Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-26
Cor Cor
STORE WINDOW "INTox1cATIoN''
English Clergyman's Charges-The Fee
| male Alone to Blame.

From the London Telegraph
Clerical announcements on purely mum
dane matters are occasionally a little as
tonishing In a sermon preached few
days since one reverend gentleman declared
that women, and especially young ones,
are apt to be quite fascinated with the
cheap trash shown in some of the windows,
and this was sometimes cause of even
greater harm than theaters or public
houses" Possibly the context of the
preachers remarks might have conveyed
modified meaning, but thus bluntly put it
would appear to suggest that some insidi-
GUS influence may Turk behind the legend,
Remnants greatly reduced or "All floral
sprays In this row, 6Ad.," worse even than
that of plays unsanctioned by the lQrd
chamberlain or the evils of intemperance.
What he meant presumably was to imply
that the enticing allurements priced at such
low rates might lead girls to spend money
on snowy and unsuitable things to wear
to the neglect Of those Of more useful and
substantial character; the possibility of
debts incurred, and perhaps even in ex-
treme cases of dishonesty to obtain the nne
raiment longed for
The draper is, Of course, somewhat up in
arms at the suggestion that his attractive
ly arrayed window could be said to have
an effect akin to that of fntoxication upon
even the lghtest of heads. Hts attitude
upon the subject Is that he must please his
customers, and IL their demand is rather
for pearl necklaces at 'ten-three" than for
stout wooden hosiery, he has no alternative
but to meet 1t. Similarly, he cannot con-
troll public taste, if this happens to run In
the direction of fimsy, semi-transparent.
collarless biouses at something and eleven
pence rather than the trim, neat washing
shirt. And at the moment 1t is perhaps
hardly to be denied that among those who
have not too much money to spend upon
Dress there exists tendency to frftter
away what there is upon mere accessories
the lace collarette, the cheap boa. the dang
ling chain. and so forth-for which the es-
sentials Of attire must suffer. The young
person who longs for such things, in which,
as she vainly imagines, she VIII be, really
fashionably arrayed, Is no doubt "fasci-
mated" by window in which they are set
forth at prices wiInin her slender means,
but the trader who displays them can hard
ly be regarded as exercising an immoral
suasion upon those who covet them.
To look, however, rather more deeply be-
low the superficial clerical utterance, it
cannot be denied that the desire for the
wherewithal to obtain smart raiment has
no little bearing upon some of the economic
problems of the day. 1t is to secure it that
girls with fairly comfortable homes will
leave the domestic duties that they should
perform to act as cashiers in shops, as
mattresses, as typists. to the overcrowd-
ing of such eallings and the general disio-
cation of feminine work. But this yearning
for fnery Is not the result of the coyetouS
contemplation of the shop window. Rather
is 1t the outcome of the wish to be as smart
as others, who are, perhaps, rivals for the
attentions of the local Adonis. The win
dows of the different diapers of suburb
may be attentively scanned to see in which
will be offered apparently the greatest
value for the least money. So far, how
ever, from being an evidence of ''fascina-
ton insits Johnsonian definition IAN
unseen inexpiicable influence" 1t is man
Hesitation of shrewdness and a determines
ton to obtain the utmost. The modern
woman is generally far too sane and lever
headed an Individual to rush out with her
little possession of gold and silver and
squander 1t with the recklessness of the
drunkard calling for glass after glass.