Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-03-02
GIRL OF TOMORROW.
She Must First of All be Natural and
Must Find Pleasure in Tell
ing the Truth,


New York, Feb. 20.-If you want to
be fashionable just now, you must be an
optimist. Everything that we connect
with the word fin de steele is out of form,
and anybody who is anybody says that
one is vingtieme steele. You wouldn't
think the change in words would make
SO much difference, but it does. The fin
de steele girl was given over to many
bad habits-cigarette smoking, lolling
about IN tea gowns and darkened rooms,
incoming over erotic poets or analytical
novels, and. in fact, belonging to the
school of Aubrey Beardsley, who is clev-
erly enough making money at fOoling
the world. And up to it's bent. By the
by, Mr.. Beardsley has just added to his
fame-is it fame or notoriety by paint
ing a picture of the Virgin and Child,
and his conception of the Holy Mother
shows her in a hoped gown of red vel
vet, Topped with pink roses. And London
laughs. but still it buys his books. He
has just announced that the woman who
is most exquisitely shaped, or as he puts
it, ''divinely TALL" should measure from
the hip to the bend of the knee % inches,
and from the knee to the heel y inches.
Curiosity led me to measure a friend who
is OF medium height, with the result that
she measured from the hip to the bend of
IuC huc0 luCu0S. anu lFOm Lie U0uU
OF the knee to the heel, Is inches. Mr..
Beardsley's measurements probably
cause him to be so immensely off in his
drawings. About his color. l can say
nothing, but / should think he needed to
be treated as the Howling Swell said his
uncle was, that is, "You see. dear boy,
he did not know red from black, but he
went to a Johnny doctor, paid his fee,
and now he can see as we'll as anybody"
That is what is needed for the Beardsley
school TO go to a Johnny doctor and get
It's seeing apparatus Strengthened so that
their women will not look like round
bathtubs put on clothes poles and topped
with teacup and saucer.
The fin de steele girl liked to talk about
death, about it's joys, about the painful
pleasures Of life, and she changed her
religion quite as often as she did her
Washerwoman, in her efforts to get one
htted to her poor little soul. Such mis-
cradle little soul! It has been haggled
over. put out on exhibition, it's posi-
bilities discussed by long-haired men and
short-haired women until, absolutely, /
doubt its being worth defeating to any
thing. All the women who knew moth
ing, talked about the delights of the I'M
known. And all the wise women stood
off and wondered if, when Congress was
But we have changed all that. The girl
that is vingtieme steele must, first of all,
be natural. She eats we'll. she enjoys
herself heartily, and she finds an i'm
mense pleasure in telling the truth.
Sometimes she embarrasses you with
her great truthfulness. She is :ich in
opinions about bonnets, about books,
about babies. about pictures and about
men. She is particularly fond Of an
nouncing her age She patronizes the
youth of 20 whose father has allowed
him to go out alone in his first dress
clothes, by saying to him: "Now, my
dear boy, [ am ages older than you--I
mother! Let me introduce you to that
nice little blonde, Miss Giddy, who is
just IL, and you two lovely young things
can have a beautiful time together
That wasn't what he came for. Under
his breath he wishes that Giddy girl was
in heaven, and he tells Miss Theodore
Truth that he would rather stay with
her. OF course, she expected this. but
still, when he has acted like goose and
proposed to her. she is able to say to
the women of his family II never tried
to get him; I told him that I was older
than he was; | said I could be mother.
but not sweetheart: to him, ind
pretty girls. But he would hang about
me-"
She of the vingtieme steele may tell the
truth, but the truth, dressed or in its
nudity. is as dangerous to handle as
o-glycerine. What is the conse-
quence?a You pick up your morning pa,
Paul Smith, that boy of Kitty's, has
married one Of those Furnace girls.
Why, she is at least ten years older
than he is
The answer, little languidly spoken.
is: "Oh. my dear, it is getting to be
such an old story for men to marry wom-
en- older than they are The son of the
richest man in the world is desperately
in love with a young lady who, if we
used the hOrrid old terms we used to,
would be called an old maid, and [ don't
think he is p. Then the famous di-
v of marrleq man an younger than her
personally, ] think that the idea has
gotten into the heads of the Johnnies
that they can save themselves money and
time by marrying the woman who has
had the experience which is unknown to
them, and who would. in view of their
youth, be less selfish than young girl.
and so would make the mans happiness
the first consideration | listened with
bit Of surprise, because | had not
credited the Johnnies With so much
BRAIN but is it rabbit. or which small
beast that has almost as much brain as
a man? If the girl of the vingtieme
steele is writing book. and. of course,
she makes some mistakes. it is on the
subject of How to Enjoy Yourself
Twenty-three Hours Out of Twenty
four" And if she has been led astray
and induced to write a play that Will
cause the curtain TO go up at least once,
you can be pretty certain that the story
involved is one of true love, and all the
people in it are good and are having a
good time. The villain is never anything
worse than the cook; but then bad
cook is a villain whose ways are secret
and intense.
Just at present the girl of the Twen-
tieth century is saying to herself, why
should [ spend my dollars. good Ameri-
can dollars, earned by 9 jolly, good. gen
erous American man, on an Italian wom-
an who says she despises this country
Oh. my dear girl. I do hope You and
every other woman in this country will
say to yourself, ''Not a dollar shall that
woman get from me-" 1t is an insult,
YOU know. to our brains, for an actress
to say II despise America" (By the
by. she did not say it to me- but she
is quoted by the best newspapers as
having said it, If her hatred for Amer
lea is so intense. she had better extend
her dislike to American dollars and re-
main in italy where she will probably