The Charm of Femininity.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 243, 25 February 1888, Page 5

The Charm of Femininity.

He plain in dregs and sober in your diet; In short, my deary, kibs me, nnd be quiet. Lady IV. Montague. As to the question of beauty, one elderly club man says that it us?ed to be a common thing to sco peoplo— men and women both — turning around to look at girls on the streets, but such a thing rarely happens nowadays. In France that used to be held as a tebt of real beauty. A great Parisian belle said sadly, after returning home irom a walk one morning 1 : "1 am getting old ; the gamins on the street no longer stop to admire me. I am going home to improve my mind," Another man attributes this partly to tailor-made gowns. He says that severe style robs women of their feminine charms. It began in the plain habits for hunting in England, and on horse- back it is appropriate and pretty ; once in a while it is very piquant to sco a woman in a masculine sort of dress, bufc now they have allowed primness to creep into even their ball toilets, and on the street a well-dressed New York woman is as severe in her style of raiment as her brother. Hair must be as smooth as silk, with only a stiff, rigid little bang, a rim of fetiif white linen about the throat and wrists, and every garment as neat and simple as ifc is possible to make it. Ifc mukes the New York girl a model of fresh cleanliness, but she doesn't look as pretty as she used to when more flowing ahd graceful lines were allowed, and she made no attempt to look anything but strictly feminine. A society woman said at the opera the other night that Adele Grant's charm of pre-eminent beauty was femininity. "She always accents the fact that she is a woman, and that she is proud of it, and it's a very effective pose which more women would do ■well to imitate. She first learned the power of it when she was staying in Italy. New York girle try to approach the masculine standard, and it's a great mistake. ' Rigidity of style is bhe correct thing for men, but a little ilutiiness IB much better in women."