The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-05
CARRIE CARELESS
DIsCOURsES UPON THE SUBJECT
OF TRAINS.

What Very Stringent Measures Are
Being Adopted In Germany and
How Grateful We Ought to Be That
We Are Living in the Land of the
Free.
(CoDprioht1
NEW YORK, June At is singularly
fortunate that our sex does not derive it's
fashions Of dress from Germany. Other
wise we might find grounds for alarm in
the species of crusade against the wearing
Of trains, which is now raging in Central
| Europe. The supreme sanitary board of
! Hungary, which is the government depart
ment intrusted with the settlement of all
questions relating to public health, has is
sued decree prohibiting the feminine por-
ton of the population. under the penalty of
a fine, from making use of trailing skirts
in the streets. In Austria similar law has
been put into force, and IS being applied
with great stringency in a number Of the
| provincial cities, especially in Meran, Salz-
burg, Ischl and Prague. In Germany the
government has until now refused to do
anything in the question. But the matter
| Ido OCOu b1hSL uB uuOlllCAdlAN Ny lu6 iudlo
population who in Berlin. Dresden, May
ence. Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart and other
leading cities Of the empire have organized
clubs for the purpose of endeavoring to
| abolish the wearing of trains in the
streets. Each member has to swear be-
| fore he IS admitted as a member that he
VIII boycott all ladies who permit their
skirts to trail in the public thoroughfare',
| and that he will refuse TO accompany, escort
or even bow TO any lady thus attired 1t is
| scarcely necessary Co add that Emperor
| William has pronounced himself in favor Of
the movement, and he loses no opportunity
| of giving expression to his sentiment on the
| subject. Only the other day couple of
ladies belonging to the highest ranks Of
Berlin society were engaged in
| shaking from their trains the dirt
and dust which the latter
had accumulated during their stroll! in the
| Thiergarten. Their carriage was standing
close by awaiting them. Suddenly they
heard hooking laugh behind them 1t
was the emperor on horseback, Without
taking the trouble to salute in any way, he
exclaimed in sneering, sarcastic tones: Its
no use, you can't get rid OF the 'dreek'
(traDSlated muck. You will have to cut
them Off ~ and then rode off with his aid
| de-camp.
The argument upon which the promoters
! VI lAlko dlltA-bluAu IuBtlub Ddho tue IbhbOu
| d'etre of the movement. is that ladies trains
| by sweeping up and collecting the dust aud
dirt of the streets convey from one locality
| to another. and thus disseminate the germs
and bacclli Of tuberculosis, OF fevers, aud
| in fact of every kind OF contagious
maladies. 1t is alleged that the trailing
skirts carry infection from street to street
| and from house to house. 50 that pestilenoa
| literally stalks the land.
1t cannot be denied that there is u certain
amount of sense and OF reason in these argyll
ments. There are no sufficient grounds,
| no weyer, for the resuscitation at the end Of
| the nineteenth century OF the tyrannical
sumptuary laws of the medieval ages.
! The revival Of these ancient statues
| is not only an anachronism, but also
piece of intolerable despotism. l, for one,
would sooner expatriate myself than dis
| pense with my train. and | have not tho
| slightest doubt that the majority OF my sex
| are Of the same way of thinking. The
| trouble in Central Europe appears to have
| originated not 30 much in the actual wear
| ing of trains as in the way OF managing
them. There are only two nations in the
world whose women comprehend the deli
cate art Of managing trailing skirt,
namely: the French and the Americans.
| No Parisenne and but few of the
fair ''citoyeunes" of the United States
will ever be seen allowing thor trains
| to drag in the dirt. They are far too
! dainty to be able to bear the idea of having
| all the filth and denominations of every kind
accumulated by their skirts, dangling about
their ankles and coming into contact with
their hosiery. The bare thought thereof is
revolving to them. They alone, however,
possess the tree ohio for raising the trains
! from the ground at the right moment, and
for carrying them in their hand in man
| ner that constitutes another powerful ad
| iuucf n THAR yyaIl-atOcka1 arsauol Of co
quetry-
Somehow or other the average German,
| English, Spanish aud Italian woman fails
| to grasp the delcacies of the art OF train
| be2rlng-if | mly be permitted to style 1t
thus-and sooner than display her lack of
ssill and her gauoherie, prefers to let her
dres trail in the dirt OF the public thor
oughiares. l shalt rever forget, for in
stance, meeting old Queen Isabella Of Spain,
| and the Duchess Of l<Iliar, nor principal
lady in waiting. strolling up the Avenue
de jena OF Paris. The queen, who
is very stout, wore au immense
| green silk dress which spread out over
at least half Of the pavement. The other
| half was taken up by the equally volumln-
GUS dress of the duchess. IL would be i'm
possible to describe the filthy state of the
| pavement. Drunken men, sick animals
and heaven only knows what else, had left
offensive evidences of their passage there.
| Yet through 1t all Ser0nely swept the sklrts
of the queen aud the duchess, cleansing the
street-but at the expense Of their dresses
The condition Of the latter, on reaching the
Palals de Castillo, can be better imagined
than portrayed.
Against the train itself, when properly
and sklllfuly handled, man should Le the
very last person to object. For Whenever
be seeks to look the most majestic, which
ever he would appeal with the most stri king
emphasis TO the Imagination Of his follows
he dons q mantle with a train. What
would an emperor or a king bs on state 90
casions if deprived Of the royal TRAIN borne
behind them by their chamberlains' They
would recall the tale of the fox, or Of the
| monkey, forget which, who had lost hi
| train-I mean his tail, which is, after all
very much OF the same thing For
cannot help thinking sometimes thai
our prediction for tralns-a pre-
objection which is by no means con
fined 90 our own sax--is attributable 10 the
sense OF caudality which we have inherited
through the men from their Simian ances-
tors. We are constantly barking back Il
the irrecoverable tail. The unsatsfied
longing undoubtedly exists. We womer
endeavor to still it by wearing trains to our
dresses, whereas men displays his yearninf
for caudal adornmenJ by wearing tails x
his coat. Who can deny the fact that [
man in short she'll jacket reaching only
down to his waist they tried in vain to in
troduce them here,) conveys an impression