The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-12-01

HOW long VIII II pc petoFe H0a-a
reputation for daintiness becomes a
myth? asks Dorothy Maddox in the Fniia-
delphia inquirer
Already the trailing skirt has smircneo
It almost beyond repair.
Somehow l never thought the training
skirt would go, but go It has from the
time the d~ressmaker tackled on a slghe
dip at the pack until the dip grew into
yards Of cloth to sprawl along the high
ways and the byways.
Verify this is an era of filthy fashions.
The other morning I walked down
Chestnut street in the wake of some of
Ph~iladelphia's smartest women.
Swish, swish, swish, went the trains;
smooch, smooch, smooch, went the dust
and dirt Of the pavements upon skirt
hens and ruffles until never a petticoat
l saw that was not downright filthy look-
ing.
The woman who could afford a dirty
taffeta underneath had 1t, and the woman
who could only afford a dirty campric
underneath had It.
One common bono of dirt bound to-
gether the smartest and the shabbiest-
Each was trailing along her " par
ticular freight of microbes.
The owner OF the soiled stafeta Innings
lifted her outside skirt at the street cross
ines with a jaunty abandon which put
the draggly silken underslirspn display
Her cheaper imitator hitshed up her
outer garments over italian cloth petit
coats. q dirty match to the taffeta just
ahead.
Neither seemed aware Of the tawdri-
ness of 1t all.
Fashion has evidently blinded woman
to all fastidious perception OF these as
ease breeding modes,
Keep clean she cannot with the present
style Of street costume, unless she can
afford to discard an entire outfit a1Ser
every wearing.
win most women one silk petticoat is
a seasons indulgence. This must be worn
and worn and soiled and soiled until
LAYER after layer of. street waste goes
Hopping about the wearer,s ankles.
AS I followed along after the dirty tai
feta. the dirty cambria and the dirty
Italian cloth, I wanted TO cartoon these
parodies ON dainty w~omanhood.
MANY Of them, I suspected, had spent
several hours that very morning in the
hands of the manicurist, the ceifur1st'
and the skin specialist, grooming up.
Then they had started out on their
street sweeping round.
It is amusing, this frantic effort 70
keep the upper part Of the body IN I'M
maealate condition while around our neeis
o,,r clothes are significant of the-fact tnat
of dust we are n unto dust we are re-
turning.
wondered how many women would
change their stockings when they got
home would that the day OF white
stockings might returnl They at least
could speak, like the white KID glove u
their uncleanly condition:
The white kid glove, by the way -
usually the soiled kid glove A good many
women wear it with a veneering OF CRIME
snread upon It's surface, but it assurediy
goes to the cleaners oftener than dark
hand gear. For that reason, at least, 1t IS
rot a health enemy.
But the ~unwhoIesome trailing skirt
what uatlst the mea think of US; what
mist the men think Of as.
There's no use 70 say we don't care We
do care. We care enough 10 run our legs
off to get together to please the broSher-
hood those very materials which fashion
manipulate in a way to disgust every
lover Of neatneg
1t is said there is going to be a crusade
against unhygienie modes.
such crusades usually fzzle u lnto
mere rumor.
Never was one more needed, however,
than in this era of filthy fashions.
The success Of a dinner party does not
always depend upon the menu. Distracted
hostesses have too often realized this fact,
and r~naryeled that the costliest dishes n
wines should lave been eaten and drunk
in hat comparative silence which be-
tokens that a dinner is not adding social
Iustre to the giyer of the feast. On the
other hand. comments the "Lady's Pic
~torial." even indifferent banquets may go
with eclat, and linger pleasantly in the
memory of those who dlned- We all know
the secret of success and the explanation
of failure. The right people must be
asked If the one Is to be achieved; but
let the guests be uncongenial, and the
other is Inevitable. 1t liz o given even
to the most tactful hostess. however. to
unfailingly match her invites. And 80
while you may go with your partner to
the table you too often cannot make him
or her talk. If the initial difficulty of ind-
ing a subject interesting to the stranger
with whom one practically dimes tete-a-
tete at these functions can be ~surmounted,
then all goes on wheels, and the diners
ruin their digestion by talking hard all
the while they eat, and come away feeling
that they have had a pleasant evening.
To meet this difficulty a little book has
just been published which suggests open
ings for possible conversations. Presum-
ably before leaving home one is supposed
to Jot dow likely first moves as the
clergy do the heads Of their first sermons.
SO that il one fails another may be i'm
medIately tried. But il this booklet came
to be generally used. hapless dlners-out
might find themselves cheekmated before
the end OF the fifstreonrse. Having, for
example, made the meteorological move,
ones partner might recognize 1t at once
and refuse to play up. and this nigh
continue I'LL all the conversational open
n g were closed. A far more successful
method Of loosing the tongues of entire
strangers" sent IN; To dinner with each
other would be to place before each a card
roughly describing the oshef. B might
read that a vas an enthusiastic golfer,
and A might CLEAN that b had just come
from South Africa. An exchange of these