The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-15
DRESS FOR THE KITCHEN.
A HOUSEKEEPER'S APPAREL
ABOUT HER DAILY TASKS.


Ranch-What DR.. Lucy M. Hall, Miss
Mary l.. Booth, Annie Jenness Miller
and Others Have to Say on the Sub
/ ject-A Neglected Branch of Dress
Discussion.
Copyright, 1888, bv New York Associated Press
NEW YORK, Nov. 11-"Oh, dear; life
| isn't worth livingl"
Whats the matterF
"Why, feel like monkey dressed for a
ball in these awful clothes"
! There was no apparent fault to be found
| with the clothes or with the wearer. The
| garments were the ordinary components OF
tasteful afternoon attire, and they hung
with more than ordinary grace, on a tall
and finely developed specimen of healthy
young womanhood. She was brunette OF
seven or eight and twenty-head splendIdly
poised on her shoulders, throat full and
round, chest capable of deep inspirations,
rot particle of useless flesh, not a flabby
muscle to mar the contour of her vigorous
figure She was Vassar graduate who
married ranchman in the west some four
or five years ago, and who was spe4 ding q
few weeks in the city on visit to friends
1--WE made my own bread, sometimes first
carrying the wheat to mill I've built my
own fires, sometimes first cutting the wood
l was to burn. I've ridden my own pony,
oftener than not bareback, when baby
strayed from the door and had to scour the
brush before he wandered too far away.
I've fetched water and built fence, and
laughed at work, because made my own
gowns. | cast off long skirts for all work
day occasions as soon as / got outside the
towns. I've worn no drapery below my
knees for SO long a time tina feel awkward
and as helpless as a baby, trying to sit
about in parlors in the garb OF civilization.
| tried to ride in the park this morning, but
/ turned coward and gave it up. ones seat
is so uncomfortable ON a side saddle.
might learn to make holiday in long skirts
again, but | could not keep house, not If we
all went without our dinners"
Hers was an extreme statement of the
discomforts of active work in ordinary
feminine attire. In point of fact, varie-
ties of dress suitable for the street. the
drawing room, the dinner table. the theater.
the ball room, are dwelt upon after by day,
week after week. but even the dress re-
former seldom makes point of kitchen at
tire, the dress in which large majority of
women spend large proportion of their
strength and time the dress on which much
more than on gala prettinesses woman's
health and we'll eing depends.
On questions of dress one goes naturally
to the fashion oracle, the doctor, the dress
reformers and the people who wear the
gowns. The doctor, as it CHANGED came
first. She was DIR. Lucy M. Hall, late resi-
dent physician at Vassar College, well
known as a writer on health topics concern
ing women, and received, together with
Miss Clara Barton, as a notable representa-
tive of American womanhood at the Ger
man court no long time ago.
ingF
"Oh, that's all right; what's the matter
with the housekeepersw
DIR. Hall keeps house in Brooklyn. She
looked up from heap OF manuscript at the
abrupt question.
why do the people whom one knows
people who prefer the privacy and home
feeling of house TO themselves-move from
that b ouse into a fat or suite of rooms in a
big apartment building, and then from the
fiat into boarding house or family hotel?
They say first that they can't go over the
stairs of the dwelling house as commonly
built, and then having achieved the apart
ment house elevator, that they can't keep
house at all without moore maids than they
can afford to pay. What's the trouble with
housekeeping Find a woman who keeps
one servant or a woman who keeps no serv-
ant at all, and you find a woman, very COM
tired and no small part of it ILL.,"
Perhaps it's case of gymnastic exer-
cise," said DIR. Hall, without gymnasium
dress. You wouldn't think of putting a
class of girls through the course in athletics
thst everybody recommends for them now
adays without dressing them with special
reference to the performance. But the
broom-this is quotation, mind you--is a
whole gymnasium in itself. Did you ever
hear of any one who dressed especially for
the broomp
"How would you dress a woman for the
broom and the stairse
"Why wouldn't some modification of the
regular gymnasium suit be a good fashion
if it ever came in vogue for homework re-
gala? A majority of women, at least of
those who take entire charge of their house
holds, not simply supervising the work of
servants, could work to better advantage
in blouse or loose waist and skirt that
did not reach below the top of the boots, or
not more than half way. from the knee to
| the ground. OF course such dress should
| be of light weight, and should hang from
| the shoulder entirely. Summer and winter
| varieties in print and wool could be arranged
| easily. Make a science of homework, &c
| into it as if you weren't ashamed of doing
| it, treat it as what it is, athletic exercise
and plan, every woman for her own needs
dress as carefully devised for it as tenni,
OF skating gowns are thought out for theil
| purposes"
Miss Mary l.. Booth, of Hdrper's Bazaar
| who is a model editor and whose sensibl,
words on so many other subjects than dres.
are read weekly throughout the land, wa
found in her office in the big aud democratic
Harper's building. She thought that tn
| question of fit dress for household work wa
settling itself, as dress for all occasions
evolves more and more into the likeness o
what IL ought to be.
Compare the attire of women now witt
what it was fifty years ago and see if w
are not solving our problems satisfactorily
Ii is no longer the fashion to wear a trailing
gown except for formal evening occasions
| At an afternoon reception one would fee
o,ltre in one. 1t is no longer the fashion t,
lace tightly. OF course there are plenty o
women who prefer what they call a trim
waist, but fashion does not requir
them to make themselves any smalle
than nature meant them to be.
is no longer the fashion to wea
high heels. The shoe stores are full Of thicl
soles and broad common sense heels. O
course sensible woman won't try 10 d.
heavy work with bones in her bodice no
burden her hands when running up anC
down stairs with holding up long skirts
But there is no occasion and no occupation
for which a woman cannot dress hersel
comfortably and BEAUTIFULLY without let o.
hindrance from fashion. Fashion does no
nowadays bar any woman from dressing a
| eba ,Nlaoeaa ~