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Show j THE PERFECT FIGURE. Baron Von Humboldt and His The. or y on the Subject. ; Baron Von Humboldt, who had stud-H stud-H ?1? and women in every quarter of tne nabitable globe, used to say that the notion that the female figure was of better bet-ter proportions and more graceful outline than that of the male was a delusion. VVomen didnot believe it, averred the great scientist, and men only said so out of gallantry. The Philadelphia Record says ; Humboldt was right on a great many points concerning which his views were scouted by the wise men of his dav, and perhaps he was equally correct in thus attributing superior physical beauty to men. But since his time nobody has ventured to urge or defend his theory, and it has naturally fallen into disrepute. I Besides, the modern world really has no use for "pretty men," as such. They maybe counter-jumpers and animated tailors' blocks, and infest the public promenades and places of general resort but the present masculine fashion favors the strong, square-built, quick-witted and agile fellow who never thinks for an instant in-stant whether he conforms to the model of the Apollo Belvidere or not. With the softer sex the question of form is another affair. The possibilities of dress have been developed to such an extent ex-tent that within reasonable limitations, a woman may take on pretty much whatever what-ever outward shape seems best and most becoming for her. While the creations of the modiste have stimulated a taste for the beautiful, they have ministered also to the love of . admiration and harmless instinctive vanity, appertaining to every feminine nature. They have also created ideals of contour that are decidedly at variance va-riance with classical ideas of perfection ; and these departures from antique standard stand-ard have been to many of the theorists and a few otherwise sensible women a source of profound disquiet. There has been, it is affirmed, a departure from the "classical "class-ical figure" that is as disfiguring as it is reprehensible ; and in many quarters are heard pleadings, more or less cogent," for a return to the lines of beauty wrought by Phidias and Cleomenes long before physical distortion became a fashionable art. . . American maids and . matrons have thus been led to study the requirements and measurements of the perfect female figure, with results, if current draperies correctly indicate, altogether distasteful to the classicists who point with pride to the master works of ancient sculptors as embodying the beautiful in feminine contour. con-tour. A living counterpart ' of the Venus de Medici would be less than 5 feet in height, while wearing a No. 25 corset and a JSio. 7 shoe. The Popular Science Monthly, in a recent issue, descends to particulars, and affirms that to meet the requirements of a classic figure the proper dimensions should be : Height, 5 feet 4 inches ; bust. 32 inches ; waist, 24 inches; armpit to . waist, 9 inches. This is further improved upon by giving the proportions of a "queenly" figure, thus : Height, 5 feet 3 inches ; bust, 31 inches; waist, 26 inches; over the hips, 35 inches. These figures are interesting inter-esting only as they illustrate the vagaries and contortions of the purely scientific mind when floundering through, the realm of taste. It will be difficult to persuade per-suade ladies of an inquiring turn that the scientific constructor of these classic proportions pro-portions has not been endeavoring to perpetrate per-petrate a solemn joke upon the select circle of literary females whom he addresses. The "queenliness" of a tall woman with a hollow chest and exceedingly thick waist is an attribute" likely to be "discovered "discov-ered only by an observer whose head is perpetually among the stars. Many correspondents have of late been requesting the Record to state what the proportions of the perfect figure really are. We do not know; and if we did, the knowledge should remain concealed, lest some of our readers," whose dimensions dimen-sions may be beyond the costumer's art, should suffer an" inward pang of regret and disappointment. Let it be sufficient that for a true man the perfect figure is that of a woman who loves him best, and in whose smile he finds perpetual delight. There is no better criterion, after all," whatever the ' classicists and pragmatic model-makers may say. |