The Oregon daily journal., August 21, 1910, Page 30, Image 30

i u.
If A
ft
Tie Jkrder figure isoz -
Back rOOears We Must
Go Find the Parallels
for Our Present Fad in
Feminine-Figures s
C flflHERE is ho novelty in announcing. to
S the world that fashions change as
' regards dress and to the close ob
server of popular taste it is no great revela
tion to say tliat fashions in the women them-
tifZ-r vt rhititr inn ax xurelv as the mode of
the garments that deck them.' . If one were to go inta. the, sociological
However, it may not have been observed conditions of the first decade of. the last cen-thaf-the
present fashion-plate woman, the tury t and compare it with the-corresponding
enormously long, slender and willowy i lady, period in . this, he could doubtless find a com
who is commonly ' 'regarded as a distortion mpn (cause for this,taste for long-limbed beau
peculiar to this decade, is really no more than ties. Let that pass for the present, however,
a reversion in type to the. fashion-plate woman It will be apparent enough from study of
fjf just one hundred years ago. old paintings and plates that thd taste was once
Th nf imnrissihlv lont lets and avorueand that thelikinr for the impossible
astounding height was as much in favor in the
first ten years of-the nineteenth century as she
IN THE flftenth century Botticelli painted long, slen.
der women, but they were not the itately type that
troublea the modern anatomist, as he marvels at art
j and faahlon-plate creations. . They had a snaky as
pect that was probably meant to be spiritual grace. Then
" again, Burne-Jones delighted jn the attenuated; but even
; his women were not In any way comparable to the forma
$ which' are popular at this date, and were more or less In
.vogus a-hundred years ago. .v. r. :
f ' Besides, these men never actually molded the taste
of their contemporaries. Their work was rather IivdfvTa
uallstlo and not at all representative. Wnatever the ar
tistic, merits of a fashion plate may be, at least It does
voJce the popular taste In forms as well as In dress.
In this country fifty years ago, and still earlier, It
was the popular thing to1 call a tall alender woman "a
lean, bony treature,'.' and to dub the little round ladles
aa properly plump and comely. To be at all admired a
1 ,womn had to be well rounded out fat, we should now
tallf1t-nd as? many remember, every device was era-5
ployed to give the Impression of aqnatness and girth in
! the- proper anatomical locations.' . Huge bustles and over
! skirts were In fashion, and the atrangest part of It was
that the women seemed to fit Into the fashions admirably,
i ' There seems, in fact, to be some psychological con
' nectlon between taste and physical development as the
i fashons In .women change. If there Is a cry .for little
round women, we seem to have them In abundance,
And now that there Is a tendency to. worship the tall
and alender "scarecrows," our grandmothers would have
1 caAled them, all the girls appear to be growing up above
i their brothers and to be losing hips and all else in the
1 endeavor of ttie phywlque to meet the demands of taste,
i Perhaps U Is the change in form, or the warning of a
change, that seta th fashions. Perhaps, under certain
.Iffrlng-conditions, women grow tall and lean, thus
i establishing tasteand under other conditions, they take
the opposite tack and favor follows 'the alteration.
w . PR, REICH'S OPINION
. : . ..j - ... x .
Since we have tumbled into the speculative vein. It
; might be well to give the opinions f some one more
' accustomed to accurate speculation. . Dr. Emit Reich, In
bis studies of American women, has something to say of
the women of the period which opened the last century.
1 He declares that H was a pioneer age; that in America,
especially, the people-were Just beginning to realise that
there was a "hinterland" on the opposite side of the Alle
t ghenles, and the whole nation was either In a state of
motion -or Of unrest from other causes.
As a result of this the women were taken away from
" established homes; in fact, there were no homes and tho
I feminine part of the population was half unsexed.
Women were more masculine; they had to face men's
i tests and trials as pioneers. The colonists , who had
1 adopted thei ease and luxury of Europe began once more
' to throw It oft and undertake new thing So the women
could not afford to be .little, delicate , and pudgy. They
grew tall and lithe.
