Evening star., 1922-10-23
T was Saturday afternoon and all

T was Saturday afternoon and all
the girls were out in their
best bib and tucker-or. to be
more modern about it. they were
out in their newest peasant-sleeved
dresses and shampooed curls. Every
body who didn't have to work was
gravitating toward the matinee per-
formance Of either the regular thea
ters or the motion picture shows.
A lady recently returned from Eu-
rope, where she had spent a consider
able number Of years engaged in lit
erary work, was also taking the brisk
autumn air on + street. And she. not
tribe as her companion. who had been
steadily existing in their midst
through all four seasons of the year.
along with other hard-working
perennials. was vastly interested and
amused by this matinee throng.
This lady was not an American citi-
zen, although she had lived many
years in this country before return
ing to Europe. so her comments may
be taken as distinctly non-biased by
any patriotic inclinations.
II do think" she said. that Amer
icap girls are really the prettiest in
the world. There are really very few
ugly girls in this country as COM
pared with other countries. OF
course, the many nationalities repre-
sented in this country and the con-
stant intermiXing had much to do
with the developing of the many pi-
quaint varieties of the American girl.
but, even so, l think she may be con-
sidered astonishingly good-looking on
the average"
This should be balm to vanities
SO bruised and injured by the whim-
some
other Europeans who have tarried' In
our midst just long enough to see all
the highest Office buildings in our
principal cities. Some of them have
not dealt SO kindly with young Miss
America
The generous souled lady here
quoted did make one comment that
was of an adverse nature and that
seemed to offer some grounds for
deep thought 1t was on the uni
versal habit of f1apperS chewing gum
1t was not a little incongruous to see
a girl very smartly dressed. from her
tiny hat trimmed with expensive
feathers to her best Italian silk stock
ings, chewing gum just as hard as
her jaws could go until her very ear
rings swung violently in protest;
At last the procession of hard
chewing girls had grown to such an
extent that the lady became used to
the rapidly moving powdered chins
and began to notice the variety in
the technique employed by different
types of chewers. There was the fat
girl whose small mouth seemed to
make a continual circle like minia-
ture revolving sign between the high
mountains of her fat cheeks. There
was the thin girl whose very jaws
seemed to cave in when she chewed
and there was the broad-shouldered
girl whose big mouth constantly
threatened to drop her gum on the car
track or curb and thus lose it forever.
These are only few of the varieties
they met
AS they turned into the theater to
seek their own seats at a matinee
performance, the European lady sigh
ed and shook her troubled head as
she summed the whole matter up in
her final comment to her companion:
81 can we'll understand" she said,
"whv the matinee idols grow bored
to death with their admiring au-
diences of women at every matinee.
Imagine. my dear, having to compete
with such an elastic substance as
that inevitable chewing-gum in the
midst Of your most dramatic scene.