The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-06
CITY MOST BEAUTIFUL
Back From Banishment He
Marvels at Changes
Made for Better.
BEATS PARIS AND LONDON
But Our Girls With B0btail
Hair and Skirts Conflict
With Art, He Asserts.

Back here after twenty-five years
another year." as he expressed It.
John Armstrong Chaloner got his first
look at the modern New York yester-
day afternoon. And Mr.. Chaloners
gift for expression did not fail him
when he told of his feelings in his
rooms in the old Brevoort Hotel last
evening.
Mr.. Chaloner was in a hurry, for his
attorneys were waiting to consult with
him in regard to the trial Of libel
action for which United States Judge
Hand permitted him to come here, de-
spite the fact that the New York
courts have adjudgcd him insane. But
he crowded into a few minutes con-
Versation enthusiasm and epigram
epough about New York to supply the
towns poetic boosters for a generation
% come. He's enthusiastic about 1t all
all except the women with bobtailed
hair and abbreviated skirts.
'"The New York girl Is charming" he
said, but God help her costume. When
I was carried of TO my other star
twenty years ago women mad two things
bust and waist. Now when / come
back. so help me. they have neither.
The most beautiful thing about the fe-
male form divine. its curves, is wiped
cut by the silly fashion OF the day.
"Bobtailed skirts and bobtailed hair.
They go together. And both of them are
as lacking in dignity as a bobtailed
horse. Nothing that's bobtailed can be
dignified. / blame most OF 1t on Pari-
sian man milliner here. who is the Boil
shevist of fashion just as the futurists
are the Bolshevists OF art. The futurists
have no beauty in their souls: therefore
they say beauty should not be expressed
They can't draw themselves. therefore
they say that drawing Is weakness, and
they abolish 1t from their system. !
can't say art. for they are ugly, weak
and brutal-and that's not art.
Girls Feet should he Like Mice.
Il wonder IL women realize what these
short tight skirts do to their feet. Most
women's feet are too big and nearly all
of them are ugly In themselves. They
we're never meant for display. The poet
had 1t right when he said they should
be like little mice peeplng from beneath
q petticoat.
I'm a cynic." he said. Not a pessl-
mist. for pessimsts have given up hope
of ever finding their ideal. I'm a cynic
who hasn't found his ideal yet, but still
hopes for it. And I've been made cyni-
cal by the way New York's laws have
treated me. But I'm a New Yorker. On
the maternal side l go way back to old
Peter Stuyvesant. l was born In the
shadow OF the old Astor Library in
Lafayette place, in the home OF William m
B. Astor and no one has n better right
than 7 to the pride feel in the glories
of New York.
Why, when I left her twenty years
ago the city was like a little girl-an
awkward girl of II. She gave promise
OF beauty. but that's all. To-day when
I come back TO her 1t is like suddenly
coming upon that lank fourteen-year-old
girl as a rayishing belle or 19. she s
glorious, stunning"
Since his sensational escape from
BloominGdale eighteen years ago. and
Mr.. Chaloner says he's the only man
who ever successfully escaped from that
institution. he has been living quietly
on his farm near Charlottesville. Va
The Virginia courts have adjudged him
sane and given him control OF GER
The New York courts. however, have
always let the decree against his sanity
stand and he has never been able to re.
.urn to the city because at any moment
here he oould have been picked up and
recommitted to Bloomingdale.
Comes Here for Libel Suit.
He has sued newspaper for its com.
ment on the death OF a man who was
killed in Mr. Chaloner's house In Vir.
Einia some time ago and Judge Hand
has given him writ of prohibition for
bidding the authorities TO touch him dur,
ing the trial, for five days before and
five days after.
He arrived In New York Friday nigh,
and went direct to the Brevoort. Thence
he sallied forth yesterday afternoon fol
a drive up Fifth avenue, through tn,
Park. down Broadway, to the Hippo
dromc and hack to his hotel. He ha.
not seen the other members OF his fam
iy, Sheriff Bob Chanler to whom h,
sent the famous who's loony now p
telegram following the latter's marriage
to Lima Cavalieri and the making ovei
OF large part of his fortune to the diva
nor Louis Stuyvesant Chanler, who wa,
once Lieutenant Governor 1t is no
likely that he will see them.
There Is a gulf fixed between me ant
those members OF my family" he safe
decisIvely when asked about It last night
1t was on their petition that he wa
adjudged insane.
But his aversion for his family did no
dull his enthusiasm for their city.
Fifth avenue Is magnificent" he said
1T Is more magnificent than the Boule
ward des Italiens in Paris. know Pari
and London like the palm OF my hand
and l know that New York Is hand
somer than either OF them or any par
Of either Of them. 1t Is on such a CRANE
scale, so original, SO imposing and 81
beautiful Paris may be more uniform
but what she gains In symmetry sh,
loBes in originality.
when Benjamin Constant, the Frencl
painter. was here In 1891 I asked hin
what ne thought Of Fifth avenue betweeI