This Is only a theory, but it looks like a plausible
ime - It an age of transition, when the young
ration was strengthening Itself to face new trials, and
vas by no means in that state of quiet and comfort in
; hlch people can afford to cultivate the graces,) coax
delicacy and fragility into the forms of their women, and
make round, chubby little dolls of them.
Fashion then was only the reflection of a demand for
tall, strong, almost stalwart creatures, to meet the needs
cf the age. . ' .,-.....
la Fiance It was much the same. The country -had
Juet come out of a terrific turmoil. -in which all courtly '
i ftwes and courtly ideals had been trampled under foot...
'The -women of the people, had een a- factor in every'
. ririr.' ana tne women or tne oecaaent noomty nad no
r.v.re standing in the new republic than their husbands. -
1 i Lvnsta rtf, fVta Ari-.rir-k. nrnu atrlfa ani4 nnnAUt . KT
i :-k, r nvx' . w - j v nas 1. 1 as iu- k. villi ix, (la-
V''-eonie wars demanded a display. of all the virility there
:M in France, uid virility was! the-standard of taste.
Fine that era of extreme democracy, France has had
ample opportunity to revive the charms .of femininity and
cultivate thtf courtly graces. In spite of , frequent
li'.ife of government. i '
i i v-ijn lh;scouitr.aitec..jJlft war oti8l3L-tta
I , n ffll mi'! sund ill lU pDklUun. Society.
t s til ua(ea ceoiem r tne iuc nerame once more
v ' Hstied as a falrlv permsnAa Institution and the
a "''" lll.''yi and lgsnce of relonlal days, were once-.
" ' nd K tJl hence the reversion to the taste for
t a lintel fidlns and thedisappearanc of the long
... must !a .fceiie cf the unac-ttied period. ... : ,
a l-t stury.oii no othor JusUflcatlon for those lra-
THE OREGON SUNDAY
V
has come to be, in the first ten jears. of ihlsyy
There havibeen occasional journalistic com:. v '
ments on the increasing height, of .'our, women ' ,
and some caricatures' on the same subject; of y
late, but no one seems to realize that it ts oy ,
no means a new or novel tendency
woman is, like most things in taste, no'
thing under the sun.
new.
possible tastes at the beginning of the last century, it
would have been enough that they were popular In.
France. For everything French was law to the States
in those days". However, the turmoil In this country, wag
sufficient to give rise to a craze for women of jnascullna
height and masculine lack of feminine charm. Here Is
what a historian says of the age; .. ; . I
"In America, at this, turn of the century, matters .
Seemed In a pretty bad way; the rage for gambling and
the prevalence of lotteries ha,d had , a, blasting , effect;
speculation and Jobbery ' had become' regular trades.
Many "came to- doubt the wisdom Jof '"Separation from J
. England. The yellow fever had afflicted the seaports
for years and lessened their commerce, already subjected
to one benumbing embargo 'and soon to beby another.
American ships were preyed, upon and pillaged on the
high aeas by ships of all nations;' -ship masters and ship
owners were desperate. Tha shocking and universal prev
alence of dueling alarmed an 'thoughtful folk: it ap
peared to the timid that all the really great statesmen,
soldiers, lawyers and gentlemen would kill off each
other."., -
To come back to the conditions that developed a taste
tor tall women in France, such as we see in these early
Illustrations, we are told by Reich that there were at
least fifty women who served In the French army toward
tfrrryrM, we f refast
B
OLDLY J advancing into the open or art-
fully reconnoitenng lor a'snapehot while
: they , merged themselves witlv the throngs
or passengers on trie doclc,fTio, numerous
corps of "photographers who had-swarrW to the
waterside, of Plymouth, England, on tfkp arrival
from New York . of the Kaiser Willgjn der
, tjrosse, sought to catch the coveted likeness of
Mrs. Ralph. Hill .Thomas as . she . moved from
place" to place with adroitness greater than theirs,
1.1 a. - .A .1 .
provokingly bent on ;foiling them.
