Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1906-01-24
The American Giantess.

The American woman has added
full inch TO her average height. sh'
is growing steadily taller, while tn
future American man, the business
man in particular, threatens TO b.
a small and wiry specimen OF human
ity, who will have TO look up to hi
tall wife physically, at all events.
Statistics show that ut the age o.
fifteen the average height of boy,
and girls IL the same. each measurinl
sixty Two inches.
II Is after iifteen that the cir
pushes ahead, for she has all the op
%portunities OF physical development,
denied her brother,
Under ordinary circumstances n
boy goes TO work Immediately upon
graduating from the high school, He
then goes into the store. factory, og
takes his place behind the desk and
remains there for most OF his days.
The store Is badly ventilated, He
stoops over his NJ He exercises
as little as possible, All this Is not
conducive To growth. Al the x OF
eighteen. SO says a physician who
has made a study OF the matter, the
average man who Is denied any form
OF outdoor work ceases to grow. AZ.
ter thirty years of age. providing the
same Sc ientary life is observed, a
man often contracts a STOPPING habit.
which takes another inch or SO off
his height.
DR.. Robert Hutchinson thinks II
possible that nature is producing by
degrees n race OF men particularly
fitted to survive the wear and ner-
vous strain of American business
life. The future man will be short
and stocky, capable OF getting along
with a comparatively small amount
Of food, which will not overstrain his
digestive capacity. His force will go
toward the preservation Of nerve and
brain. and not be wasted on mere
muscle or height. The futur, man
will be much less than medium
height.
Not so the future woman. For the
first time since the Golden Age she
has ceased to be a drudge. While
her brother Is going to work she IL
continuing to develop herself ply.
sically as well a mentally. She longs
to be tall. And what she longs for
she usually gets. Gibson set for her
an ideal in the tall girl. This ideal
she is steadily achieving IN a sur
prising manner-outof-door exercise,
physical culture, mechanical methods
Of increasing the height. rational and
irrational means-she tries them all.
and by her indomitabse perseverance
she has raised the standard Of size
for the sex a full inch in the past
few years.
The perfect woman used to meas
use Ave feet five inches. The correct
height Is now five feet six inches;
the American woman's ideal is near
er five feet eight.
Homework for the woman Of to-
day has been brought down to a min /
imum by the host Of modern inven-
lions of which her grandmother never
dreamed. Flat life has reduced her
sphere to a thifd or less OF
the space occupied by her former
home.
All this gives her more leisure,
more time to be outdoors, 0 op-
portunity for the physical develop
ment that was denied the generations
before her. In department stores all
the sizes In garments have increased.
Skirt lengths used to average from
thirty-seven to forty-one inches; now
the ordinary length is from forty-two
to fifty0ne inches.
But strange to say, the tall woman
OF today and the small but successful
find eacn other most congenial,
and SO It happens that ministers are
In no wise astonished at performing
the marriage ceremony for q couple
who have quite reversed the old ideas
that a woman, to be right height.
should reach a mans heart. Brides
OF today are quite as often q trifle
taller than bridegrooms. and the
couple show no embarrassment what
ever at turning the tables In this
way. The bride recalls that most
great men were small, beginning with
that immortal triumvirate-Napoleon,
Wellington, Caesar. The bridegroom
consoles himself with the knowledge
that he Is In the advance guard OF
the age where the tall woman will
have to choose small mel because
- Iii oAInssx