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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1919)
MEN DO I I . 11 I E Ui JSlfv' t;t v f Ivf ' - i .--.: .'. '-. -v.. -.v BY AGNES 1L. vtat.t ADMIRE SLENDER WOMEN, THIS WRITER CONTENDS Judge NeiTs Opinion That English Women Should Take On Flesh in Order to Attract Husbands Is Sharply Contradicted With Some Proof s . Ji J- TOTJ SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, POUTLAXD, i rA r s 1 fhWI KVw WAS Interested and more than a littlo amused br Judre Henry Neil's opinions In recently-pub lished article called "Snaring Bache lors in Great Britain." In which he de clares that the reason why so many men remain unmarried Is to be sought in the modern feminine fashion for excessive slenderness. He then describes two eases of pre viously unattractive women who, after being "plumped out" by a spe cial diet process, were immediately sought by enthualastlo swains. And so the inference is that men prefer their wives to be plump! Really I must beg his pardon for disagree lag with him entirely. OCTOBER 5, 19191 .da that Great Britain is fun of bachelors. In a country town or the suburbs of a big city, both far more typical of Zmglleh life than inner London, the one ever-repeated cry Is that there are no marriageable men. Bachelors over 40 are very few and far between. To return to the main point. No one, of course, could admire the liv ing skeleton type, which after all, has few representatives, but surely slenderness and willowy grace have always been counted among women's greatest charms, and can there be grace where plumpness is? Certainly among savage tribee brides were sold by weight, and, no doubt, heavy wom en were the rage when Rubens was alive to paint them, but what bach elor would not shudder at such an IdeaJ of feminine beauty today? Poets, the most susceptible of men. have sung the praises of light and graceful women since "slender" rhymed with "tender." The Eliza bethan songsters, excellent judges of loveliness, were never tired of com paring their goddesses to nymph (who ever heard of a nymph of am ple figure?), and If Tennyson bad ad mired embonpoint would he have UiSB X eAUiuslaftttcaUz si "Airy. SlenderneM and willowy grace have always been counted among van en's greatest charms, and can there be grace where plumpness Is? Among the pre-Raphaelites thin women were an absolute cult. The CU lustrations show some modern English types of beauty and Bossettf B "Roman Widow." Fairy" Lilian or "Shadowy" Adeline? And what of "the faery ehild" of Keats or that other "Nymph of the downward smile and sidelong glance" who "Spared the flowers la her mazy dance"? Among the pre-RaphaeTites thin wemen were an absolute cult, and the damsels of those days must have suf fered many pains to cultivate, hollow eyes and a romantic air of soulful slenderness. Listen to William Mor ris on the subject of his lady: ''Cheek that be . Hollowed a little mournfully . . . Of her long neck what shall I say? What things about her body's) sway Uke a knighfs pennon or slim tree 7" And more to the same effect. This certainly does not savor of plump ness. And, Indeed, nearly an the fair la dles of old time. In fact or legend, ap pear to have been slender or have been Idealized so. Can anyone Imag ine a massive Helen of Troy or a bulky Cleopatra? What outcry there Is It an actress otherwise thaa slim, .takes the part of jgU sprightly Rosalind or Ophelia, so frail -that she floated Hko a lily on the pond? Why. one of the chief com plaints I have heard opera-goers make Is that singers, who are so often by no means thin, are obliged to rep resent youthful "airy fairy" heroines. Enough of the poets, though Z oould quote instances from them and from novelists In defense of slender ness forever. All I contend Is that ordinary, every-day men, at any rat in Great Britain, have no objection whatever to the so-called "modern" erase for slender beauties Opium Worth $10,000 Vanishes. HONOLULU. T. H. Opium with a retail value of approximately $10,000, seized here recently when a Chinese attempted to bring It ashore from the liner Persia Man, has mysteri ously disappeared from a vault in the Honolulu customs house. Collector Malcolm Franklin, while of the opin ion that It was an "inside Job." and openly charging that some federal employe was responsible, has given up hope of apprehending the guilty person. The drug was being held as evidence tgalTiu the C&iAeae smug-.