Mexico Missouri message., 1906-07-05
BY MARGARET e. sANGsTER.

BY MARGARET e. SANGbIhh.
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-
lightful 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 a 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 Jacket
over her arm, no hat on her head,
and protected from the weather only
by a 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
tainly not healthful style of dress.
/ trust not a single schoolgirl left
her mothers home garbed in 80 stupid
a 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 Its 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 a girls ward
robe. When sitting out of doors on a
summer evening, it is always well to
have wrap and either a golf cape, a
railway rug or one of those sensible
Oloaks with hoods and pockets made
so neatly by our Shaker friends, will
fill the need to perfection.
A schoolgirls dress should be well
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
90 years ago, in a 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 stiffiy
starched petticoats at the same time.
It 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. Any
form of dress that contracts your
powers of breathing is unhealthful and
far from beautiful. For all-round
wear, few fashions exceed in common
sense the loose costume insisted upon
in the gymnasium; with a little more
length in TIE skirt than is permissi-
Bile when one is playing basketball
running or jumping, this dress is ideal
for the schoolroom. For walking, and
every schoolgirl should take a lone
walk every day as a matter of course
the only healthful dress is one that
easily and thoroughly clears the
ground.
You girls who read this possess q
great advantage over girls who lived
q century ago. suppose It is hard
for You to realize that women who
were they still on the earth, woult
be more than century old, were QUO,
girls like yourselves, They had pref
ty hard times under the regime ther
In vogue, for they often had to spen,
hours lying fiat on their backs
strapped fast to board In order tina
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 the
had to sit or walk with stiff boa-,
fastened TO their shoulders. In tn
end, most Of them gained what Is
great beauty for any girl--a fiat bacI
and graceful carriage Of the head
but they did not usually have sucl
health as you are born to possess.
They wore wretchedly thin shoe
with soles like paper, pointed toe
and pointed heels. The roads in thos