The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1905-12-07
WOMEN ARE LARGER.
NEW GENERATION FAST OUT
STRIPPING MEN IN SIZE.
Clothes on Sale Show Surprising In
crease in Height - Causes Of
Change Are Not Yet Ex-
planned.

1t is n little curious that the sci
entists and statisticians are not on
hand with records and explanations
| of striking fact too patent now to be
gainsaid or ignored namely. the ip-
| creasing size of the younger genera
| ton of women. Evidences of such in
crease are to be found everywhere and
while the records referred to above
/ are not yet made public there is still
| testimony of an official sort in the
statements of the manufacturers and
dealers in womens clothing. BY these
statements the young woman of the
moment is taller and of greater weight
than she Of few years ago. and the
difference is sufficient 10 have affected
the clothing trade.
For years" says the manager of a
large shop on State street, "the long
est skirt carried in our stock-or. so
far assI know, in any in this city
measured ~ inches. II longer were
/ needed the suit had TO be made to or
der Now we carry ready-made skirts
Of a inches and we sell 'em, too"
Increased stature is, fortunately. not
the only gain made by woman. She is
heavier and plumper in proportion.
Underclothes are larger, and the signs
to be seen in some shops. Extra size
undergarments. would seem to indi-
cafe that the growth continues from
day to day. In cases where an exact
large size wanted cannot be found in
stock. It can now be made at short
notice and small extra cost. Formerly
the reply to such a demand used to be:
We haven't got It," With this gem
eral growth has come also an increase
in the size of legs and hosiery for
women Of nearly all grades is now
larger and many shops carry what are
called "out-siZes." And even feet have
kept pace with the change. Regard
less of the old-fashioned ideas of fem.
mime pulchritude, Dame Nature has
decreed that the new woman shall
have sufficient Of the wherewithal to
stand upon, and shoes are larger. A
fashionable dealer says he carries No.
9's in his regular stock now and that
rs and SIS are called for. constantly.
These big new women are all young,
and II they were seen only on the
stage or in similar places where Ii Is
n case of selection, the phenomenon
might have no Importance, but they
are seen everywhere. The current
crop of schoolgirls seems larger this
year; the newer girls in the shops and
the girls who are in their first season
of long skirts are larger than those OF
older date. Whether the increase
holds good as well for the country
crop as for that OF the city no OBJ
server has been found to testify.
As for the cause of the growth. all
the evidence is yet to be brought for
ward. There are suggestions, of
course, but they are all of self-inter-
ested kind. Thus the physical cul-
turist smiles in superior way and
says there can, Of course, be no doubt
that the increase is wholly due to
woman's appearance In the gymna-
stun and on the athletic field. That's
a pretty reasonable argument, too, but
the clothing manufacturers and the
designers Of women's clothes say the
change is due to more healthy and
rational style Of dress, which permits
of growth and expansion, while the
advocate of woman's right to work
maintains stoutly that the entrance of
the sex into fields of labor hitherto
filled by men is sufficient to account
for the matter.
Incidentally It is worth noting that
while the average man is increasing
in size-a fact also attested by the
clothing trades-he is not keeping
pace with women, and there may be
something more than pleasant irony
in the prediction of the pessimist that
unless the man Of the future shall in.
hert something OF physical size and
strength from his enormous mother he
will be a pigmy.