The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-05-01

10 make as to her p~eculiarities in other
ways, says the New York Herald. If
you show a philosopher how a woman
clutches her dress, no doubt he can
tell % who she is and what she is
thinking about. But>tha ordinary man
VINO sees a woman pass him on the
street notices only how she looks, and
draws no differences from the wildness
or tameness of her clutch.
The left hand probably is the one
With Which the dress can be held up
most nationally, if there is anything at
all rational in the system that makes
1t necessary to hold up a dress at all.
Then in the right hand can be clasped
the gloves, purse, key, umbrella and
any little parcels, and things that have
been acquired Ell route. 1t is correct
to hold out the purse a little more
prominent than the other things. One
reason for this is that the wealth may
impress the beholder and the other is
that the sneak-thief may have less
trouble in sitting it out from the other
effects. All he has to do is to grab
wildly at the woman and he can't very
we'll miss the purse, and then sprint
for his residence.
To hold the dress as some do 1t,
cllnch the teeth wildly, wrinkle the
forehead with desperate determina-
ton, put the left arm back about fif-
teen inches abaft the shoulders, seize
q handful nj tho drocc 81 - ,o;,+ -,
far down as you can reach and fasten
on to 1t with the same mad energy with
which the drowning man gets hold Of a
straw. Then continue your triumphant
career up or down Broadway, as the
cas- may be.
When the bell skirts were abolished
there was a cry of dismay from women.
We've held up our trains for SO many
years." said they, that it has become
a second nature to us. If we haven't
anything to hold on to what shall we
do with our hands? A handful of
frock is to a what a walking
stick is to a man.
And the dressmakers replied: "Well,
hold onto the dresses, anyway, If you
like. There's no law against it. Break
yourselves of the habit by degrees"
And that is why a woman whose skirt
clears the ground by some inches, any
way, can be seen clutching at it to
keep it out Of the mud.
The prettiest dress clutch many
think Is the plain everyday "perpen-
dicular grip" The arm is allowed to
hang straight down by the side and the
dress seized. In this grip there is no
dislocation Of the shoulder or wrench
ing of the arm to get hold of the dress
too far back. It is found that it is just
as effective n much more comfort
able to keep the arm perfectly straight.
This dress clutch is especially adapted
to the stout.
If the arm goes too far round it is
not only firing, but it tends to change
the center Of gravity, and the woman
Wabbles along somewhat like a soft
shell crab scooting for two places at
once that are at opposite ends of the
earth. 1t is the same principle that
causes g boat with two oars on one
side and n on the other to deviate
from a straight line. If a person is
blindfolded and turned loose on a prai-
RE and told to walk perfectly straight,
he will describe a large circle. But
II a woman who is holding her dress
up with the backward sweep were
blindfolded and told to do the same
thing the change Of the center of gray
ity would be so great that she would
describe a very small circle indeed.
Then there is the pose with the left
arm akimbo-same attitude as your
cook assumes when she says she won't
stand it any longer, but will leave at
once, except that she does it with both
arms at once. In this pose the left
hand with a little bit. of the dress
rests pressing closely against the side.
The elbow sticks out into the middle
OF the street, sweeping all corners be-
fore it. Long steps often accompany
this pose, and the poser walks very
fast.
Sometimes the extreme end of the
dress is brought round toward the
front and folded over gracefully. But
the whole thing of diminishing the area
of frock must always remain a puzzle
to the male philosopher. AS a sailor
would put it.: Whats the use of hay
ing SO many sails if they're always
reefed?" The word reef aptly de-
scribes what some women do to their
dresses in RAINY weather