The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1897-07-28
WHAT MAY &c.
Benswy on Dress In the Twep6esh
Century.

~ Co., EDWARD Bethany taxes tue ioi
lowing glimpse into the future as re-
Iating TO the question Of dress:
The extremely delicate tints OF
Edith's costume led me to remark that
the color effects of the modern dress
seemed TO be in general very light as
compared with those which prevailed
in my day.
THE result" 1 said, sis extremely
pleasing, but II you will excuse a rather
prosaic suggestion, IL occurs to me that
with the whole nation given over to
wearing these delicate schemes of col
or. the accounts for washing must be
pretty large. ! should suppose they
would swamp the national treasury IL
laundry bills are anything like what
they used to be-"
Doubtless we could not do much
else il we washed our Clothes" she
said; but you see we do not wash
them"
Not wash them! Why not?"
Because we don't think It nice to
wear clothes again after they have
been so much soiled as to need wash
ing"
well, I won't say that | am sur
prised." ! replied; lin fact, / think
am no longer capable Of being sur
prised at anything; but perhaps you
will kindly tell me what you do with a
dress when it becomes soi!ed."
I'VE throw it away-tbat is, it goes
back to the mills to be made into some
thing else"
Indeed! To my nineteenth-century
intellect, throwing away clothes would
seem even more expensive than wash
ing it,"
''Oh, no. much less so. What do you
suppose, now, this costume of mine
cost"
81 cont know, I'm sure. / never had
a wife to pay dressmakers' bills for,
but l should say certainly it cost
great deal of money"
"Such costumes cost from ten to
twenty cents" said Edith. What do
you suppose it is made off"
i took the edge of her mantle be-
tween my fingers.
II thought it was silk or fine linen"
replied, but see it is not. Doubt
less it is some new fiber"
I'VE have discovered many new
fibers, but it is rather question of
process than material that l had in
mind. This is not textile fabric at
all, but paper. That is the most COM
mon material for garments nova
days"
"But-but." exclaimed, what if ii
should come on to rain on these paper
clothes? Would they not melt, and at
little strain would they not part?"
"a costume such as this" said Edith,
sis not meant for stormy weather, and
yet it would by no means melt in rain
storm, however severe. For storm
garments we have paper that is abb
solutely impervious to moisture on the
outer surface. AS to toughness,
think you would find it as hard to tear
this paper as any ordinary cloth. The
fabric is so strengthened with fiber as
to hold together very stoutly."
But in winter, at least, when you
need warmth. you must have to fall
back on your old friend, the sheep"
You mean garments made of sleeps
hair? Oh, no; there is no modern use
for them. Porous paper makes gar
ment quite as warm as wooden could.
and vastly lighter than the clothes you
had. Nothing but eider-down could
have been at once so warm and light as
our winter coats of paper"
"And cotton!-linen! Don't tell me
that they have been given up, like
wool?"
"Oh, no; we weave fabrics of these
and other vegetable products, and they
are nearly as cheap as paper, but paper
is so much lighter and more easily
fashioned into all shapes that it is gen.
orally preferred for garments. But at
any rate, we should consider no ma
terial fit for garments which could not
be thrown away after being soiled.
The idea of washing and cleaning
articles of bodily use and using them
over again would be quite intolerable.
For this reason, while we want beau
tiful garments, we distinctly do not
want durable ones. In your day, it
seems, even worse than the practice of
washing garments to be used again,
you were in the habit of keeping your
outer garments without washing at
all, not only day after day, but week
after week, year after year, sometimes
whole lifetrmes. when they were spe-
cially valuable. and finally, perhaps,
giving them away to others. 1t seems
that women sometimes kept their we'd
ding dresses long enough for their
daughters to wear at their weddings.
That would seem shocking to us, and
yet, even your fine ladies did such
things. AS for what the poor had to
do in the way of keeping and wearing
their old clothes till they went to rags.
that is something won't bear thinking
Of"
at is rather startling" I said, "to
find the problem of clean clothes
solved by the abolition of the washtub,
although I perceive that that was the
only radical solution"
Galen Clark, who has just resigned