AMERICAN WOMEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3195, 15 April 1911, Page 3

AMERICAN WOMEN.

AX ARTIST’S LAMENT. The strange statement is made on the authority ol' two eminent professors of art and gymnastics, that umess she radically uianges her habits the American Avoman in a 1 few years will be indistinguishable as regards her figure from a man.

According to Dr. Dudley .Allen (Sargent, director of gymnastics at Harvard University, the pnysique of American womanhood has undergone a singular change in the last 20 years, mainly as the result of excessive indulgence in athletics. Dr. Sargent has jin his study a composite statue modelled in accordance with the actual measurements of more than 10,000 women before the year 1890. Since the statue was completed, he says, the American woman’s physique has been revolutionised until it now approximates that of the man. Her feet and hands have become larger, her hips smaller, her shoulders broader, and her neck thicker. Dr. Sargent’s observations are confirmed by Mr. Jhon W. Alexander, the portrait painter and president of the National Academy of Design. He declares that the American woaian seems determined to lose w-hat constitute woman’s greatest charm. “In no other country do you see much masculine figures as American women have. In France the woman is the personification of grace. In Germany she is net as graceful perhaps, but she lias that motherly bearing which gives her a lovableness not often found in our women. .

“In England her stateliness and dignity dissipate the slightest suggestion of tlie masculine. But the American. woman lias devoted herself to such an extent to athletics that she has become the despair of artists, with her flat chest, huge muscular waist, strong, heavy arms, thick neck, small hips, and large feet and hands.” Dr. Sargent predicts that unless the American woman modifies her present passion for I violent outdoor exercise “her figure in a few years wiii be so manlike (that she will appear ridiculous in female, attire.” -