DANDIES AND NO WOMEN

Hokitika Guardian, 7 January 1924, Page 4

DANDIES AND NO WOMEN

SOME 1M RR ESS! OX'S OR ROME. 1 have just returned from a visit to Rome i write- the .Melbourne “Age's' Earis correspondent), and of all the wonders and strange phenomena uf I !:■■ eternal city that which struck me mo-t was the almost total ah-onee of women in the streets, or, in fact, anywhere. Coming straight from Earis, the contrast is perhaps apt to strike one with greater force. In the beautiful French capital women arc as numerous and varied as flowers in a Sussex garden; the big hotels, restaurants, ami tea rooms are thronged with crowds ol wo men of the rich and leisured classes, in the shops one has to light one’- way among the hordes oi middle-class .shopper-. and in the street- one see-

streams of bu-.v, chattering little midin vies, the toilers whose clever lingers (ling tile inline of tln-ii beloved Franco in the four corners of the world. No matter where one goes, one is bound to withe that women predominate to 'be e.xtrui of iifrhap. : volvo to oi- nan. In Kong :t ci. - .be ■anpn.nv. ami in it-ell is strange enough; lull far more strange -till is the fact that they all appear io be young men. The modern Roman is a type peculiarly distinctive; lie is slim and aesthetic looking, with long hair brushed hack from his forehead, tapering artistic lingers, and a walk that is more a glide than anything else : his < lotlie- proclaim him to helong essenlially to the class known as "dandy.” A modern Mmius in modern mufti would choose patent leather slim s, colored silk socks, a pale-shaded suit tapering in at I lie w aist -o as to give hi- figure the appearance of an hour glass; he would add a silk tie and handkerchief to match the color of 1 K socks, a sold felt hat and gloves, and dangling a light e-iue in his right hand would, with companions of exactly • be same type as himself, promenade i In■ streets and throng Lite hotels, ri.-iuu-rauts, and theatres of modern Roiii Reality specialists who spend their lives trying to discover a means for pro-

serving the youthful anpearan .■ of their fair clients would do well io fry to fill horn the secret “’or retaining youth which every man in Rmne si .onto possess, for of the tk.ei-an.l- cue sees during a stay in thu: capital at least nine-tenths appear to lie not more than thirty years old. There must be middle-aged and elderly men in Rome ; and there liiusL lie women : but whmo ai > they, and why i- it Unit one rare!' sees them ? AYli.v is it that this city seems Lo be peopled bv dandies . and tourists? Surely an eternal riddle as intriguing as the eternal city itself.