Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-15
DECAY OF DEPARTMENT
MODERN WOMAN ALTOGETHER
LACKING IN GRACE.
English Girl is Said to Be Tell, Flat
and Ungainly, but Strong
and Athletic.
FROM the London Express

FROM the London Express
From the day when the new woman
first appeared upon the horizon, and girls
took to playing hockey and cricket instead
of working at crochet and embroidery. the
art of feminine grace. both in manners and
movement, has slowly but surely died.
Daughter of Anak' the Express has called
the modern woman. but not a graceful
daughter certainly.
Never has there been such a craze as
at the present time for physical culture.
Swedish exercises and other methods of
improving the figure, and yet surely never
has the great bulk of the feminine popula-
ton of the united kingdom been so re-
markable for it's lack of grace. They may
have gained in physical strength, in health.
in stature and in freedom, but that they
have become more graceful even their
widest admirer could not maintain.
The average girl of today is tall enough
to overtop her father and brothers, and
she is fiat and ungainly. Her waist is fiat,
and her hips are fiatter: her shoulders are
square. her muscles hard, and she plants
her feet fiat and firmly on the ground. and
walks with a stride. Gone altogether are
the champagne-b bottle shoulders the deli
cate lines and the feminine curves which
distinguished the woman OF century ago;
and no one can deny that, although athlet-
proved the general health and done away
with good deal of the nervous Affections
from which women suffered then, they have
undoubtedly tended to destroy entirely the
soft natural outlines and curves which es-
sentially form the great beauty of a wom-
ans figure.
The Graceful Walk.
And in spite of the amount of time that
many women devote to athletics and ply
cir OMIT
of the wasp waist and the tiny shoe, it is
quite the exception to see a woman walk
either well or gracefully
They stride, they waddle they souirm
they mince and they strut, but not one in
twenty walks. The majority of them pro-
pei themselves along from their shoulders
instead of their hips; and If they hold
themselves erect, they do 50 with their
backs set in rigid position, as if they were
incased In steel Frame and would fall to
pieces the moment 1t was relaxed
Inc light, Springing step, the easy poise
OF the whole figure, which is erect and yet
not rigid, and the well-set head which
marks the Spanish woman, the Australian
and sometimes the American, is seldom
seen. Americans, by the way are ant to
exaggerate the erect position until they look
as II they We're afraid to move: but among
the girls Of the western states natural grace
Is OFTEN very noticeable attribute
NOT so many decades ago department
was one OF the things taught in every
school ROOM 1t was regarded as an essen
tlal part of the properly-brought-up girl
education that she should learn how to walk
correctly, how to step in or out of car
rage now to bow, how to receive her
guests how to enter or leave a room and
to sit or stand gracefully
Gymnastics Not Department.
But freedom and athletics have changed
an this. instead of department we have
manners of the hockey field and the golf
course are good enough for the drawing
room. Girls fiounce or rush into room,
Hing themselves about in awkward in
elegant attitudes, and despse anything
that savors of cultivated manner
Gone are the days of the great LADY,
OF gracious, gentle manners and soft, Gull
tured voice. Instead we have strong ath-
ie.ic young women with loud, strident
and well-developed muscles. Does any
one seriously think that the change is for
the better? II they must be athletic, is it
Need they copy all the worst and most
Objectionable attributes of the male with
out being able to attain to some of his
The art of bowling gracefully TO an ac-
quaintance, too once the great test of a
woman,s social standing, is now relegated
to the back Kitchen. The modern woman
greets her friends with nod or jerk of
her head and an off-hand sanitation, while
to those whom she does not deem worthy
to be included in the list of her init
mates she vouchsafes a slight droop of her
eyelids. AS to the unfortunates whom she
looks upon as inferior in wealth or social
standing they are regarded with cold
stare and are nletaphoricaily walked over.
Yet in the teaching of olden days courtesy
and grace of manner to those in lower
walk of life were other essential attributes
of the gentlewoman.
Too Conscious of Clothes.
To return to the question of walking
gracefully, the modern Englishwoman is
too uncomfortably conscious of her clothes
!, to be naturally graceful. Her idea of
smartness is usually to hang about herself
as many superfiuous articles in the way
of ruffies, chains and lounces as she can
possibly stow about her, under the weight
and management of which it would be i'm
possible for Venus herself to be anything
but awkward, and she moves with an ag-
gressive rustic being apparently unable to
forget the fact that her garments are of
the newest and most expensive variety.
To attract attention by her personality
and not merely by her clothes is an art
not yet mastered by the Englishwoman
To hold a dress up gracefully is diff
cult and unsolved problem to most women.
Some of them grasp one side of 1t firmly,
allowing the other to trail along the ground,
or hoist it up round their waists, exhibiting
a liberal amount of hounced underskirt
and Open-WOfk STOCKINGS, even on perfect
Iy dry payements, or, as in the case with
most of the summer gowns this year, they
grasp with both hands many yards of
material as they can possibly hold, and
wriggle along as best they can under the
circumstances, apparently utterly regard
less Of the ridiculous and awkward pic
ture they present to the onlooker
1t is only necessary for an unprejudced
observer to note for one day the various
women to be seen in the London parks
and West End thoroughfares, and criti-
else the manners and carriage of the ma
jority of them, whether indoors or out to
realize the truth of the statement that the
art of being naturally. easily and spon-
taneousiy graceful in manners and move
ment is with few exceptions as out of date
in England as the Queen Elizabeth ruffie
and the minuet
Third Generation of Penn Treaty Elm.
From the Philadelphia Record