The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-12-07
BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.

Among 'em the sirens.
For undoubtedly Homer began it.
That is, he caught them on the fly,
so to speak, and marooned them in
poetic picture which has come down
the ages.
Little did the old Greek litterateur
reck, however, of the form into which
his poetic images would be cast.
And it is many times this side of
the betting average that he would
throw poetic fits if he could view their
modern prototypes.
On the stage, in instance.
Where sirens abound both with and
without intent or being cast pointedly
! for the part.
All you have to do is to don a pair
of tights, a silken rag slit up the
side. mass your hair to leeward and
sprinkle the whole with tin spangles.
With forty-horse power spotlight
and few saccharine bars from the
house orchestra, you should be able to
do great execution with the front row.
If you are sitting in the offing, far
removed from the front row where
/ thrills abound in kind, if not in de-
gree, you have an opportunity for cold
analysis.
And, oftener than not, you discover
flaws in the sirens.
At first you are dazzled by the en-
semble.
The hose, the tights, the contours,
the twinkling spangles and the flutter
of feet.
You gaze FIRST on this picture, then
on that"
And the mist begins to clear.
The fascinator on the extreme left
you discover has a breastwork
anatomy comparable to a step-ladder
You wondered you hadn't noticed it
before.
Her neither extremities are shapely
enough-but her neck!
You pass her up for the lady of en-
bonpoint in the center.
All! those lucious lines, those allur-
ing curves. That redundancy of rosy
avoirdupois which Grapes and con-
ceals the hated skeleton.
But, upon further careful inspec
ton, you discover that her arms are
ugly.
You can't endure ugly arms.
She is spoiled
The truth is, as animadverted upon
once here before, very few women
have pretty arms.
Either in shape or texture of skin.
And you'll notice this on the stage
sooner than any place else.
Women with otherwise more or less
overwhelming charms will fall down
on this phase of beauty.
One of the great mistakes made on
the stage and what is, curiously en-
ough, sometimes termed real life"
is the stretching out of the arm to it's
length.
makes an ugly line.
For the arm does not uniformly ia
per from base to extremity.
The curve should be maintained.
The elbow angle sustained.
Especially if the arm is bare.
If it isn't it makes little difference
unless the drapery is so thin that the
outline is exposed.
This is especially noticeable on the
stage when the sirens begin rapid-fire
action.
AS in THE Modern Eve"-the most
notable recent local instance.
Since the days Of THE Merry Wild
ow" there has been arm waving aplen-
ty and "A Modern Eve" was no excep-
ton.
In "The Song Of the Sirens" there
was much fatal arm exposure.
Why, by the way, do sirens think it
is the apogee of siren operating to
comb the air down before their faces
with their fingers?
The NEUROLOGICAL sirens may have
done this with their hair and thus am
pushed their charms to lure on the
easy marks that went round with
Ulyssus.
But stage sirens know better than
to comb down their tresses before an
audience.
The only female Of the species who
looks we'll with her hair down is the
very young girl.
There is popular fallacy that it is
immensely fetching to have your hair
down.
The contrary is true ten cases out
of ten.
So the stage sirens comb the air
instead of their hair
But its a more or less ridiculous
and ineffective gesture and, oft re-
peated, becomes amusing or nauseat-
ing
Nothing indicates temperament.
breeding. education more surely than
the gesture.
1t is sign that points the way to
the riddle of personality.
The uncouth gesture, the unframed.
the refined, deft and the sophisticated.
Gesture is the first thing that has
to be learned and unlearned on the
stage.
And it is the hardest thing to regu.
late by the individual.
The disposition of the arms and
hands is, indeed, an art. And one that
should be studied by both the stage
and the social neophyte.
Gesture is an aid to emphasis when
properly adjusted.
1t detracts when it is not
There is no public speaker more
canny than ex-senator Rever;dco II,