The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-10-11
TOR SWEEPING
THE SIDEWALKS.
A Lawyers Curious Experience With a
Trailing Dress Skirt
Appropriateness Should Be the Criterion OF
Modesty in Dress-Women Protest
Against Dragging Skirts.
Written for THE SUNDAY CALL

81 had curious experience the other
day." said prominent lawyer to the writer
recently with a friend l was walking
along Kearny street, talking about the
Grand Jury and Judge Murphy's ruling. l
had just remarked that hoped the jury
would make clean sweep, when my friend
exclaimed, Talk of clean sweeps-look
therep Before us two ladies were walking,
attired in light-colored dresses Of fine ma
terial and fashionable cut. The skirt of
each dragged some three inches on the side
walk, gathering in as they walked mlscel-
laneous assortment of dust, sticks, paper,
tobacco guilds and the like. Behind each
was a well-defned traH on the sidewalk.
AS l gaZed my attention was called to what
appeared to be smoke issuing from beneath
one of these skirts. l looked again. Sure
enough, the trailing drapery was unmistak-
ably smoking, and l instantly detected the
cause. Hastily stepping forward, rather
unceremoniously checked the wearers prog
ress, while with my foot | stepped upon the
edge OF her skirt and dislodged from its
hiding place hereunder the stub of lighted
cigarette, which had been gathered in and
had already burned quite a hole in the ma
terial."
WAS she grateful to yOu?" asked the
writer, in some amusement.
"Grateful?" with ineffdble scOrn in the
intOnatOn. "She was mad. She swept on
her interrupted course without a word, in
reply to my hurried explanation, and | felt
had been fool for my pains"
Truly, the ways OF woman are as In
scrutable as the laws of Providence. and like
the sands by the seashore for numerousness
and diversity.
weather sets in the women oil Boston, Mass,
and of Portland, Oregon, propose to appear
in high boots and short skirts, reaching
barely to the tops thereof.
One is tempted tn suggest, in view of pre-
yaiing modes and future promises. that the
ladies strike happy mean between these
extremes and thus secure to us decent
standard for the year round.
MODEST FAIR ONES.
There seems TO be a wide range of opinion,
however, comprehended in that term, de-
cent. The same modest fair ones who are
this season 50 decogOusly concealing their
feet in swaddlngs of supeIfluOus Grapery,
are at the same time so rigidly drawing back
those d!apings about the body that the whole
contour Of the figure is plainly discernible
as the wearer moves. The aforementioned
supeIfiuouS wad around the feet, hopping
hOpelessly about as she walks, is ugly to be
sure, but the mopping motion adds greatly
to its efficacy in fulfilling its obvious mis-
sion-t0 sweep the street. The sidewalks
need this attention, We must all admit,
whatever may seem the incongruity of ad-
nIiniStering it with the garments of fashion,
able femininity. Writers on fashion tell US
that the proposed rainy weather costume
with which we are menaced will not he
countenanced by the modes" One writer
goes so far to assert that there is suggestion
of indrcency in the supp0sltiOns that
any modest woman would 50 array
herself for the public promenade as
to render herself anyway conspicuous.
Ia a -s.I
inference that there is nothing ICON spicu-
ous' in the spectacle of a woman stopping
her skirts through the filth of a busy street
until they are set on fire by an ingathered
cigarette stump. In one sense there IS not.
because in point of fact many women do so
wipe the street with their garments. and
the only reason they do not Oftener gather in
lighted cigarettes is that these do not hap
pen TO be IN the way. The sight does not
appeal to US as being conspicuous or indie
cent, because we have grown accustomed to
it; but it is pre-eminently con spicuOus, be-
cause painfully noticeable 10 the unac-
customed eye, and it Is pre-eminently in
decent as being opposed to all ideas of
cleanliness, health and beauty.
CURIOUsLY RELATIVE THINGS.
MOdesty, decency, proprety in dress are
curiously relative things. 1t is question
whether it may not be broadly stated that
that is immodest in attire which attracts
decent which Is incongruous and inaDpro-
pirate. The short skirt, worn on the street
in rainy weather, the moderately short
skirt, worn there, always, when such skirts
are necessary to the comfort and cleanliness
Of the weareT, can never be immodest or
improper. The tights worn by the ballet
girl on the stage, when the eXgencies of the
scene are such as call for these articles are
modest and proper. because they are in
keeping with the situation, and only the
carpng critic or the prude finds fault with
them. The actress may wear them far more
modestly than her perfectly proper sister
wears, on the street, her conventional tightly
Aawn skirts. The conventional bathing
suit, regarding which so much cheap wit is
INDUCED in every summer, is worn by the
most limo ent women with entire modeSty,
on the beach, yet both 1t and the full even
ing costumes would outrage all the proprie-
ties seen on the street.
TWO. GREAT FACTORS.
Convention and appropriateness are the
two great factors that decide the propriety
of both these costumes in their respective
places. What is suitable and modest in one
place becomes unsuitable and immodest in
anOther-aS for instance, the bathing suit
in the ballroom or tile bail dress plunging
in the breakers. There have been many at
tempts of late years to force a general ac-
ceptance of trailing street costumes upon
women, but sooner or later enough of the
sex nave repelIeu TO ueleat Ihe purpose, ana
with each recurring attempt the protest has
been more vigorous and the retreat of the
enemy more precipitate. This time the
skirts have only been allowed to drag an
inch or two of superfuous length, and a re-
action, despite the modistes, is already set
ting n-is so strong. in fact. that we are
threatened with the opposite extreme.
Slowly but surely the feminine mind Is
settling upon the solid truth that appro-
priateness in dress is the real test of its
modesty aud decency, aud given this. the
sanction of convention is so readily obtain