- Perhaps it was the experience she gained while
divorcing Frank Gould, and perhaps it w.as the
previous eight years in which, she had figured as i
differpat with her bridegroom
- - -"'
aegroom
he Ktew hot:he "Cfle in"
lie grew warm;
candescent; he sputtered to the police, $3 xfceiitly
grinned. The photographers, amply baffled by 'his;
'wife and some passengers whose alliance 6h& won 1
t7T
JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY , MORNING, AUGUST 21. 1010
Sir
S .
h
OS,
, ''71
-A',
7 .
(i
IV I- It
V I
f. V
.V
the latter end of the elghteerith"century, and that scores
of women' adopted male atMre and held their own with
men In- duels and similar exercisesj" -j,U
"was only a 'few yearr befote the "reaction came
ifT France and ihe women of the empire came to be
normal, feminine creatures; so again the taste changes.
JJow for our modern reversion to the tall woman,
the masculine woman andx Impossible, lorig-leggetf. wpman.
After' otif wotnen and -our taste In women had relapsed
into the old romantic type of the round little:- woman
of many dimples snd dellcata hands, it seems that noth
ing In the way of internal-' strife could shake oft the ?
courtly spell 'until the season came for the question of
women's HtrMs and the fitness1 of woman to be agitated.
The athletic women, the women who .have been publlo
ngures jn pumie nre, nave set a new stanaara ror fe-
jimi
with her cheerf ullv lniauant ' lauchter. npmistpd
a la Paul Jones, who announced that he had just
ucjjuji,,i,o gui imeresiea. men jur. xnomas openea
fir with both batteries and sailed into them, shak
ing' his fist and vociferating: , , r
r.'Pve a good mind to throw you and your
cameras overboard 1" 4 . .
But the police moved a little closer, grinning
a little more; and he didnV . . ...
. Of course,-they failed to get the photograpL ,
Mrs. Thomas took care of , that, 'But their exploit
had not been wholly futile, frora the, educational
standpoint of their profession. -They had seen
with their own eyes,, heai 1' with' their own;- eats
ana almost ' gone overbonrd with thnr 'own
i r,.,.jn vi f oKuh M,mv"
afflicted wuii tne newest -and most violent ot all
temnorarv "dempntiaa. rameranhobia, ' .
11 ' , . S 1 '.' M w
A strictly modern disorder with - a ' selected
class of . victirjis. whb. when they hare become I
.chronic cases, are diagnosed as being camera shy.
t -
v.
male activity, and the old ideal of the Imposing figure,
height and near-masculine virility has onca'.tnors crept
into our feminine tastes. Reich says:, j'The United State
has evolved that' very specialised productr which wa at
once recognise unmistakably- as the American - woman." .
The Independent woman, strong In, body and, mind,
T
HE aflllctfon. In Us less violent stage,, is one com
mon to a modest segment of humanity mucn aa
Mlred in. the-lastMsentury during several decade
succeeding the invention of'Daguerre, and respect
ably reluctant to have their features exploited for th
praise or criticism of the world at large. There are still
some old-fashioned jieopla who prefer Uier, privacy and
secluslop, and are perfectly pormal Jn, their bias, because
they choose privacy for Jits own sake and consistently ad
here to It, as disdainful of the seductions of. tame as they
are averse to the annoyance of notoriety., : , ' '
' 'That condition was really normal in the ."nineteenth
century, when civilisation's" best opinion' Indorsed it, al
though civilization in the main didn't practice It In the
twentieth. It is becoming so rare as to constitute an ab
normality, 'if nothing more. ' v I
The true camera phoblacs, or haters of the camera, be
long to the class who will give dinners, polite speeches,
$100 bills, the glad hand or anything else that happens to.
