Leading Arficles in the Reviews. 



477 



DOES ATHLETICISM MAKE WOMEN UNGRACEFUL? 



Ml'Ch the most interesting article in the Sfraiui 

 for November (rather a light number) deals with the 

 <|uestion of the effect of athletics on the gracefulness 

 of women. The writer, Miss Emily Partington, 

 admits that, after many years' experience of feminine- 

 sport, she is prepared to confess that the charge 

 against athletics of rendering women ungraceful is 

 not wholly without foundation : — 



The danger does exi>l. But tliere is an important qiialitica- 

 lion : it is not ihe games which tend to make women ungrace- 

 ful ; it is not even constant indulgence in physical sports ; it is 

 ■.vlioliy the manner in which they are played. 



That is, athleticism may make a woman ungraceful, 

 but need not do so. Mme. Pavlova, the famous 

 dancer, is quoted as saying that the more she dances, 

 the more graceful she can become, but only because 

 all her movements are upon certain aesthetic lines 

 which experience has shown to be beautiful. She 

 avoids all ugly movements. 



" If, for instance," she concluded, " I were to expend all my 

 force upon ungainly, violent postures, I should be worn out in a 

 week." 



From this Miss Partington argues that " the best 

 exponents of any particular game or exercise are also 

 the most graceful," and cites various instances of 

 famous sportswomen to prove her contention. One 

 is Madame Esperanza, the well-known continental 

 tennis player (the pictures of whom, however, with 

 one exception, are not very convincing) ; another is 

 Madame Decugis, the French lawn tennis player ; a 

 third is Miss Leitch, the golfer, but even Miss Leitch's 

 poses do not prove that golf is a graceful game for 

 women. .Still, there is no doubt much truth in the 

 contention that it is not athletic exercise in itself 

 which renders women ungainly and ungraceful, but 

 these exercises indulged in on wrong principles. 

 In what Sports ca.n Women E.xcill? 



" .'Vn Oxford Blue," in Frys Magazine, discusses 

 not whether women are becoming more ungraceful 

 by reason of their greater athleticism, but whether they 

 are approaching men in sport, and incidentally also 

 the question of how far athleticism tends to modify 

 their outward form. After a little well-meaning 

 nonsense of the kind which lady readers are supposed 

 to appreciate, he proceeds to compare women's 

 records with men's. Beginning with golf, he arrives 

 at the general conclusion that women, taken as a 

 whole, " are not quite half as good as men " at it. 

 In " sprinting," naturally, they can hardly be con- 

 sidered at all, nor in jumping either. In cricket and 

 football also he thinks women not worth serious 

 consideration, nor yet in hockey. Not till tennis is 

 reached, indeed a sport which the writer puts fairly 

 low in the scale of athleticis;ii, at all events not at all 

 near the toj), will he allow that men and women 

 approach each other in skill near enough for any 

 true comparison to be possible. .And even here the 

 writer's conclusion is that, "despite the excellent 

 skill of some of the ladies, there can be little doubt 

 that the best men would give them more than thirty 

 and beat them." 



.\t speed skating ladies have no more chance against men 

 Ih.m they would have in the hundred yards sprint race ; but at 

 figure skating, which is not quite the same thing, ihey make a 

 good show. In archery, where the athletic element falls very 

 low, the ladies creep up more closely ; at croquet, where it is 

 almost non-exisleni, they have occasionally won cliampionships 

 ill competition against men, and croquet is distinguished for the 

 circumstance that it is the only outdoor sport in which in 

 championship contests the female sex has ever beaten the male. 



Women may improve greatly, the writer asserts, 

 but have no chance whatever of becoming athletes 

 comparable to the best men athletes ; that is, if thev 

 really remain women, as he is wise enough to think 

 they will. 



MEASUREMENTS COMPARED. 



He makes the curious remark that " the women 

 who achieve success in games in these days are not 

 generally women of normal female physical propor- 

 tions." The athletic woman has, of course, notori- 

 ously larger hands and feet than what the writer calls 

 '• the drawing room or garden party girl"; and she 

 has also bigger shoulders and a larger waist, but 

 apparently narrower hips and a less deep chest. The 

 following measurements of a woman selected by a 

 well known sculptor as conforming to the ideal of a 

 perfectly shaped woman, may be compared with the 

 measurements of a modern athletic girl, " of con- 

 spicuous ability and success," whose height was 

 exactly the same as that of the lady selected by the 

 .sculptor as perfectly formed. The comparison of the 

 two sets of measurements is instructive ; — 



Perfect Woman. .\ihletic Woman. 



5-7 5-7 



'0-7 lo ; 



Height 



Weight 



Waist 



Hips 



Thigh 



Calf 



Ankle 



Wrist 



Glove 



Shoe 



THE ART OF THE FRENCH MILLINER. 

 In a paper in the Worl(ts Work Mr. J. H. Collins 

 tells how the Frenchman does business. What he 

 says about the twenty thousand girls who enter the 

 Parisian millinery studios and workrooms is especially 

 interesting. He says : — 



The prcmiirt milliner looks far and wide for lier ide.as and at 

 the same lime pays little attention to what others are creating, 

 or, indeed, to fashions at all, but searches instead for fresli 

 ideas and materials. These often come from unsuspectcil 

 sources. Not long ago, for instance, a Parisian //r/«/^« visiied 

 Montenegro, bringing home a trunkful of the wide felt hats 

 worn there by peasants. This summer her clients will wear 

 creations that echo the picturesque headgear of the .Montenegrin 

 muleteers, ornamented perhaps with the bright shells sewn on 

 llieir mules' harness. 



Flower-makers work with \X\c premiire to bring out her ideas, 

 developing new things of their own or counterfeiting naiur.il 

 blossoms an<l plants with the utmost fidelity. Neither of them 

 gives any attention to cost, for their productions are sold only 

 to wealthy customers who come to I'aris and buy weeks after 

 the humbler model houses have shipped their goods off to be in 

 season in distant markets. The fnmitix never makes two hats 

 alike and has no facilities whatever for reproduction of her work. 



