The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-07
SHE NEVER WEARS
 ANY STOCKINGS
Mme. Bramsen Also Has Other
 Ideas About Dress
S NOT AFRAID OF THE GOLD
Norwegian Singers Outer Apparel Is All Homespun and She Has But One Varety-Health
 Rules.

Special to the New York World.
 Pittsburg, Pa.-It is now additionally known that corsets and tight dresses as well as stockings are an abomination ac- cording to Mime. Sandal -Bramsen, singer and wife of Herr Henry Bramsen, prn- cipal 'cellist and soloist of the Pittsburg orchestra Mime. Bramsen for the past ten years has not worn a pair of stock | ings, unless the feet were cut out and she has never worn corsets, while she despises to cover her neck and shoulders |, and shut out the air. She disclaims any notion of eecentricity. and said positively she is not a fadist
 Mime. Bramsen is Norwegian by birth She talks the Scandinavian languages, | German. French and Italian huently but does not understand English, to which she is applying herself. She has been lost in Pittsburg half dozen times seeking some location. but she has al- ways managed to find her way home to 1 her boarding house on Craig street Mime. Bramsen was interviewed in her l own language, and thus she was enabled | to give an excellent account of why | she failed to wear stockings at the re- | captions and on the stage at the Car 1 negie music hall while singing before | Pittsburgs most fashionable audience.
 When l was 19 years of age" she said, 'I left my home in Chrlstiana, Norway, to study in Berlin under Mime. Etelka Ger | sher. 1 arrived from Norway all muf- | fled up My throat head. feet and body were covered to exclude the afr, as 1 had been taught at home. l was constantly annoyed with throat troubles, coughs and | colds until 1 thought l would contract | consumption. Mme Gerster advised me to throw away more than one-half of my clothing. She said that as long as I excluded the air, so long would l be | incapacitated from ever becoming | singer One by one l began disearding | my heavy wraps. It was a woman phy- | sician in Berlin who advised me to dis card stockings l wore the heavy woolen l hand-knit stockings worn by Norwegians | and people in the north countries. 1 know l of dozen women in Berlin who never wear stockings They walk the streets of | Berlin daily in their bare legs, with feet | incased in shoes, wl.4out attracting eom- ment
 LiIll Lehman Doesn't Wear Them
 '"Lill Lehmann the singer, never wears l any stockings while about her home at Colonie Grunewald l have frequently seen her about the farm in bare legs and when she goes abroad she wears | stockings with the feet cut out"
 Mrs. Bramsen lifted her skirt above her ankle and displayed white leg. tinged with pink, and she pulled up the trousers of her husband, handsome young Dane, and showed that he. too, ] was bare-legged and bare-footed. His feet were encased in the regulation shoe, and Mime. Bramsen wore a dainty slipper. Mime. Bramsen appeared recently at a reception without stockings, but she was not discovered until she admitted the fact herself She said:
 'No one in this place would have known that l did not wear stockings until Herr | Luigi Von kunits, the principal violinist ] of the Pittsburg orchestra one morning | early came to our house and wished to see MT Bramsen. l unthinkingly went to the door to meet our visitor, and he dis covered l wore neither stockings nor cor sets, and my house gown was cut low in the neck. He considered it remark able and told his wife. She questioned me- and then l told her 1 never wore 1 stockings, nor corsets, nor tight-fittlng dresses, nor any of the fashion adopted by women, but wore the same style of dresses, made by myself, the same | style hats and in the coldest weather went | barefooted in my shoes and always bare footed and barelegged in the house.
 T cannot understand why American women are so partial to corsets nor why they lace themselves so tightly, no more | than they can understand why I do not wear stockings. For ten years I have | dressed rattionally according to the advice given me by the best European physicians | and the greatest singers, and l have never | known what 1t Is to have a cold, to suf- fer throat trouble or to suffer any illness | whatever. How many American women have such a record? Not only that, but my husband enjoys the same health as do, and we both practice the same meth | ods of dress.
 I Winter and summer we have the win dows of our rooms open day and night no matter what climate we may be trav- cling in. We have gone out in the cold bitter frosty mornings on the snow and done our morning exercises without feel ing the cold"
 Shoulders Carry the Weight.
 Mime. Bramsen is thought to be peeu- liar in her dress and the wearing of gowns by Pittsburg women She does not wear the conventional dress, hustle and pads like other members of her sex All her dresses are made so they hang from her shoulders and are not supported by being frightened and fastened about the waist. Her dresses and gowns are all made of homespun cloth. Occasionally she wears yoke of Norwegian goods sewed into large flowers and her gowns are a marvel, none ever having been seen like | them here. And they are all sewed and fitted by Mime. Bramsen
 "All my dresses are lose fitting. and all of homespun goods 1 cannot buy the material in stores. I have to take trips among the Norwegian peasantry where they do their own weaving and here and there I find homespun, and usually the old danes that spin the goods make me presents of the cloth and refuse to take my money. Homespun material is loosely woven. 1t is porous and 1t does not shut out the air. but 1t is warm and comfortable"
 Apparel of One Color.
 Madame Bramsen always wears her dresses, hats, etc.. all of one color. She has hats of the same color to match ev- cry dress, although she believes that hats should be omitted from a woman's ward robe. But" she said, the style of hats l wear do not interfere with the circula- tion of air through my hair. and hence | wear them for yanity'S sake