The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-20
Convright. 1898.

l N~NAAS
sentally an improving time, the average
woman joins a certain number of classes
and is asked 10 drop in as a visitor at a
number more. Being that very common
thing, a busy woman, do not regularly
/ belong to any classes, although l go to
| several carrying a bunch of violets to give
r the president as sort of ticket of admis-
J sion.
In this way one learns an immense
amount One learns how to listen with
ones eyes shut when the Egyptologist
talks about the meaning of the queer hier-
oglyphics and impresses upon your mind
| that Cleopatra was a very ordinary look
ing little woman, with fair hair and a
snub nose, whose chief charm to the
Egyptians was her good complexion. That
| lecturer wonders why his class Is so small
the next week and does not realize until
afterward that because of this reference
to the skin of Cleopatra woman, tickle wo-
man, lovely woman, has gone in body
of ten or twenty to hear a beauty teacher
talk about How to Manage the Skin"
Then 1 have learned to stare straight
into vacancy while the woman of the
present bangs a gavel and talks about
the woman of the future" and l can
be quietly enthusiastic on the subject of
dress reform. 1 was not always so. There
was a time when to listen to the dress re-
formers made my angry passions rise and
l wanted to go up and tell them what l
thought. But now, when some woman
who has been living on overdone beef, on
too much pastry, on oatmeal eaten IN
humps or too many preserves gets UP and
tells about a well-htting corset being an
invention of the devil and a pretty gown
an impossibility as connected with brains,
! simply smile and give myself satisfied
wriggle, which means that there is com
fort in properly made corsets.
A speaker of this kind invariably mean
ders off and asks with much excitement,
What will the coming generation be
when the woman of to-day is satisfied to
be merely beautiful" and I sit there and
think of DIR. Schenck and of the fact that
beauty is hereditary, and 1 remember
handsome families like the Mays and the
y
there come to me visions of the loveliest,
healthiest babies I have ever seen-babies
who inherited their beauty from their
mothers, their bravery from their fathers,
while father and mother had each con-
tributed toward the intellect. There is I'M
told joy in my heart when the dress re-
| former talks. She is very emphatic. She
is usually the shape of a single, and she
damns with d that Is intense all corr
sets, while she objects to pretty under
| wear and considers as a special work of
| the devil a well-fitting bodice. She is
down on woman's hips, those curves which
are so essentially feminine and which
| were made so broad and strong for the
| purpose of carrying burdens.
The dress reformer does not believe this.
! She thinks that everything ought to be
| strung from the shoulders. You are 10
endure nasty. narrow tapes cutting your
shoulders and making the wearing of a
| low bodice an impossbility, so that you
can string petticoats and everything else
! that you wear from them. Ugh It's aw-
| fua. 1 never made speech in my life
| but every time / hear the dress reformeI
speak / want somebody to get up and say
| what / think-that is, that nature (th(
dress reformer prefers to say nature, as
she counts God old fashoned) would have
| made women with narrow hips and broad
shoulders if it had been intended that hel
burdens be carried from them, but it was
not. Consequently, her shoulders are me
dunn and her hips are big, while man has
no hips at all-that is, to speak of-and
his shoulders are supposed to be broad
enough to bear the burden of feminine
| heads when feminine hearts are in trou
! BILE.
At a hotel where there was an alarm
| of fire, when we all ran just as we wer'
without the slightest plea, 1 saw dres:
reformer in her nightgown. oh, but sh'
was a sight She certainly did live up L
her theories There was no pretty main
SOCK no frills no bits of lace and bow!
of ribbon. Oh, no! That nightgown wa
made out of some indicated material thu
odor of which is best likened to sewer gas
and it was cut as John Gilpin's buttons
went, straight up and down. with ever!
suggestion of utility, but not hint o
beauty.
II the dress reformers would drop dress
reforming altogether and take up eating
which is my special fad, there would be
great deal more good done, as far as thu
coming generation is concerned. If some
body would have the courage of her con
victions and say that women need les
pastry and more mutton, fewer fried am
more roasted things, less cake and NOR
good bread, and nothing fried, there woul'
be a good outlook for the people of tn
future.
, The average woman needs better brea'
and butter, especially butter, and less tel
however 1 mean less bad tea, for goo
tea. properly made, hurts nobody. Then
too, the average woman wants to devot
a longer time to dining and less to re
forming the world. Her complexion vii
, be better, her eyes clearer her hair health
Ter and her teeth will remain in he
mouth longer If she eats good food, prop
erly cooked rather slowly and chats mer
rily in between. / myself believe in ref
ormaton, but every proper thinking per
son believe that reforms, like charity
ought 60 begin at home. The woman
who wants to keep a man out of tempta
ton in the evening Is much apter to sue
coed by having a good dinner, beginning a
o'clock and lasting until 3, than by all tn
! preaching in the world. After oclocl
the average man who has consumed
good dinner and is enjoying his smoke an
a glass of cordial feels so comfortable tina
he doesn't want to so out, and a woman
must be a fool who can't entertain a maj
who has had good dinner. Why doesn'
somebody start a society for thei proDa