Evening star., 1905-11-05

elittering and distributing sachet doors ana
spangles over the hardwood floors.
Notice above all the wonderful groonlins
Of the modern woman. No unkempt angel
feathers here! Observe the sleek, smooth
skin, the shining hair defuy waved the
dainty hands, the hint of scarlet on the
ewes. and realize that every woman now
adays seeks the prize of this new peau'y'
which is not matter Of features alone:
Think of the lines that womans form
TODAY Is nodded on In COMPARISON with
the horrors of the crinoline or the night
mare of the Grecian bend. Those We're
the angel days! Now everything TENDS from
the old sit by the fire and spin pose Oh ing
Old Girl 1t Is as though the women OF
today had peered behind curtain ana
learned q lesson-that the further they
could gracefully get from angeihood the
healthier and the happier they would pe.
Oh, how beautifully bad we are III 'iii'
twentieth century.
There is that little habit of swearing
really a revival. for Cleopatra had her
pretty oaths as well Shakespeares hath-
crime, who routed her lovers with quaint
tempests of words-there are two or three
women in society today who accent their
speech so cleverly they have made 1t the
fashion, and so long they keep 1t an
exclusive fad it will lend them distinction
woman who swears well today gets
the reputation of a wit. At Washington
reception a girl standing in line approach
ing an old and unpopular but important
hostess voiced her interest in this wise:
..My dear Mrs So-and-So, how charming
Won are looking! Have you been quite
Well?' and then, looking over her shoulder
at the man behind her, who afterward re-
neated the remark as a bon mot, Not that
| / care a damn. but one must say some
| thing!'
Woman swears. then, much as she
smokes-as a matter of emphasis. She
| does 1t for the air of deviltry 1t imDarts.
| and gives Ii an amateur dash that Is quite
| fascinating-it is so unlike the real thing
| For woman Is sketchy in her vices, sincere
only in bridge, and then 1t Is merely card
fever not the gambling instinct. She
never loses gracefully, nor stays by her
| luck.
| Truth to tell though angel good has de-
| clined, really wicked women are rare.
| There are no Borgias, no Mother Frochards
/ in this country. We. are good liars, per-
| haps, but not SO good as men even at this.
When it comes to the dissimniatlon ~ TO oy
| who deceives himself nine times out OF the
| ten. Women foozle at the finish. We are
| never sincere villains. Even that fascinat-
| ing creature Becky Sharp failed in the end
and relapsed into suburban respectability.
|
The cigarette is the torch by which
| woman lighted her way from the angel
| heights to the plains below where the men
preferred to play. More than that 1t will
| never be.
The husband may choose to flaunt his
/ indifference, but the wife go at him
| with her cigarette. and so they meet fair
| lyman to man!
When Americans begin to ignore this lit
| tie fad of the lady for the smoke 1t will
| lose its terrors. In the meanwhile there
| is no danger that the Sunday school classes
will take to smoking. although they do say
| that in Russia the girls take cigarettes to
| church with their prayer books.
| It Is all part of the great tendency that
the girl always displays to approach the
| tiger-nsan-on an even basis: to reach his
! level gracefully. without soaring the beast
| back to the jungle on a run.
So she comes with ne flaming sword nor
even a sheaf of lilies over her arm: but
rather as the panther might seek to make
friends She doesn't wish to surprise him,
but rather to make him aware that she
has left her halo on the shelf. and there is
a hint of q Tilt In her step as though she
walked to invisible dance music
| And wreathed above her are the dasnti-
est smoke rings, rising one over the other.