come convenient, for the sake of being photographed for
publication, so long as the accompanying comment ex
alts their horses, their wealth, their social pre-eminence,
their features, their grandmothers, their Dull terriers, or
anything Uhat Is theirs. The instant they happen to b
dlvotrced, or rob a bank, or break a speed law and mac
erate a pushcart man. or- provoke a notoriety . whose
consequences, are disagreeable, camerapbobia claims them
for 1U own, and they yearn to kick a, photographer in'
tha slats. . ' - , ' - . " " ,
Usually, tha affliction is temporary, the patient revert- ;
Ing to his normal self and passing on to photographers,
cigarettes flavored with his monogram In- gold ieaf the
minute society is willing to forget that he happened to.
bite an ear off a policeman. But occasionally, as in the
sad case of William Waldorf Astor, the subject stays so
blamed mad that he .forsake home and rountry, builds a
stone boundary around himself over in England and an
nounces that alt Invading photographers will be shot or
-OUght to be; ,-!',.- .5. -'- J '-.:' , .- v..v,"
. Mr. Astor-was among the earliest, of the chronic cam- .
eraphobes that developed in the United States; but. being '
of a retiring and unprofane temperament,! he-detonated
mors graiiiiuiiy wun yins yr,' Mun uib uuuiiu y iur
nis couniry gooa -,,;...; ' - ' -;- ". - ("..
- An equally pronounced case of camera-shy was that ot
SVUlIam Montgomery, the-Plttsburg banker, who, through
out his long career in association with the late Senator
Quay, I was .prepared to smash any csmera that, came
wtthin range ot htm. He finally landed In Jail, where the
llrht Is not adapted to snapshots. He has alnce lived a
t
A,
7
has com to be the Ideal with us Americans, which It
evident from the popular art portrayal of tha species.
In her Imposing height and commanding dignity she ex
presses physically these attributes of Independence and
strength, .in an age when women are riding strenuously,
walking strenuously and threatening to outdo men In
auiietio prowess, we could not expect our artists to ex
press their ideals Jn drawings of smaJJ rwomen. dimpled
' and amoothed into courtly little dolls by lives of perfect
. turns anu relaxation. It ts doubtful. Indeed, if there ever
, re such American women; but the domination of the
.old-European court standards of what constituted femi
nine charm overawed aur less assertive artists and liter
ary folk into a devotion for tha petit which is In na
sense American.
' ; This reversion to the extreme type of a hundred years
ago," .which appears in the illustrations here given ss
something little short of caricature, is perhaps the met
assertion of our right to have a type of our own and to
admire it in our own way
The tall, graceful, "commanding woman Is the symbol
of the new woman, - the self-assertive creature that Is
becoming a factor In every country, but Is nevertheless
still a distinctive American type.
;- ';,.'''".. ' ,- - - ,-.',v-' -
An Eastern Legend
ACCORDINO to, the Bengali legend, there once lived
on the bank of the river Ganga a rishl, or
sage, In whose hut, made of palm leaves, there
was a mouse which became a favorite with the seer
and was endowed by h.lm With the gift of speech. .
After a while tha mouse, having been frightened
by a cat,, at Its earnest soliqltations was changed by.
the rlshi into a cat;-then, alarmed by dogs, into a dog;
then into an ape, then into a bear, then into an ele
phant and Unally, being still discontented with Its lot,
into a beautlfu) maiden, to whom the sage give the
name of "Postomanl," or "poppy-seed lady'
One day, while tending her plants, the king ap
proached the rishl's cottasre. and was Invited to rest
and refresh himself by Postomanl. who offered him
aome delicious fruit. . The king, however, struck by the
gtrl's beauty, refused to, eat until she told him her
- parentage.
