The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1901-01-30
DO WOMEN DRESS TO
PLEASE MEN?
IBy Max o'Ren.l

a. CVOto olCCNSo, llO nlOl = NC
formities of any sort. Many
a woman would have been in
despair if nature had made
her as fashion has often made
her appear.
To-day it is the female form
divinely beautiful draped in
beautiful limp materials of
soft, delicate hues. gracefully
relieved by lovely lace and re-
fined trimmings, the whole
with a touch of simplicity
that never fails to enchance
the beauty of the wearer. No,
never since the classical days
of Atheian dress have women
looked so beautiful as they do
now.
The majority of us men are,
[ believe, conceited enough to
think they dress and try to
look as beautiful as possible
to please us. My firm con-
vietion is that women dress
to please themselves-or to
kill other women with envy.
To the question, "Do women
dress to please men?" /
answer most emphatically,
No, they do not-quite the
contrary. And now, may L be
permitted to remark that,
when / reflect that she was
naked, l cannot help thinking
that a little bite at that fruit
might be of service to many
ladies before they leave their
dressing rooms to go'to a ball,
a theatre or a dinner party?
1t is that the fashion of the
day requires the train to be
so long that there remains no
material to make a corsage
with?
The fact is that unless you
90 under the table it is prac-
tically impossible for you to
say what it is that the women
wear around a dinner table.
AS for the sight offered to our
gaze from the boxes at the
opera, we might as well be in
a Turkish bath. And the
most amusing and e6ifying
part of it is that this fashion
is more fiourishing in puri-
tanical England than in any
country I know, and that most
of those beautiful daughters
of Albion, whom you see so
much of, are the very same
ones who are presidents, vice
presidents and secretaries of
the societies for the suppress
sion of the nude in the public
parks, the museums and art
galleries, and other British
institutions for the suggestion
of indecency. Who says that
the world is sad?
Society ought to be ex-
posed" [ once remarked to a
beautiful member of the Eng
fish aristocracy, "for giving
that bad example, "You are
quite right she said, but
that will do no good, because
[ believe that there is nothing
that English society enjoys
more than being exposed. :"
Evidently 1 was quite right
when I once exclaimed: "Pro-
vided an English woman does
not show her feet, she is safe
and feels comfortable. "
In the way of dressing, of
all the women of Europe and
America, the Germans are the
worst, the French the best
and the Americans the smart
est. The German women are
covered, the English cloth, the
{ Americans arrayed, and the
French dressed. I am not
} now speaking of high life.
These people are the same all
: the world over, and whenever
a writer publishes a criticism
: on the life and manner of any
! nation he ought to place the
following epigraph at the TOP
of every page he writes, SC
!. that the reader may not lose
4 sight of it: All civilized ma.
: tions in the world are alike il
$ one respect; they are com
: posed Of people those that are
e ladiesand gentlemen. and those
g that are not. Then there
Q could be no misunderstanding
+ about what he writes.
|. This season there is a large dealt
= rofo arnonu absfIror, fr1.., $500, 80.