The age-herald., 1901-08-28

Health Maniacs Again.

The agitation against women wearing trailing skirts on the street has resulted in a remarkable climax Henry Laban- chere pariiamentarian. says in his pa- per, Truth, that a bill will be introduced when Parliament assemblies in January, having for It's object the compulsory dis infection of the trailing skirts of women before their wearers are permitted to en- ter the theatre or other public places.
 Wilber Joyce Hay, commenting upon this proposed bill in a London letter to the North American, says:
 At one time it was unfashionable and even ungentlemanly. for man to ad)ust his eoattai when sitting down. The ac- ton was looked upon as key to the suppostion that he hadn't another coat, and could not afford to muss his coat skirts It presented the anomaly or ln- sistent care of ones clothes followed by indifference as to subsequent creases It was a sort of gospel of careful careless ness.'
 Some such unwritten fashionable law seems to have taken possession of women. It seems unfashionable to lift one's skirts 
 crossings abound in London. At all events 1t Is a fact that well-dresseo women are at present London's most ac- tive scavengers. Their trailing dresses do more for al fresco cleanliness than all the crossing sweepers put together.
 But the medical men see danger in it. and their vision will materialize into the bill that 'Labby' threatens.
 This aggressive action on the part Of the London physicians reaches us Just after the cables telling us that long skirts have been prohibited in certain districts of Germany and that a few ultra sanita- rians have avenged themselves upon wo- men who persist in wearing trailing dresses by tearing the trains. The rear of bacteria, which Is evidently increasing every year, seems to be materlaiIy strengthened when even the basis for rear is the long skirt worn by women
 The crusade against trailing skirts IS a sensible and practical one, but 1t Is hardiy fair to attribute the spreading or germs entirely to the fact that women wear long skirts. The men who have gone sanitation mad as this germ fever IS called, and who take the attire or women as the theme upon which to base their calculations, should go to the core whiie they are leading in this crusade. Ihe crossings are dirty, 1t is admitted ana the trailing skirt is a scavenger. The germ that A woman would gladly go blocks to avoid lies at the crossing Of the streets and the sidewalks, where splt- ting ordinance Is not enforced.
 al0t& s,f anfnr public places is enough to disgust any man with any degree of cleanliness ana yet the sidewalks of the city streets shock the ideas of cleanliness of every woman whether she has made scientific inVestl- gation of bacilli or Is serenely uncon- scious of a danger recognized by the greatest scientists.
 If splitting ordinances were strictly en- forced and the sanitary conditions or 'he cities carefully guarded there would be less need for this tiresome crusade against women. On the other hand, the. women who persist in wearing trailing gowns in | The streets are decreasing in number, and it is a rare thing to see a woman trailing her gown along the dirty street. IT her dress does not entirely escape the ground she does not hesitate to lift 1t, even at the risk of revealing rundown shoe.
 The art of holding up long train is a lost one, however, and 1t Is only one woman in thousand who holds her trailing skirt gracefully. The average woman, in catching up her dress, usually disarranges the placket, and that is more unpardonable than spreading a germ.
 Every woman will admit that the short skirt is the practical and comfortable manner of dress for the street. The vogue of the short skirt bids fair to become the national costume There is no indication that it is losing in favor, for 1t meets the approval not only of the women who have adopted it, but of the men, who frankly admit that they admire it. It is to the bicycle that women are indebted for the short skirt. Then the rainy-day skirt be- came a vital question, and this reform be- came a popular one. The popularity of golf and the other outdoor pleasures participated in by women set the fashion for the short skirt. It was found to be the only sensible costume for rainy days, for the links, for the tennis courts. It was natural that women should cling to 1t for their shopping tours in the crowded streets, where they jostle with any and everybody.
 They recognized that the dirty streets furnished more serious reasons for don ming a short skirt than did the clean links or the courts. And now they have the doctors and scientists on their side, and their wardrobes are incomplete without one or more short skirts.
 But while they accept the theory that