Postomanl. to deceive the, king, told him she was a
prln-ss whom the rlshl had found In the woods and
had brought tip. The result was that the klnsr mads
Iov to the girl, and they were married by the holv
in She was treated as a favnrtt" nnen. and wa
' verv hapnv; but ope dav while atandlnir hv a well ah
turned rlddy; fell Into th. water and died., .
The rishl then apneared before tha king and begged
inn, ,, ps j - p. .I.-,.. . . h
that the late queen was not of royal blood. : SaM her
"She was a mouse, and. accordlnsr to hef own wish, t
rhanged n-r successively Intn a at si dos:, an ape; a
brt,n lephsnt sd a lively rrl. let her bodv re
main tn the well: fill the well with earth. Out of
her flash and bones will grow a tree, which shall be
railed - after her 'nosto.' " that is, the popv tree
From this tree will be obtalp-'d a drti ralld nplum.
vhlen will be either swallowed or smoked till the end
f tm, , Th,' Anltim ivallKW,, A. mi1 will V ..a
one qnalltv of ach of the snlrdals to which' Psto-'
msnl wax tranw,"a. He wtu he mischievous, like
mouse fond f milk, like a cat- inarrelsome. like a
d"r; fllthv. like an o' snvao-e, 11V bear; stubborn,
like an elephant and high-tempered. Ilka a queen."
life as retired as that of his fellow-cameraphobe in Eng
land, snd about as much beloved.
- Alfred Owynne Vanderbllt, who sufferi from recurrent
cameraphobla, according to his proclivity for divorce or
other strictly sensational , society - stunts, carries much
of the responsibility for making the dlsprder fashion
able. A , little while before his wife, who wa Elsie
French, decided he wasn't worth living with and brought
suit for divorce, th photographers at Newport sought
to prepare against the rainy day., Alfred Owynne pitched
Into them hammer and tongs and" managed to emash
several cameras In th course of hi more violent
attacks. . . ' ; t
The impression then; went abroad, that, any person
tblerated in society, and not a woman, who" could show
herve enough to smash a camera held by a small, non
combative photographer;' would demonstrate conclusively
that he wa a real man; If not a gentleman. Harry Lehr
succeeded An : giving - a somewhat crude Imitation . of
fcamera phobia at Newport; but nobody took hi demon
v stratlon any more seriously than, they take .Barry; so
he quit, and 'reverted 'to his normal lovely eelf, and
. hasn't been naughty again. " "
' MORGAN'S ATTACKS -
; ,, J. Plerpont Morgan, whose preference Is for btami
busts In the 'fashion of Augustus Caesar rather than
for photds. has had .one or two violent attacks, the
' worst occurring when he returned a year. or so ago from
Europe fcnd proposed to chuck cameras and photog
rapners overooara. lusti as Mr: Thomn iiid tht nmmr
at Plymouth, It Is not believed that Mr. Thomas' m-r
putae was suggestea ny Mr. Morgan', because expert
observers, of the affliction note that the propinquity of
water seems to provoke. the sufferer to prefer eliminating
the photographer by drowning rather than,by man
slaughter. , . f , ,
s'.The only foreigner ,thus far 'infected was the vlrtuou
and haughty CoumySxecJienyl, while he was on the v
of winning the millions to' which Miss Glady Vander
bllt was -'attached,; He shoved the ". photographer off 'an
: automobile step and tried to smash the camera, with
every eymptora of cameraphobla rampant, ddwn evert to
thetypical detail of forgetting to straighten the point
of his mustache for a period f five, minute's.
1'aajttQta.UUnt-phaasf .eamaphttbiahav
much less frequent qf late In society, mainly becanse th
cameras, which v art valuable, j are 1 now . Intrusted to
photographers who are mors nearly- the slse of. th
aubjeots to oe photographed. It has seldom, If ever,
happened : that any gentleman- in society lost his self
control In the presence of" a camera when the photog
rapher wa wiuun an men 01 being as nig as a was.-
-1'