The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-05-31
CASE OF THE NEW WOMAN OF 80
A COMPARISON OF HER LOT WITH
HER PREDECESSORS.
Something Lost in Spite Of the Fact That
She Looks Younger and Docs Dress
Like Her Daushter-It Seems to b
the Dress Alone That Makes tho Change

Like Her Daushter-N Seems to b
the Dress Alone That Makes tho Change
The new woman of fifty has been praised
as an improvement over her predecessor.
who at that age was In the same mental
state that a woman twenty years older
finds herself to-day. er physical appear
ance to-day also corresponds to that OF
q woman OF thirty-ive in the past.
The woman OF the COS could havs
looked at fifty as young as her descendants
to-day had she not labored under the old
delusion that there were different styles
Of dress for different ages Of womanhnd.
She did not buy hat just like her daugh.
ter's, because there was In that identity
Of dress lack Of dignity VIII oh she could
not reconcile with her own traditions OF
what a woman Of Atty should be, or her
ideas Of the dignity that a woman OF that
ago should possess. She would have felt
ridiculous with her gray hairs covered by
q fiy-away toque OF exactly the Same style
a. her eighteen-year-old daughter was
wearing.
But she would have looked just a. young
as the woman of fifty to-day had she cared
to dress herself with that object In view.
Whatever the advance In hygienio living
may have accomplished In changing hsr
appearance. tho fact remains that the
woman Of nfty looks. young because hsr
dress Ii Young.
to preserve the youthfuness Of the woman
Of so. Bonnets were regarded a. her
appropriate htaddress twenty years ago
when she had reached as They were
gradually passed on to . later year until
she heeitated to put them on at ~. Then
th ~ 4f via altO00HhAr.
It was the accepted symbol OF certain
age. Tho woman who put it on her head
simultaneously I'd m.tted to at least ~
This was compromising. Nowadays women
are only a. old as they look. And thsy
refuse to shd years with dress.
Then the discreet and softening violet
and white lace, or plush rose and black
tulle that rested beoonlingy on grazing
heads when the times we're festal, have
disappears unless they are seen on the
bent heads Of threesoore years and ten.
The faring PLUMB and the rolling brirn hsve
supplanted them.
And with the millinery. the woman pas
middle age sometlmes seems to have iose
something Of the discreet and oftantng
charm that belonged to her before the
new woman of so stood in the shoes Of tho
former woman of IS. In the nature OF
events the two ages bring TO women very
different aspirations ena tesponsoi ntiss.
settled, comfortable plane Of life. II she
was like most women Of her kind she
found her life in her home. Her children,
no longer very young. were her comfort
grandchildren as well. who occupied hsr
thoughts. Her happiness WAS among the
interests which her home and her family
created.
But when tho new woman put on . hat
like her youngest daughters 1t seemed TO
exercise some mysterious influence. potent
as the power of the Wishing cap Of old.
With the hat came the desire to be just -
much in II as any woman twenty years her
junior. to struggle With the realizati9p
and 10 feel only disa pppintment and hitter.
ness when it is not just us easy for her a. 1t
is for very much younger women to be hsrs
at dinner, there at the play and eomewher
else at. luncheon. In the same constant
succession that used to be the deli ght OF
only young woman,
The result brings disappointment to the
new woman of fifty, She secs her children
taking part In pleasures that are denied to
She is certainly dressed for them. She
feels, moreover, that they are for her.
But abe cannot be made to fit into the
scheme of social life. She cannot go out
every night just because her sons atas
daughters do, hut she would like to. HON.
does not make the same inimitabls appeal
to her that IT, did TO her predecessor Of
tho '6aS.
So the new WON n OF fifty il not really
so mich Of a success RS she looks From
a spect Gu ar point of view there is scarcely
ground for com, int. To some persons
Who vn ue other things then the mere ap-
of a youth that onnnot possib-
be genuine, cert. in beauties may nave
gone when women Of fifty begin to look
fifteen years younger There was a 80
renity and pc lcefulness about the other
kind of a women of fifty that they like best
even I she did wear a bonnet and had
never heard Of a straight front.
Ony she can know whether or not the
new tyne ia an i'm ,rovement over the old
She could not have experienced the sensa:
tions OF DO h, but she has her m I'm ories OF
Whit the WON an Of fifty were whom she
used to know, and II Is almost safe betting
that the new women Of fifty allows her
thoughts to turn regretfully to- the TIMES
when this women she rem I'M oered
not ony cooked their age without the
effort to concesl it, but lived according to
the old ri es that used to exist for them:
They my not hive kept sin it. SO long and
known their pie sures for 30 m1ny years
But they enjoved the del ghts OF calmness
and reposs and wore not emb tier and dis
appointed from the effort to Soep w To
houpla" long after its natural lpaA.