The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-05-31
GIRL
Bah on the Degeneration OF
Woman S Dress.
UTILIZING THE OLD SKIRTS
Femininity Looks Above the
Belt Only.
THE SUMNER IN THE COUNTRY
1t Is Easy for a Girl Who Wears a Shirt
Waist and Sailor Hat to Use
that Little Word
Dan.
UTILIZING THE OLD SKIRTS
The SUMNER IN THE COUNTRY

Dan.
New Work, May 2S-Everybody
and everything is an abomina-
tion of desolation. One would
become a murderer with very slight
| provocation. One feels as if one could
| kill that baby next door for screaming.
Nothing seems good in the eating line
! but ices and cool drinks. Nothing
seems good in the dressing line but
| that which is known as a skirt and a
shirt waist And if ever there was an
untidy looking thing in all the world
| it is the shirt waist. Women drift to
| the shirt waist habit as they do to
| drink, or gambling, or slang, or bicy-
cles, or any other vice. The shirt waist
| originally started as a shirt, pure and
| simple. 1t was worn by the tailor
made girl with a well-cut and a launty
| jacket. Then somebody, who knew its
comfort and thought nothing of its
effect. put in full sleeves. made it lit
tie closer fitting, and wore it with a
skirt and without a coat, and the con-
sequence is that some of the slinkiest
looking skirts that were ever created,
or ever insulted good dress-maker
by their appearance. attached them
selves unto shirt waists, and each
wearer of the combination counts her
self dressed
The impression when one looks at a
New York street on which most women
do coneregate is lot of boys who
haven't pulled their shirts down well,
who are wearing, not trousers nor knee
breeches, but some fool sort of an ar
rangement that is not well shaped.
That is the skirt. The shirt wearer
never studies her mirror below the
belt, and as long as the stiff satin
bow at her neck looks well. and her
belt is taut. she gives no thought TO
1.-The old skirt" as she calls it.Mis-cut
skirts, mis-fit skirts, half-worn skirts,
badly hung skirts, and all sorts and
conditions of skirts are counted prop
er as long as the shirt waist is above
them. just between you and me, ]
sometimes wonder when ! look at a
women in shirt waist that there
doesn't come over her a sensation of
nudeness, for that is the kind of feel
ing that would attack man if he took
off his coat and waistcoat and pranced
around during the day in his shirt
sleeves. after the parlance of mascu-
Unity. Then, too, the shirt waist is a
fraud. All the people who sell them,
or make them. or wear them. dliate
on their GOODNESS. This GOODNESS
might be a truth if it were not for
the fact that the shirt waist is sur
mounted by a collar, in stiffness like
unto the starchiest of the starchy, and
finished at the wrists by cuffs that
are not only stiff but require cuff but
tons. There is no JOY in life when a
woman has TO put pair of cuff but
tons in pair of cuffs. The chances
are ten to one that the link goes
through the first button hole with
ease. but through the second it 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 sink your dignity, and
with an air of subsection lick the
back of that buttonhole until it bends
TO your will.
As for bottoning the collar
in front. lovely woman has shown how
extensive her knowledge is by con-
quering that She does not break her
finger nails over a collar button, not
buttoner. and quicker than magician
| can say Hey. Presto." the union Is
achieved The shirt waist is demoraliz-
| ing With it the average woman wears
made tie. which shows that she has
no appreciation of what is really good
| form, from the standpoint of the ha-
| berdasher. Then. nine times out OF
| ten, the girl who wears her shirt waist
carries her gloves. | don't know why,
| but | do know that this lack or
trimness is due to the influence of the
| peculiar article of wearing apparel that
/ covers her above her belt. And, gra-
| cious goodness! look at the belt. 1t
NAV be narrow, or il may be WIDE;
| II may have a plated buckle, that came
| from cheap-John shop, or gold one
| that came from Tiffany's; but there
| is certain type of girl, wearing
| shirt waist, who is going to make that
| belt cover nineteen inches, ana nine
| teen inches only, or die in the attempt.
| She doesn't die, but she gets an awfully
red face; and, as for the temper, we'll
her temper is usually 1870 Fahrenheit.
/ The other type of girl wearing belts
| and shirt waists don't care whether
/ the belt goes over a margin OF forty
| inches or whether il incloses forty-two
inches waist band. These are the peo-
ple who are looking for comfort Us
| tlally their skirts sag, and droop from
! under the loose belt, so that the world
at large knows whether the SKIRT IS
gathered on to band, plated on to IT,
or. rs a man explained it, arranged
! in those funny rolls like saasages'
and by this he meant godets.
The men are very ignorant ph'
they do not wear shirt waists
Some vices are too mean, even tor men
The shirt waist girl is never satiS'
fled. She is accumnlatiFe. hen sht
has three shirt waits, she wants SIX
and when she gets six, she Neafhs Ioi
twelve. 4 fabric represents nothing
to her except its possibilities IN me
shirt waist line. and in a shop she
islands staring at bit OF cotton rN lhA
Ito see il made up, and deciding Whethel
its collar ought 10 be white Or OF tn'
same material. She is reckless IN buy
ling belts and ties. But sic viii wral
one skirt all summer. II may ira!
around the bottom. it may be unde
sirabe i'm every way, but it it is men
toned at all. it gives her a chance Il
ldilate ON her economy i'm wearing on
her old skirt, making it useful by The
l;,+aryaptinn IF the shirt whist AuN