Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-08-03
NEW YORK WOMEN.
THEY SCORN THE "BOB-UP- SEREN.
LY" WALK OF PHlLADELPHIANS.

street the PlaCe TO Bee
the Style of Walking by women-self-
Possession Seeming Quite Natural the
Chief New York Charact erfstic.
New York women walk better than
they did five years ago. 1t man hap
pens to have any antiquated opinions
ON this subject 1t is time for him to
change them. The tired feeling which
pertaineth unto hot weather will
make 1t hard for him to stand at the
entrance of some Twenty-third street
shop for half an hour and watch the
women passing, but If he persists he
will get composite mental photo
graph of their gait which ought to
be trustworthy.
First, though, he will find out what
it Is to he nv. He will feel as if
Ii" ~.r. at the centre f a great human
pinwht el II stasJ'lg till amoLo ~
Vulnerable dancers, ala doing ip1lsS'
hainS an "a q main" lefts and "chaS
?eZS" rs - their lives depended on it
A few men are mixed up in the lndies
chains, and If the man looking on
could take time to observe them and
their ways he would lind them inter
esting--as interesting as the women
who are in, but not of, the lower
broadway tide. But the chances are
that he won't take that time. Certain
ly not if he once begins taking snap OBJ
servations of the way the women
walk
Ways" would be Il better word to
use in this case. A Philadelphia man
recently took an afternoons rest from
the mad rush of Quaker City existence
and COUNTED up the distinct varieties
of the feminine gait as it may be seen
Oh Chestnut street. lie noted 'the
swing, the swagger, the slde-step, the
lope, the spring, the wriggle' and
others. But" lie said in triumph,
the walk of the walks nowadays is the
'bob-up-serenely.' Up and down, up
and down like jumping jack, goes the
maid, her foot but touching the ground
when strnlghtway it spurns it, and she
rises in the air as If all the exhilara-
ton that Is abroad in the land was
pent ut the sole of her boot and push
ed her upward"
Allowing something for the exuber
ance of the Philadelphlan emancipated
from toll, there is here plain indica-
tion that the prevailing Chestnut
street gait resembles that of the lit
tie lambs which skip so gayly. This
sort of thing may go in Philadelphia
| but 1t is Il pleasure to be able to say
that New York women are not hop.
ping airily along the corridors of time
Maybe the EEL skirt has not yet
reached Philadelphia. Maybe, at least,
there are only II few advance issues of
that funny feminine fashion, and the
women wearing them are the ones
who proceed in Il wriggle, as noted by
the man with the afternoon off This
seems plausible.
But the sheath skirt is universally
worn by New York women with any
| pretenSionS to sweetness, and it would
he u pathetic thing to behold if bri-
| gade of eel-skirtcd women should at
| tempt to emulate the bob-up-serenely
walk of the Quaker City danes.
Twenty third street can show just as
many different kinds of walk as
Chestnut street can. There is no deny
ing the fact that some New York wom-
en- lopc and some wriggle. In fact
there is every variety of locomotion
represented, even to the stout old
ladies, who lumber along so like the
automobiles that it is always sur
prise to find that they can go forward
without first backing But in spite of
the endless variety of gaits, there is
really one which is characteristic of
the great majority of the women who
make up the procession.
That is what may be vaguely termed
the self-possessed walk. 1t appears in
various forms. The reporter observed
at least half dozen variations of the
one type the other day. There was n
1G-year-old girl who looked as if she
might be Il cash girl out on an errnnd.
Her natty hat was tipped over her
nose, her hair was frowzy and her
clothes were hopeless. She was hol-
low-clested and round shouldered, and
of that type of countenance known as
pie-faced. But she had all her self
satisfaction with her, and her walk
'itU ~ w ~. -,
l., 49, III 49, o' INA iito,u,, ~, st.nr siS,
Farm, hnt tbair self if'nnssaSsiSon uoS i NJ.