The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-18

!
pete in the horse show, but only knight
and ladies took part in those glorious
Jousts, when Lord this and Sir that sa
their chargers. Both ancients an,
moderns have demanded all the luXur,
the times they could afford for thei
equipment, so that the horse in boil
instances has been the keynote of fash
IONS most successful exploiting.
AprUpos of woman's comparative
helplessness at these horse functions
Prof. Veulen. who has just written al
interesting work on 1.-THE Leisur,
| Class" has a curious theory regarding
the long hair which women from tim,
lmmemorial have treasured as one o
their chief beauties. 1t seems, to begiI
at the beginning, that the world ha!
| discovered the ways in which to dis
play wealth, viz, by conspicuous leis
ure and by conspicuous waste That i.
10 say, person who is known never Il
engage in productive labor of any kline
and a person who surrounds himself
with much superf1uity in the way Of
servants, estates, bric-a-brac. clothes
jewels, and the like. is Immediately seer
| TO be possessed of riches, because other.
| wise he would be obliged to forfeit his
leisure and his superfuities. Now. as
the exigencies of life prohibit most mer
pelng at leisure, a system has been de
Vlsed by which a mans women folk dc
MS leisure for him, so to speak. and this
state of affairs rebounds almost as
much to his credit as if he leisured him
SELF. Probably this ancient idea. in
grained in the human race, that leisure
as denotlng independence of the mean
ana sordtd things of life. is intrinsical-
" hRa nfiFfI1
or that eagerness which the American
man shows to save his wife from the
derundgery of housekeeping, by hiring a
glrff the moment his income will allow
of it.
Now, then, the more idle one can
seem, the more elegant and rich one is
supposed to be. You must remember
that these notions had gripped human
CONSCIOUSNESS ages before noblesse
opnge was invented, and that they
grew out of a form of society in which
the conquest and exploiting of nature.
religion, law and war were the business
OF men, while to the women fell the pa
t1ent, humble Industries out of which
all the trades of modern life have
grown. With higher evolution of so
clety, the vicarious leisure of women
and servants come in, so that in the
case of a man spending his DAYS in
strenuous fighting or hunting. for in
stance, the leisure of the family might
still be kept up by his wife and daugh-
tiers and by slaves, all of whom should
spend their days in conspicuous idle
ness.
So, whatever in dress or person en-
phasized the obviousness of leisure
was seized upon, and this accounts for
some of the inconvenient and, at the
same time, picturesque factors of mod
ern society. High-born women, who
had wealth. leisure and the social
standing that the hereditary possession
of both imply would let their hair
grow long. because long hair is or was.
not consistent with hard work For
the same reason they laced thin waists.
for women who have their bread to
earn cannot afford to curtail their use
fulness by nonsense like that. Skirts,
themselves, have probably been re-
tanned by women as a characteristic
garment partly because they tend to
render the wearer helpless and so to
maintain her position as the possession
Of a man who can afford to keep her in
luxury and idleness.
From the modern hairdresser, the
omnipresent pompadour, the fancy
combs and ornaments that fashion now
compels, to the faint, forgotten begin
nings of the social order when women.
obeying their masters as the other
slaves obeyed them, allowed their hair
to grow, it is a far cry. Who would
dream of going to the hair of wom-
ans head to read a chapter in the his
tory of civilization? Yet it is traditions
and ideals, prejudices and proposes
sions as superficially trihing as this
that form the current coin of exist
ence. Our apparently lightest whims
have their origin far back in the
stormy passions of the race, and what
seems inconsequential and fugitive
may be the floating filament Of an in
stinct that had already been hardened
and moulded by the stored experience
of the race centuries before Abraham
was gathered to his fathers.
So you see. the prejudice against
short hair on woman is older than
the pyramids, and that is why woman
with short hair never seems to be quite
a woman, whether she lives in Kansas
City, or Korea, or the Soudan. Tempo
rary gusts of fashion may prevail to
rob women of their crowns of glory.
but the permanent feeling of the high
est developed portion Of the race is op-
posed 10 such vagaries, just as it is
opposed to extending the suffrage to
women. Woman suffragists and short
haired women alike are attempting to
devOlute society to a pre-glacial condi-
tion-only they don't know it!
Boston has done honor to herself and
New England in the arts and crafts ex-
hibition now in progress in CopIey hall.
which takes rank as the most diversi
fed. most valuable and most beautiful
display Of industrial art ever present
ed in the United States. The exhibit
ton is for the announcement and dis
play of effort in the industrial arts. and
in beautiful objects and intrinsic value
exceeds any showing which has here
tOfOre been made. The value of ex-
hibits runs up into hundreds of thou
sands of dollars.
The main exhibition is made I'D OIL
almost everything decorative and orna-
mentai-furniture, embroidery, laces.
andirOns, ink stands, pottery. glass
ware, sllverware, book covers, leather
work, draperies, jewelry, and ever sol
many other useful articles 1t is al
together a remarkable demonstration
Of the progress in American industrial
arts, and shows that the demand for all
Of the finer furnishings is being met bv
home production. The exhibition is
open daily from 10 a. m. to 10 .. m.
and will close April %.
Worcester is represented at the arts
and crafts exhibition by the new
bishops chair for All Saints church.
which is Of oak, and is decorated in
Gothic style with the four beasts sup
porting a shield and above this the in
sigma Of the bishopric. while the arms