Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 255, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1911 — TALLS OF COTHAM AND OTHER CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TALLS OF COTHAM AND OTHER CITIES

Gotham Fat Women Outnumber Fat Men

NEW YORK.—Why are there so many fat women?** A man rushing upon his doom asked this question. He spoke of the increasing prevalence of large feminine persons, not with admiration, but with profound dismay. '♦Why are there so many fat women?" he reiterated. “I have watched the passing throng In several cities and while one fat man was passing I have counted not fewer than four fat women. This ratio has held true whenever and wherever I have had occasion to take observations. “These women are, for the most part, between thirty-five and fifty-five years old. They either waddle ponder, ously or propel themselves forward With not the slightest perceptible freedom of .motion, looking the while like statues moving on rollers. The alarming corpulence of our middle* aged woman Is getting serious. They seem to be fattening for a slumberous old age. one looks about In New York theaters and restaurants the conclusion that the New York women' seen there are about twenty pounds overweight looms large and inevitable. And in those restaurants Iles the ex-

... . . . . ... ...... planation of the phenomena. We eat too much In New York, tjecause the best food In the country is shipped here and the best cooks prepare it/’ .... "Working women, women of leisure, time killers about our fashionable hotels, all indicate that the typical New York beauty begins life as a slender maiden of eighteen or twenty, and broadens into the plump and pleasing matron of twenty-five to thirty-five. After that there is but one ungallant expression to describe her proportions, 4 the one a married man used who said he was ‘suffering from fatty degeneration of the sweetheart’ ” But while there are many persons who will testify to their own ocular perception of the stoutness of New York women, there are certain Individuals who know absolutely about the matter. They are the buyers of readymade suits and gowns In large department stores. One. of these buyers, a Woman who draws a large salary from the most conservative house In New York, said: “New York women are growing enormous. Today the average customer in our store weighs 165 pounds. ‘The reason why American women do not look well in the hobble skirt is because they are too large for it. -French women have comparatively! small hips and they can afford to have their gowns pulled In at the feet Skirts are narrower than ever this year, and I am sure I do not know how New York women are going to wear them.” / .