Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-03-04
DRESSING AGAINST TIME.

The Amount of Speed Woman Can Put
on When She Wants TO.
When we speak on such momentous
and mysterious subject as the rapidity
with which woman can dress. we wish
to be understood as referring only TO
women who live in the suburbs. where
dressing on the hy to catch trains is re-
duced to an art that is almost worthy
the attention of athletic people whose
performances shine according to rec
OrdS.
When a woman first goes to the coun-
try she misses many trains through her
inability to dress in time Tor them The
only way she succeeds in perfecting
herself in this line, is TO dress for the
eight o'clock train when she wishes to
catch the ten. Then to dress for the
eight o'clock train when she would
away on the $50. Still again to dress
for the eight o'clock train when she
wishes to catch the nine, and so on I'M
til she develops championship form, and
can dress for the eight o'clock train
when she wants the eight o'clock train
and get it.
By that time she is on an artistic and
athletic level with d woman born and
bred in the rural districts, where wom-
en- don't dress for the love of the thing,
or to make display, bat simply to ba
on time and catch things.
A woman who occupies half an hour
in dressing in the city WILL after she
has been in the country six months, be
able to perform the same Office if nee
essary, in the brief period of six min
utes. At the date of this writing. as
far as can be ascertained, the record is
1929.
In fact, country woman can dress
so fast that it is believed by many sta
tisticians-who have, however, been
unable to satisfy themselves definitely
that the rural woman has found it
necessary to resort to the expedient Of
making several garments into one to
save time. For instance, it is believed
that the dresses and understands are
fasteend together in such a way that
they may all be donned at once, and
faSteend to the anatomy by vital
button warranted not to come off
1t is furthermore believed that if
this combination garment is not used,
that her clothing is always left, on re-
firing at night, in a position in which it
may be donned at the shortest kind of
short notice-after the fashion of the
garments of the rural fireman who, be-
fore retiring, leaves his clothing on a
chair in layers, with those to go on
first on top.
When a woman in the rural district
hoo In 1an
o'clock in the afternoon, and she has on
an old wrapper, and is any thing but
presentable, she doesn't become in the
least alarmed, but simply tells the
maid to usher the caller into the par
lor, and to say that she will be down in
a few minutes. Then she flies up
stairs, and by the time the caller is
seated in the parlor, there is noise
overhead, like that of a greyhound
bounding through vistas of dry, brittle
leaves, and the caller knows full well
that it is suburban woman getting
into silk dress against time, because
she has done the same thing herself so
frequently that there is no installing it.
After the caller has left, the rural
woman goes upstairs, where the dress
maker is engaged, and tries on several
new dresses, as though they were hats.
Then in two or three minutes she has
on an entirely different garment, as a
sudden change 10 the weather has made
it necessary.
When it comes to a question of full
dress she can get ready in three min
utes, for the simple reason that there is
so much less to put on than on ordinary
occasions. When she comes out of the
surf in the summer. she dresses in such
a brief period of time, that many city
women argue and pretend to believe
that she is a theatrical lightning-change
artist in disguise. In ease OF. a fire at
night she could arise and dress herself,
as though for a wedding, even if the
flames were at the other end of the
room licking the varn;sh of the bed
stead. And she would have on her hat,
and her gloves buttoned up to her
shoulder-blades, long before the fire.
men could get TO the house. TIC
look at this thing from stand.
point of economy, the fast dress
ing that Is universal in the
country is very extravagant
practice when the wear and tear on
clothing is concerned: for an ordinary
dress soon Loses It's graceful symmetry
when woman hauls it swiftly over her
head like horse-collar, and shoots out
from the shoulder 10 get into the sleeves
and buttons it swiftly with button.
hook TO cause her to shrink into a wasp
wasted sylph.
Indeed, a bueolic woman can dress in
half the time it would take her to wash
the breakfast dishes or the baby: and
she could probably dress twice in the
period of time She would exhaust in
sweeping floor or busting the furni.
ture: and it is within the pale of reason
to say that she could dress three times
In as many minutes as il would take
her to exhaust the subject of the latest
fad, whether it be bifurcated shirts OF
amateur theatrical performances for
the amelioration of the condition of the
heather in Zambesi.
And it is entirely amusing to see her
jump, in a preoccupied way, and begin
TO dress at a 4:52 rate of speed to catch
an express train, when she hears the
meridian factory whistle agitate the
quiet AIR.. X. Munkittrick. in Once
8 Week.