specimen of woman
hood. And Lady Morgan, who wrote
''The Wild Irish Girl''-nobody thinks
of hooking at its pages nowadays, but
it was popular Once-Was hardly four
feet tall. She loved to appear in a
Celtic cloak. Those, too, are obso-
lete, but in her day they were the Sun
day garment of every woman in Ire
land, that is, every woman who didn' t
belong to the gentry. After she had
turned SIXTY, she affected white frocks
and green ssSheS. She had, indeed
many peculiartieS, not the least anus
ing one being her dislike for dates
Il protest against dates. What has a
| woman to do with dateS?' she asked
indignantly. And some of her ac-
ferring to her as Lady Morgan of the
eighteenth century. But Lady Morgan,
for all her little Weaknesses was
much sought after and admired for
her ready wit and fluent pen.
Rosa BOnheur is another famous lit
tie woman, and one evening in London
She met many other famous folk at
the salon of short Miss Spence. Miss
/ Spence was not tail, but she was very,
very broad, and a rather remarkable
character in her way. She seems never
/ to have done anything in particular
herself, except to draw about her many
people of worldwide regulations. And
this, mind you, when her salon meant
two small rooGlS and she made tea in
/ a closet. 1t was there Buiwer Lytton
and ROSina Wheeler made their first
| appearance after their betrOthal
And there was Lola NIOntez, that
/ famous infamous woman whose in
] fuence nodded nations. And there is
! Patti and the tiny Lolita of the en-
chanting heels and perpetual youth,
/ and Mlas. Frances HOdgeson Burnett
and Harriet Prescott Spofford. The
| list might be continued indefinitely.
but it lis quite long enough now to
show that tho litt41n woman is yVn1rhv
sometimes.