The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-13
FASHIONS SLAVES.
Woman Always Followed the Fash
ions-Probably She Always WIN

tons-Probably she Always VIII
DO So.
New York, Oct 6.-Lovely woman,
high or lowly, is Fashions slave, not
Passions slave, as the dime novels
phrase it, The line cannot be drawn
even at civilization, for who is more
vigorously fashionable than a Hotten-
tot belle? Having no Intellectual
charms, she cannot win the cannibal
brave except by delighting his eyes
with the brilliancy of her scanty raj
ment; and not to please him would
mean to remain unwed, and he stamp
ed out in the survival of the fittest-
Among birds the male is arrayed in
marvellous plumage for the sole pur-
pose of being selected by the modest
feathered females. But among human
ity woman presents the attractions
and man makes the selection.
One cannot but envy the permanence
of heather fashions. With the Indians.
for instance, scarlet, yellow, blue ana
green paint has been in" for great
many seasons. What comfort! Fancy
the CONSERVATION of the squaw VINO
had spent many months weaving, with
infinite pains, brilliant Navajo blan-
ket, should she suddenly learn that 1t
had gone out of style, and her time
and labor were lost!
Do we new women" beginning this
century of progress. ever stop TO con-
slider how absolutely we are IN the
mower and grip of the Gar, FashlonE
Once woman wore hoops whose size
would dwarf a modern airship. lmag-
inc the beautifully formed women or
Greece, models for the greatest sculp-
ture of the world, arrayed in tight cor
sets and hoop skirtsl
A queen there once was who was
hunch-backed, and all the court ladies',
for courtesy. had artificial humps put
in their dresses. AS a result we, in
democratic country, who have forgot
ten even the queens name, wear the
hustle. a simple lowering OF the un-
slightly protuberance.
We are told that our grandmothers
had sixteen-inch waists, yet they rear
ed families of ten and twenty chlldren!
But perhaps the physical weaknesses
: of those very children was the result
of the mothers tight lacing. 1t mas
been charged that this very thing was
,oroduced cripples and even criminals
unto the third and fourth generatlon!
What barbarism has made woman,
who carries all the future within her
frail FORM the one to wear the most
unhygienic clothing ever inventedE ana
what has perverted the taste Whlcn
considers such garments attractive
If one-haIf of humanity had to go fash
ion-mad. and abuse the delicate IN
ternal organs, why, could it not nave
been man, with his stronger physique
not called upon to give birth to human
ity? But no: man dresses sensiply-
to his credit be it said-and uses the
style of dress suited to his life, even
If it has little to recommend IL 10 the
eve of the artist.
In European court circles, and in our
own colonial days, those men who were
"gentlemen of leisure" were as strict
" dominated by Fashion as ever wo-
man was or is. But now they glory
in it only on the stage! The Louis
XIV. high heels satin garments, laces,
ruff1es and powdered wigs ind wearers
nowhere else.
Men solved the dress question be-
cause economic conditions demanded
suitable working clothes; women viii
solve it eventually for the same rea-
son. But very slowly do they emerge
from conservatism, especially such
forms of it as are supposed to make
them charming. And it is usually
Fashions dictates, not Reasons, when
in the end prevail.
For half a century timid attempts
were made. from time to time, for a
shorter dress, beginning with those OF
the abused pioneer, Amelia Boomer
But since woman has taken to athletic
sports Fashion has devised and sane
toned the very costumes for whlcn,
common sense pleaded in vain. To-day
no fashionable woman thinks her ward
robe complete without three or four
tailor-made short skirts, bicycle
length" and golf length" with a
number of loose shirt waists of every
color and fabric.
While women are striving for fewer
and simpler clothes, mems wardrobes
are becoming more complicated. Golf
suits bicycle outfits evening dress,
Tuxedos, swallow tails" yachting Co.'S
TUNES. negligees fiannels, business
suits hats, cravats and socks ad in
finitum, comprise the toilet of the man
a la mode.
Indicating that love for display which
still exists in the breast of man, be-
hold his primitive delight in the gold
lace, long plumes and clanking swords
in the parades of the secret orders ana
fraternities!
And the military! Is peacock or wo-
man so Overwhelmingly vain as an Off
Ger in full uniform?
La mode still demands that ordinary
men wear white and black and sober
shades, but how eagerly they accept
the new regime of rioting colors, in
the sOil SHlIlS, NtSlSs uOSc dllu
the purple, scarlet green, blue, yellow,
pink. so temptingly set forth by the
"gentlemen's furnisher." And fortunate
the man who does not in his inexperf-
ence wear an outrageous combination
of three colors in shirt, socks and era
vati
An odd circumstance in the psychol-
ogy of dress is that woman, seeking
comfort, and also in order to indulge
in athletics, copied mans loose shirt,
combining it at the belt and calling it
shirt waist. Then he turns about,
recopies the garment from woman, and
behold new product of the twentieth
century-the shirt waist man!
There are few of us who are, or wish
to be, emancipated from fashions tyr
amy. We enjoy our shackles. Our
hair goes up or down, sleeves initiate
or cling, skirts are wide or narrow,
hats are the size of tubs or of tea
cups, exactly as the style DEGREES, and
we kiss the hand that smites us. No
sooner have we completed a suitable
wardrobe and are longing to turn our
attention to weightier matters than
fashion sends out a new mandate, and
all must be done over again, while the
weightier matters are deferred.
Thus we are buffeted about by those
lightning change artists, fads and
fashions. Where are the women S
clubs which shall break those bonds d?
Who shall write our Emancipation
Proclamation?
One Of the Slaves