The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-12-16
TALL GIRLS,
A PHILOSOPHER Discourses Oh the Tn
y.s0 rlln Circuit Il ,E a a

A Philosopher Discourses Oh the Tin
(arowtha of raAmerlcau Girls.
Ideals of beauty change from age to
age and differ among different peoples.
The curious thing Is that humanity il
apparently capable Of the physical trans
formations that the ideals demand. The
statement is made that American girls
are taller and larger than they used to
DE, and figures are giventO prove it. Nor
is there anything improbable In this. The
increased attention to athletics in late
There are few sports now inwhich wom-
en- cannot and do not take an active
part. The healthy girl of today walks,
rides, rows, swims, plays golf, and sails
a boat rs freely and naturally as her
brother does, and is an entirely different
being from her predecessor of genera
ton ago. That this should have its eff
feet upon the future of The race goes
without saying, perhaps; but the figures
physical culture will add an actual inch
to the stature of q given person, apart
from the development of waist, chest,
lungs, arms, and so on Thus, by taking
thought any girl can be taller than she is.
Nevertheless, there still remains some
thing ineSplicable in the fact that the
race changes to meet the ideal. How
long is it since the small, soft, clinging
creature was celebrated as the divine type
of wonanhoods Read the novels of forty
or fifty years ago and see what bundle
OF atfectations the heroines We're. They
sacrificed everything to their conception
of .female delicacy" and fancied that
men would despise them if they acted
like reasonable beings. They ran to one
extreme as completely as the new woman
has run to the other. Perhaps the new
woman is more or less confined to fiction;
she, is not to be confounued with the ath-
letic girl, at any rate; but she is not fur
Their from the normal ideal of womanhoo6
than her weak sister of half a century
ago. Doubtless then as now the ordinary
woman ran into no extreme at all.
Doubtless many of the traits from which
we are wont to generalize are superficial
and do not affect in the least the essential
nature of the sex. But still we should
be conscious of living in 4 very different
atmosphere if we We're transferred sud
denly from the presence of the girl of
1888 to that of the girl of 1913.
Those skilled in such matters have Of
ten noted that other changes than those
in manners seem to have fashion of
their own. A well-known woman in So
ciety or a popular actress is initiated ad
nauseam, until dark hair or thin lips or
q pale complexion, or what not, is as
common as the opposite things were six
months before. Whatever type" hap
pens to strike the fancy is multiplied
hundred times over. The sarcastic say
that it is all art, but there are certainly
authentic cases where the beauty was
genuine enough-be it blonde or dark,
Titan red or Vatican blue, that at the
time was regnant. All this only shows
the adaptability of woman to her environ
ment, in which respect she is two or
three centuries ahead of that wretched
creature man. For our own part we are
glad that just now the healthy. tall, ath-
letic, girl has the field, even though the
result may be that at fashionable we'd
dings, as we are told, it is no unusual oc-
currence to see the bride towering sew
eral inches above the bridegroom. This
is no argument for women to stop grow
ing, but rather warning to men to for
swear sack and live clearly and so keep
up with their partners in the game of life
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