Strong feeling and action
may be strikingly revealed by the back. Imprecations, denunciations,
even prayers, seem to be charged with more force when an actress
delivers them with her back turned, or half-turned to the audience.
"Bernhardt's back expresses a storm of fury when she imprecates
vengeance," said the voice of authority. "Not only on the stage is the
expression of the back discernible, and a knowledge of its character
valuable, but in every-day life in drawing-room and street. How many
women consider their backs when they dress? Look at the backs here
deformed by laces and fallals," she went on contemptuously. "The
majority of women never look below their chins and I believe not one in
ten ever looks thoughtfully at her back," she said emphatically.
The dramatic value of a well-poised, expressive back may only concern
the thousands of young women who are aspiring to be a Sarah Bernhardt or
a Rachel; but a knowledge of what constitutes a properly and
artistically clothed back should be of interest to all women in
civilized countries.
That there is much truth in the assertion that "the majority of women
never look below their chins, and not one in ten ever looks
thoughtfully at her back," every observer of womankind might testify.
[Illustration: NO. 45]
The open placket-hole and sagging waist-band, sketched in No. 45, is an
all too familiar sight that advertises the fact that too few women take
even a cursory look at their backs.
Pages:
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40