Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-27
Women Follow e Fashions Dictates,
No Matter What is Said.
FOR THAT is WHAT HISTORY SHOWS
The CrinoIine and the BustIe Are
Cases in Point.
JERSEYS AND BIG SLEEVES

of Washington-a shrewd, comfortably
fixed, eral-mnded woman of sixty or
more, who has numerous brood of grand
children here. II have read every commu-
nication referring to that issue so far pub
lshed.
"Well, after all, of what avail has been
the discussion? Have you observed any de-
crease in the number of tight-fitting skirts
on the streets of Washington? Have you
heard of any of your women friends cut
ting their tight-ftting skirts to ribbons as
a token of their regeneration?
II have been reading and listening to dis
cussiops of a similar kind for forty-five
years-discussions bearing upon the subject
of what is proper or improper for women to
wear. l never knew OF single fashion,
good or bad to be in the slightest Cegree
altered by such discussion. The fashions
that have been the most bitterly attacked
have all died natural deaths, after running
their more or less protracted courses. At
tacks upon their manner Of dress have
effect or influence whatever upon women;
they are not even swerved by ridicule. At
ter exhausting all such methods as plead
ing, expostulating. implOring and finally re-
sorting Intellectually to punitive measures,
you can ridicule man out of anything, for
men are terribly susceptible to ridicule. but
you cannot ridicuie a woman out of & fash
ion to which she has once subscribed. You
might well STOW away your ammunition
for better cause.
Day of the CrinOiine.
II regret to be compelled to admit that l
am old enough to remember the crinoline-
that, In fact, when l was young woman
wore the crinoline myself. The agitation
against 1t was something extraordinary
throughout the whole world 1t was de-
cried by pulpit and press. The pamphlet
GERS of the day assaled it. 1t was ridi-
culed and caricatured. Yet the young wo-
men of my day went right on wearing the
crinoline. Some of them were even willing
to admit that they didn't particularly fancy
the crinoline, but they continued wearing
it. 1t lasted its day, and a long day it was,
too. Then 1t passed out, not because the
women surrendered to the world wide at
tacks upon it, but because they We're
a-weary of 1t. Ridicule of a certain fash
ion only makes women the stronger in their
determination to cling to that fashion. l
don't know how to analyze this fact, but
it is a fact, nevertheless. We used to do
our back hair up in nets. 1t was hideous
ly ugly fashion.
'The men of the day despised it. and they
browbeat their women folks who adopted
the fashion But their broWbeating made
10 difference. Neither did the fierce print
ed attacks on the back-hair nets have the
slightest effect upon the women folks who
wore their back hair that way-and prac-
tically all Of us did. The cloth shoes with
fiat heels which We, wore at the time-and
the wearing of the hoopskirt rendered the
concealment of the shoes quite out of the
question-were attacked on the score of
their ugliness, too They were ugly; they
We're unquestionably the most hideously
Lgiy footwear ever worn by women since
the beginning of the world; but we wore
them until we became tired of them and
then We returned to leather boots.
I'VE used to wear huge earrings, cameos
and other kinds. The picture papers of
the day ridiculed that fashion by portray
IN oGlt AL, i
10 and 15-pound weights in their ears; vet
the heavy-earring fashion continued for a
good many years-there is considerable
talk Of reviving it at the present day, by
the way.
Whims of Fashion.
my mother told me that the men of her
girlhood days made all manner of fun of
the tremendous poke bonnets that women
wore during the first three decades Of the
present century. Those poke bonnets, as
pictured in old prints, We're unconscirlabIy
ugly, were they not? Yet they endured for
decades, in spite of ridicule.
The corset has been a target for fierce
ph1iippics for centuries, and yet it abides
with US In fact, the lacing is becoming
tighter all the time. The newspapers of the
present daY-those, l mean, that go in for
weird portraya!s-picture the waists of Wo~
men as they would be had they never been
EMBODIED in corsets and as they are after a
pictures over, yawn, go upstairs to dress,
and lace themselves until they can be laced
no tighter, When the waists of young girls
were clutched in the embrace of iron stays.
in my grandmother's day, there was an
cutlery that went around the world like a
tidal wave, but the girls continued to clasp
themselves in the stays of iron.
Objected to the Jersey.
ITO bring the matter down to period
that will be remembered by folks good
deal younger than I am, do you recall the
roasting the jersey received? Now, in my
opinion, there was surely nothing immodest
about the jersey. 1t was a nice garment
and snowy one for women with q fine
figure; but it certainly did look ridiculous
upon women who We're not fitted by nature
10 wear 1t. 1t accentuated their lack of de-
velopment and rendered them absurd. For
some fnScrutable reason men took dis
like to the jersey from the very beginning
OF the fashion and heaped vituperation and
scorn upon It,
Their funny remarks on the subject of
the jersey had no weight whatever with
the women who wore them. In fact, it
was quite to the contrary. At first the
Jerseys only appeared In blacks and dark
blues, but after they had been assailed for
year or so they came out in briihant
reds and even greens. 1t is to be con-
fessed that a great many women did look
like frightT in the jerseys; out even tnese
never dreamed OF succumbing to the
clamor for the abolition OF the jersey. Iney
wore jerseys out and got new ones. They
calmly permitted their male relatives to
talk themselves black in the face, and
then they went down town and bought
more jerseys. Oh. we are odd creatures,
we women. and there is no use In trying
to deny it! If we had stood up for other
rights we have for our right to clothe
ourselves as we see fit, wouldn't we be
race of Amazons or Sablpes though.
Bones of Contention.
Then you recall the long, savage, fren-
zied fight on the bustle2 l verify believe
that the hustle was a bigger issue than
free trade, the discussion of which was
contemporaneous with the battle over the
hustle. The hustle. was worn for three
solid years. notwithstanding the bitter fight
that was made upon it. AS the battering
rams of criticism were the more deter
minedly applied, so in proportion did we in
crease the size of our bustles They were
comparatively small the first year, but
they were assailed, nevertheless. This had
the effect of making them larger the next
year, and the oratory over them developed
in heat UNTIL at the beginning of the bus
ties third year. 1t was simply a colossal
deformity, nothing more or less. Yet 1t
did not pass out until the edict proceeded
from that mysterious source whence fash