Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-10-11
GRACE OF MANNER WANTED.
A Plea for Improvement in English !. V .. .Women--Wherein They Fail.

A Plea for Improvement in English L V 5.Women--Wherein They Fail.
 We are not prepared, as a rule. to | admit that our grandmothers, and thelr mothers before them, were very wise in their respective generations, but at least we are bound to acknowledge that they certainly much better understood in those days how to produce and cul- tiyate grace of manner and bearing i'll girls than we do now. We have gym nasia. which they had not; we are taught physical culture on the latest scientific principles-of this they un- derstood nothing. , ., --~ Our girls live in the open air, walk, bicycle, motor, play all manner of atn- letic games, while their grandmothers and great-grandmothers were reared | like hothouse plants.
 We no longer squeeze in our waists or try to keep our feet small, as they did. and yet, withal, the horrible truth must be admitted and faced that we possess none of their grace, that our department is faulty, and that the pretty lines of face and figure which all women of gentle birth possessed half a century or more ago have not come to us.
 And, finally, that we are sadly de- | ficient in the courtesy which then seemed woman's natural attribute, but which, as a matter of fact, was taught her from babyhood, like stitchery and the use of the globes. Something must | be rotten in the state of Denmark to have brought about the ungracefulness of the modern girl, and as we are all ways drilling, massaging and develop | ing ourselves, it is becoming abundant i lv clear that We are altogether on the | wrong track, and that our so much despised and pitied f0rebears did i know a great deal more than we do about training up girl in the grace 1 full way she should go. and turning her out a courteous, charming woman.
 What we really lack. nowadays. is | department. Our girls never learn this at home. at school. or in the dancing class. What girl is now taught how ! to come into a room, to enter and leave | a carriage with grace. to make bow properly. to move everywhere with ease and yet display her figure to the best advantage! Few modern women can walk. or dance. or stand. hold up their skirts. greet their friends by an inclination of the head or grasp Of the hand in a thoroughly graceful fashion. 1 vet even we see for ourselves what 1 care is taken to drill them and how thev have been physically trained till they have grown alarmingly big. This
 then is not the way to do it, and if
 ever we are again to have a race of
 women who can carry themselves well, impress other nations by their gentle
 ness and graceful bearing. and restore to England the ''cultiyated- manner.
 we shall most certainly have to hark
 hack to the methods of the old fash toned school mistresses and teachers of
 department. keep our girls from over. much hockey. and insist that they
 shall be '.Iadylike~ above all things
 We shall. doubtless. have a hard fight
 to get back to this state of affairs The
 modern girl is very much out of hand at present. and. ike Harriet. who fa.
 tally played with matches. she will
 not take adyice.- but one has hopes
 that there will he a reaction. and in
 due course we shall revert tO the old methods of teaching the art Of feminine
 grace.
 There is no reason why physical eul
 fure and all outdoor exercises should
 not have due regard paif to them. bui
 in combination we must rigidly enfores ease of movement. quietness of manner tnxether with a certain forTnzlity. les'
 seIf-consciousness and les speed and
 general Onhande5ness-Ladies' Pic
 turIaL