Los Angeles herald., 1905-05-28
BRITISH WOMEN
APE AMERICANS
COME TO PREFER STYLES OF
NEW WORLD
"DRooPING" A THING OF PAST
Observers in London Can No Longer
Distinguish the Nationality
of the People Pass
ing BY

Special Cable to The Herald.
LONDON. May 27.-That the English
woman is undergoing a species of ev-
olution is the remark one frequently
hears from visitors to London this sea-
son. Indeed, the fact is so apparent
that it is one of the first things that
attracts the attention Of the American
when he goes for his preliminary stroll
in Bond street or Piccadilly.
1.-THE tall, 1.-THE, but dropping Willow"
sort Of creature, who used to recline in
her carriage amid cloud of laces and
ribbons, with an expression Of extreme
weariness spelling a face that anima-
ton would make beautiful belongs
almost to the past. Seldom nowadays
do you meet a London woman trailing
yards Of dress on the pavement after
her or carrying it gathered up in her
tinual source of menace to the illusion
about things feminine cherished by the
average man.
Follow American Sisters
LAI6c yGctIS dSO II was pOSSlDlc
always to distinguish an American
woman when one met her in the streets
Of London. There was usually some
thing about her; her dress, her hat, her
shoes, her carriage, sometimes all Of
them, that made her among the thou
sands of her sex one saw In the streets
thing apart. Today 1t Is different.
The man whose boast used to be that
he could sit in his club window oppo-
site Green Park and pick out the yam
KEGS as they passed in Piccadilly, would
find his task hard now.
Men about town, theatrical people
and English women agree that the
| change has been due in each instance
to fear on the part of women in this
part Of the world that they were not
holding their own. So many interna-
tional marriages had taken place; Eng
lishmen, many of them the most eligi-
BILE parties of successive London sea-
sons, had got so much into the habit
of turning their gaze across the sea
when 1t came to a question of choosing
a woman to preside over their ances-
trail establishments that those who had
been brought up with the idea that the
high places in society were their in
alienable right became alarmed.
First Changes Her Figure
The English woman after much hesi-
tation resolved to alter her figure. The
new straight front and the habit back
which Raymond Hitchcock sings about
were regarded with extreme disfavor
when they first made their appearance
here. The English woman positively
refused to forsake the corset of her an
cestors, which, to judge from the re-
suit obtained from it's use must have
often been little better than piece of
string around the waist. Time and ex-
ample, however, have worked wonders.
The women one sees nowadays no
longer carry themselves with the droop-
ing, listless air. They move along
alertly their carriage In many cases is
superb, and their conversation Is ami
mated. AS a class, English women
seem to smile more and there is no
prettier sight than to see them in Hyde
park on Sunday morning after church
or in the shopping streets on week days.
The American woman. who, when
leaving Paris this year for London.
packs up all her smartest frocks. ex-
cept an evening dress or two. reason-
ing with herself that anything will do
for London, will find she has made a
sad mistake.