The Washington herald., 1915-05-09
The obtrusive Members Are Now Being
Banished Into the Obscurity of Frills and
Other Fashionable Impedimenta.

or only lasiness?) marked the gradual
disappearance of the male leg from the
public gaze.
Everybody today knows his female
friends legs by heart, but how many
know their male friends legs. There
are, Of course, knickerbockers worn by
some men for sporting purposes, but mil
lions of men never wear them at all.
There are also occasional glimpses Of the
male leg in its entirety to be had at
fancy dress balls. But such fieeting dis
closures are mere drops in the ocean Of
actually existing male legs. It's safe to
say that ninety-nine per cent Of those legs
are destined to plod unseen-almost ig-
nored - from the cradle to the grave,
unless they're talented - skilled in the
ways of the tango, maybe. AS in the case
of Maurice - christened Mouvet - the
dancer. who skips through his famous
skating waltz" with the weight Of a
ffty-thousand-dollar leg insurance on his
mind. A quarter-inch Of skin scraped of
an ankle sends him to bed in chattering
fright, 'tis said. and halls out the doctor
and nurse. Outside of such really
aristocratic limbs, the wooden leg is
about the only kind a man can expect to
attract attention with.
Those others. of the logical turn of
mind. who say that legs were meant
mainly for expression of character, have
an Idea that by the walk shall the walker
be known.
They mince. they snoop, they strut and
they plod. And each thing that they do
means something definite; each lift of
the toe each curve of the ankle, is the
result OF mind processes working through
the subconsciousness from the brain to
the toes. And each irregularity, say they,
does something toward molding the feet
and legs. working out what seems to be
the creative plan by which the physical
casing resembles the mind.
Have you ever" queried one Of 'em,
reflected upon the snip-mince, snip
mince Of the aspiring wife of the self
made millionaire? Snip-mince, like a
poor old bird Of Paradise hopping from
twig to twig of the social tree, reaching
out palsied claw for a perpetual high
handshake.
Consider likewise the snooping walk
Of the candidate for office It's the Sc
cretive walk Of the clubwoman, that one;
the clubwoman who furtively studies the
faces of co-members, studying the effect
she is producing, weighing her chances
for getting what she wants. She picks
her feet up softly and puts them down
carefully without noise, twisting a little
on her ankles as she moves. Hers is the
serpentine walk, and while she's follow
ing in the way Of ambition she'll be ruth
less as the creature she suggests.
There's also the hen pheasant gait
the big city walk. That woman jerks her
feet from the pavement and slaps them
down again as though she were stepping
on the face of her favorite enemy. She
shifts her base from one foot to the
other with an exaggerated swaying of the
hips, that's like the preening, clucking,
hen-pheasant motion that calls Look at
mel
Men have the walk, too. It's the
chanticleer strut when it's masculine.
Mediate upon the restaurant walk.
It's the most marked feature of the gay.
night life Of the city. One woman after
another comes in, each with her chin
lifted as high in the air as it'll go, and
her body held rigid as an icicle from her
hips up. Her legs move from the hips
down, clack, clack, like q mechanical
dolls; her ankles stiff. That walk not
only says Look at mel 1t adds and
forget the others!'
"There's another walk It's a click
ety-click walk, with a quick, emphatic
putting down Of heels. 1t crushes COM
petition and emphasizes the ego and de-