The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-07-06
BY MARGARET E. sANGsTER.

girl.
BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
In order to be healthful, the dress
we wear must be suited to the season,
the weather and the business we have
In hand. We are now in the midst of
spring with soft airs, sudden showers,
bright sunshine, and every other de-
l1ghtful thing that belongs to the most
charming part of the year. But last
December, although we had what is
called an open winter, there were
piercing winds and sullen skies, and
| much of the time the temperature was
somewhere in the neighborhood Of the
freezing point.
A friend of mine had occasion to
take train one December afternoon
from New York to Albany. Midway
on the journey the train stopped and
among the passengers who stepped
aboard was pretty girl with a jacket
over her arm, no hat on her head,
and protected from the weather only
by thin shirt-waist, with short
sleeves. The shirt-waist was dainty
and pretty and trimmed with lace and
embroidery, but, nevertheless, on that
day and in that atmosphere, the girls
dress was an invitation to grippe or
pneumonia.
All last winter, any one who chose
to look might see beautiful New
York girls walking on Fifth avenue,
In the afternoon, with furs around
their necks while their feet were
shod with low shoes and their short
skirts left visible the most elaborate
open-work stockings. This was GER
ta:nly not healthful style of dress.
l trust not single schoolgirl left
her mothers home CARRIED in so stupid
| q fashion.
Now that warm weather is here, the
problem has less difficulty and the ele-
ment of protection from cold is elm
mated. You are rather better off
without hats than with them in sum-
mer, unless the sun is blazing and you
need to be screened from it's direct
rays.
If you would like to have thick, soft
and beautiful hair, you will run about
without hat whenever you can.
Mornings and evenings a jacket may
be necessary and a golf cape in the
| mountains or at the shore is a very
comfortable addition to girls ward
robe: When sitting out of doors on
summer evening, it is always we'll to
have wrap and either a golf cape,
railway rug or one of those sensible
cloaks with hoods and pockets made
so neatly by our Shaker friends, will
I'LL the need to perfection.
A schoolgirls dress should be we'll
fitting and it's weight hanging from
the shoulder, should never be allowed
10 become an impeachment. An elder
ly lady whose girlhood was passed
SO years ago, in southern state,
tells me that she remembers when
every girls mother did her best to
| squeeze her daughters waist into very
small compass, and that a girl some
times wore tied around that same
slender waist eight or nine very stiffly
starched petticoats at the same time.
| 1t was small wonder that the girls of
| those days too often went into a de-
cline and early faded out of existence.
Those who survived were delicate and
tainted away at any slight shock, had
| very precarious appetites, and would
have been amazed at the rude health
C the girls of our time.
Whatever you do, girls, be sure that
you have ample room to breathe. Anv
form of dress that contracts your
| powers Of breathing is unhealthful and
Tar from beautiful. For all-round
wear, few fashions exceed in common
| sense the loose costume insisted upon
In the gymnasium; with little more
length In the skirt than is permissi
bic when one is playing basketball
running or jumping, this dress is ideal
for the schoolroom. For walking, and
every schoolgirl should take a long
walk every day as matter of course.
the only healthful dress is one that
easily and thoroughly clears the
| ground.
You girls who read this possess a
great advantage over girls who lived
a century ago. I suppose it is hard
for you to realize that women who
were they still on the earth. .wou]d
be more than century old, were once
girls like yourselves. They had pref
ty hard times under the regime then
in vogue, for they often had to spend
hours lying fiat on their backs
strapped fast to a board in order that
they might be perfectly straight and
when they did not recline in this tor
tured fashion, they were equally COM
PEELED to be uncomfortable, for thew
had to sit or walk with stiff boa-d
fastened to their shoulders. In the
end, most of them gained what is a
great beauty for any girl-a fiat back
and graceful carriage of the head
but they did not usually have such
health as you are born to possess.
They wore wretchedly thin shoes
with soles like paper, pointed toes
and nOintp6 hon1a Tho roa dc s,xA 4l