Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-11-26

Copyright, 1898, by John Brisben walker)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK. November p 1898.
The horse show and the State Federation
of Womans Clubs have settled some inter-
esting questions.
Ever since the Denver session of the Ma
tionaI Federation of Woman's Clubs. at
which the Punishment of the shirt waist
was decreed. discussion has been rife over
the point. of what clothing do the club
women approve?
The New York state session has enlight
med eastern women to this extent, if no
Farther. The clubwOmcn of America carry
Into dress the same intelligence that has
made of them in other directions a power
he possibilities of which they themselves
a. yet only dimIy perceive.
Consider: A large proportion of the most
Conscientious women of the United States
are now in touch with one another from
Maine to California. Their organization is
If the looSest, but it holds with certainty
and without friction. Their meetings are
devoted TO an enormous variety of unre-
lated topics some of vital Importance to
daily life, others Of no apparent conse-
QUe1Ce To any but the most quibbling of
closet philosophers.
Make an issue. push it--you may disrupt
the body But if ever an issue is made is
pushed without disruption, there is on the
continent no more powerful engine. Mean
while
Happily or unhappily, we judge women
much by their looks as by their proceed
ings. Tried by this test, the clubwomen
seem to have come near to solving one of
the most vexatioUs of daily problems-how
to put personal taSte, individuality and
beauty into clothing without letting the
matching of gimp overflow and swamp
every other consideration.
Two writers of fiction. a man and a
I
day in a restaurant. You look fresh"
said the woman, YEARLY: but you've only
novels to write You haven't been match
ing gimp three mortal hours"
There is a masculine impression that
shopping is wOman's chief pleasure only
women understand the exhaustion, mental
and physical, that comes of the mildest
chase Of the fit and becoming under mod
ern shopping conditions.
4 Longing for Harmonies
With the feeling for harmonious color
ing every year becoming nicer. the appre-
cation more keen for artistic line and
length. and tha demand more urgent for
real beauty of fabric, women not Amazons
silver a. the prospect of endless searches
through bigger and bigger shops. with more
and more miles of counters, always crowd
ed. always served by overworked and con-
seGCcntly InatttntiVe saleSWOmen.
To the lady, using the word in its proper
sense, tAe lack OF fresh. dainty and ap-
prCPriate clothing is a calamity. How to
obtain it and keep vitality enough for
work and pleasure?
Go 10 few extremes is part of the an
swsr Of the clubwomen.
Comparing. for example. club dress and
the professed parade of fashicn-the horse
shcw-One might say there was as much in
d!v!dLallty % COstuming at the one func-
tiou as at the other. The cIubwOmen were
"a ally graceful, gave an equally pleasing
tnect Of taste and refinement. Crucial
tOLchStOne-they weIs equally up to date
A good number Of the morning, afternoon
ana evening dresses seen at one function
might have appeared with equal propriety
Al The other.
Z there VS. a significant difference
Certain eXtraTaSanCes of the mode oc-
caslpnal fambOyanctS, which We're only
piquaEt under one set of circumstances
WORLD have seemed exaggerated to the
point Of becoming outre under the other
To be concrete, the club tailor dress and
the horse show tailor dress were not pre-
c.sely alike, and yet II is difficult TO put
the differences into words without expand
Ing them out Of truthful proportions.
Well Dressed. but Not Alike.
Both sets Of wOmen had the popular eff
feet Of having been run through a clothes
wrnger and elongated; but 1t was only at
the horse show that you found skirts so
light about the hips that they seemed TO
have been laced. like the old-tima corset
with a bed post to hold on by. 1t was only
al the horse show that skirts were so long