The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-24

erything is an illumination Of desolation.
one would become murderer with very
slight provocation. One feels as if one
could Kill that baby next door for scream
ing. Nothing seems sood in the eating
lire but ices and cool drinks. Nothing
seems good in the dressing line but
that which is known as a skirt and
shirt waist. And if ever there was an
untidy looking thing in all the world, IL
is the shirt waist Women DRIFT TO the
shirt waist habit as they do 10 drink or
Gambling, or slang, or bicycles, or any
other vice. The shirt waist originally
started as a shirt, pure and simple. Il
was worn by the tailor-made girl with
a well-cut skirt and a jaunty jacket. Then
somebody, who knew its comfort and
thought nothing of its effect put N
full sleeves, made it a little closer Mt
ting. and wore it with a skirt and without
a coat, and the consequence is that some
of the slinkiest looking skirts that were
ever created. or ever .nsulted a good
dressmaker by their appearance, attached
themselves unto shirt waists. and each
wearer of the combination counts herself
dressed.
The impression when one looks at New
Work. street on which women most do con-
errcelte is a lot Of boys who haven't pull
"a their shirts down we'll, who are wear
ine not trousers nor knees breeches, but
some fool sort of an arrangement that IS
not well shaped That is the skirt. The
shirt wearer never studies her mirror be-
low the belt, and as long as the stiff satin
bow al her neck looks-well, and her belt Is
taut, she gives no thought TO THE old
skirt" as she calls it. Mis-cut skirts, mis-
fit skirts, half.worn skirt, badly hung
skirts. and all sorts and conditions of
skirts are counted proper as long as the
shirt waist is above them. Just between
YOU and me- I some times wonder when L
look at a woman in a shirt waist that
there doesn't come over her a sensation
81 nudeness, fo- that is the kind of feel
ing that would attack a man if he took off
his coat and wastcoat and pranced around
during the day in his shirt sleeves, after
the parlance of masculinity. Then, too,
the shirt waist is a fraud. All the people
who spell them. or make them, or wear
them, dilate on their GOODNESS. This cool
ness might be a truth if it were not for
the fact that the shirt waist is surmOunt-
ed by collar, in stiffness Ike unto the
starchiest of the starchy, and finished at
the wrists by cuffs that are not only stiff
in life when woman has 10 put pair of
cuff buttons in pair of cuffs The chances
are ten to one that the link
mole with ease, but through the second
il will not go 1t slips, it slides, and it
cuts your finger. Then all that you can
do, if you wish TO unite that cuff and
that link is TO link your dignity. and with
an air of subsection lick the back of that
buttonhole until it bends to your will.
As for Duttonlng the collar, in front,
~ woman has shown how extensive her
knowledge is by conquering that. She
does not break her finger nails over a
collar button, not she. She coolly takes
small glove buttOner, and, quicker than
magician can say, Hey! Presto!' the
union IS achieved. The shirt waist is
Qemoralizing. With ii the average woman
wears a made tie, which shows that she
has no appreciation of what is really
good form, from the standpoint of the
haberdasher. Then, nine times out of ten
the girl who wears her shirt waist car
ries her gloves. / don't know why, but
due TO the influence of the peculiar ar
ticle Of wearing apparel that covers her
above the belt. And, gracious, goodness!
look at the belt. 1t may be narrow, or
il may be wide; it may have a plated
buckle. that came from a cheap-John
shop, or a gold one that came from Tiff
fany'si but there is a certain type of girl,
wearing a shirt waist who is going to
make that belt cover 10 inches, and 10
inches only, or die in the attempt. She
doesn't die; but she gets an
awfuIly red face; and as for her
temper Well-vher temper is usually 120.
Fahrenheit. The other type of girl wear
ing belts and shirt waists don't care
whether the belt goes over a margin OF
forty inches, or whether it encloses forty
TWO lGneS waist D0nQ. lneSe are the
people who are looking for comfort.
Usually their skirts sag, and droop from
under the loose belt, so that the world al
large knows whether the skirt is gathered
on to band, plated on to it, or, as man
explained it. arranged in those funny
rolls like sausages," and by this, he meant
godets. Men are very ignorant, but they
do not wear shirt waists. Some vices are
too mean, even for men.
The shirt waist girl is never satisfied
She is accumulative When she has three
Sn1TtS waists. W 81
gets six, she yearns for twelve. A fabric
represents nothing to her except its posi-
pilitieS in the shirt waist line and in a
shop she stands staring a a bit of cotton
trying to see il made up, and deciding
whether its collar ought to be white or Of
the same material. She is reckless in buy-
ing belts and ties. But she will wear one
skirt all summer. 1t may fray around the
bottom. it may be undesirable in every
way but if it is mentioned at all, it gives
her a chance to dilate on her
economy in wearing out her old skir.
making it useful by the Intervention If
the shirt waist. Anything that a woman
wears which gives her a semi-loose s.p-
pearance, always makes her little easier
in language. 1t would be Impossible for a
girl in a summer silk, made after the
and having a large hat, gay with many
roses and much tulle, to say little W9rd
beginning with a d and ending with an "
but her sister in a shirt waist, a sailor hat
at easy fitting belt, tan shoes and no
gloves, finds it tumbling out of her lips
simply because the cable car doesn't STOP
when she signals it.
The shirt waist girl is supposed to be
given over to athletic games. She is fond