Show Gothams Prize Bath Room i It Belongs to Miss Angelica Gerry and Is a Fairylike Grotto I In Blossoming Tiles and Rosy Violet Glass Other I Luxurious NatatoriumsStudy of Poise Cause of Thick Ankles I I r Modern art with modern science has I done more for the bathroom In newly j i built American palaces than for any j I other apartment It is quite safe to assert that never before has luxury loving humanity known anything to equal the sumptuous little natatoriums in such houses as Mrs Facets Mrs Gerrys and dozens of others in New York City The prize bathroom Is In the Gerry mansion on the corner of I Sixtyfirst street and Fifth avenue I laren are the favorite authors of Miss Margaret Thorne and the books that have been popular this year in smart society are David Harum The Open Question and Dr Carters religious works If I Were Christ and In His 31613 Individualizing Colors Every year our women add something some-thing toward the lifting of sartorial fashion nearer to the realm of really high art Those fortunate ladles who haVe clothes to buy and plenty of I 1 I 1 j 4c cp f I I I I 1 SOCIETY LEARNING TO MAINTAIN HER BALANCE There are five provided for the use of guests and family with two handsome ones In the servants quarters but to the daughter of the ouse Miss Angelica An-gelica belongs the exclusive joy of the most beautiful In the lot This Is a square room measuring about ten feet each way walled and floored In ream white tiles decorated profusely and gracefully with violets The door itself is overlaid with similarly ornamented tiles so that when it is closed the symmetry sym-metry of the walls is preserved and it requires sharp eyes to detect the way by which entrance and exit is made A domeof heavy rosy violet glass sheds all the light needed into this cool dainty grotto and no tub occupies any of tfie llowery floor spaoe Instead a portion of the tiling is slightly depressed de-pressed and here the bather stands to receive from tubes heavily plated with silver a spray or shower bath at exactly ex-actly the temperature desired In Mrs Jules Vatables new home in I which the perfection Of appointments Is a wonder even to the admirably hQused New Yorkers the mistress own bathroom is a little octagon chamber walled with mirrors of the deepest richest French plate and so artfully I are the costly sheets of crystal joined that the room seems to be enclosed with an unbroken sweep of silvery reflection re-flection One large mirror forms the door a single sheet of glass covers the ceiling and all the basins handles etc necessary In the fitting and trimming I off are done in cut crystal wmic a night cut crystal globes enclose the branches of electric light A colonaded circular room in pure white and gold is Mrs Hugh Almeric Pagets Roman bath Charming neic Ids are sculptured on the walls by three steps the bather goes down into an unusually large bathing pool into which water spouts from dolphin mouths and all the faucets knobs etc are mounted in the best silver gilt Though even convenience is supplied in this natatorium the air of aTitique simplicity has been admirably preserved pre-served and one might easily believe It to be the bath of a Roman princess In the days of Augustus I Mrs J S Moor Is the happy possessor pos-sessor also of a distinctive and beautiful I beau-tiful bathroom Here the walls floor tub basins etc are all of the most polished pink marble and Diana with her nymphs at a forest pool appears on an admirably painted ceiling canvas can-vas Pink in the flowers and draperies prevail In the picture and then about Mrs Moors ample marble tub are hung voluminous pink silk draperies This tub itself is cut In the form of a huge shell and sets high on a dais of marble while the rosy curtains lined with oiled silk can be drawn about the tub to protect the rest of the room when the bather wishes to use the spray bath Literature Among Fashionables believe It Is a grievous mistake to that society as typified in New York has no time nor patience for literature Since the war with Spain the smart women especially have been vigorously studying Spanish in order to enjoy Spanish literature and in our own language lan-guage they not only read most of the popular books of the day but have very strong preferences for certain authors I au-thors and certain works It is Interesting I Inter-esting perhaps to know that long before be-fore Miss Mary Leiter met George Nathaniel Curzon she had a Stlg liking for Kiplings books especially I Plain Tales From the Hills and Under Un-der the Hoodars and confessed they were her favorite romances After thoroughly 1 thor-oughly mastering four languages and familiarizing himself with the literatures litera-tures of Spain France and Italy I George Vanderbilt does not hesitate to I admit his preference for German works and he is collecting a valuable library of Teutonic literature while in English > his favorite novel is The Hon Peter Sterling for whose author he feels a warm friendship Charles de Kay and John Jacob Astor As-tor who have both put their pens to paper in serious and entertaining composition com-position acknowledge a liking each for a special bo 3k and at least once a year Mr Astor reads Twenty Thousand Thou-sand Leagues Under the Sea while Mr de Kay refreshes hlq memory with the gay humor of My Lady Nicotine Curiously enough Alice > In Wonderland I Wonder-land Is a sort of annual joy to many fashionable women and Mrs Harry I Whitney Mrs Hewett and others agree that the have never exhausted Its charm Mrs H McKay Twombly reads neither romance history nor poetry I but she has collected the finest little library on the best methods of caring tnentnUyphyslcally and spiritually for children of any private individual I New York F P Meyer and Ian Mac I t 1 < i money to buy them with have nearly all had recent resort to the advice of artists as to color of fabric that will harmonize most happily with not only their Individual tint of skin tone of hair and shade of eyes but the color and fabric that lends itself most advantageously ad-vantageously to the height and build of the wealthy earnest seeker after truth truthhen When the artist has regarded the lady critically and actually made sketches of her in various tints of garb he delivers his opinion and thereafter that color he has chosen Is her favorite favor-ite color and dominates all others in her wardrobe Since Mrs John Jacob Astor for Instance was told by Robert Blum the famous colorist that all shades at violet and lilac became her coloring best she has rarely worn anything any-thing else Every season In New York she has three or four superb velvet reception costumes in deep and pale gradations of violet In summer her lavender and mauve muslins are numerous nu-merous and beautiful and the flower market always yields up its finest violets vio-lets for her corsage bouquet Mrs John Hammon who was very recently Miss Emily Vanderbilt Sloan Is a devotee to blue from deepest navy to the palest ciel tint and because pretty wearable blue flowers are hard to find she employs turquoise as her ornaments Among her wedding gifts was a superb collar of turquoise that she wears invariably with her evening costumes Mrs Theodore Tavemeyer now that her mourning is over has T i She Always Diamonds Wears Tulle and I chosen deep rich shades of red by artistic advice Her crimson velvet evening dresses are hardly matched by another matron in wealthy society and Mrs Tvvombley whose diamonds though not the most numerous are the most faultlessly white stones of any American collection wears severely simple black oftenest black tulle which as a background gives the diamonds dia-monds an unrivaled chance for effective effect-ive glittering In sharp contrast to Mrs Twombley Is Mrs LevI P Morton who has adopteda cream white of late years for her favorite costumes Mrs Harry Whitney with her lovely auburn hair and brilliant complexion was advised ilioIiiEiiE II by Medrazo the artist to wear green I and in green she Is sure to appear at balls and dinners while her cousin Miss Lila Sloan a tiny blonde fairy refreshes her wardrobe every year with tgowns r hats parasols silken hose and even the fine handkerchiefs in a tone of the most delicate pink For the first time an honest earnest endeavor is being made by fashionable women to learn to dance By this the waltz and polka etc Is not implied for American women are born with a light foot In the ballroom but recent ly I a body of leading young matrons realized that Columbias daughters are not the most graceful in the world Selfcriticism Ilrst before a mirror and then examination of the sole ot ones shoe will be enough to convince the average woman that she walks vilely and those new close cut skirts clinch the argument A shiver of dismay dis-may grew Into a positive thrill oC horror when one observant lady found that in spite of her small slim feet the American girl has a shockingly clumsy thick ankle and between knee and ankle symmetry is quite lost for she is almost without development of the calf of the leg Mrs Frederick Pierson a handsome graceful social light has undertaken to help her womenkind to regain their lost grace and symmetry and to this end she has engaged the services of a I French premiere danseuse who Is now too old to dance herself but who Is a wonderful scientist in poising the body Poise Is th2 corrective for all the faults in carriage and form she says and though this able old lady will take but three in a class of classes she has scores and in them all poise is studied with an astonishing enthusiasm by the very cream of femininity Now as the old lady Is Spanish by birth and as at her advanced age she trips about like a girl the classes listen lis-ten with faith and envy to her explanations expla-nations of why the Spanish woman who wears the worst shoes In the world and who grows fat with age never has I thick ankles never loses thewonderful arch of her Instep and can carry about 190 pounds of solid flesh with the footfall foot-fall of a child Well its all owing to poise to a racial ra-cial instinct for casting the weight of the body on the ball of the foot not on hip ncr heels nor ankles and thereby giving to the toes a strength and usefulness use-fulness of western feet all lack Well stout women and thin ones tall and I short having got wind of this promise of physical regeneration offered by the exdanseuse are flocking to her standard stand-ard and in heelless ballet shoes with silk bloomers and skirts to the knee under madames eagle eye they learn first to stand then to stand on one foot I and then to hop hop hop After the hop comes the skip and finally the stupendous task of standing 74j r i ir j j L4Tf1 j Jq I I j it f 1 She Takes a Classic Bath on one foot and describing a hemiclrcle in the air with the other foot all of which sounds as easy as thinking but whlfli requires as much muscular labor and good will as the cutting of cordwood cord-wood The women who are learning poise also confess that there is nothing like it for pulling too solid bulk off fat hips and actually placing the flesh on the scant calf and that walking which sf net foh J was true drudgery before has now become be-come an exhilarating pleasure From New York the danseuse will follow her classes to Newport and if in the course I 1I I rt i j of a few months our fashionable women wo-men dont learn to walkSpanish lightly light-ly and gracefully as Dryadcs it vvont be because they have not tried ann believed I be-lieved In the cure for their present shortcomings EMILY HOLT |