Middletown transcript., 1907-03-16
WOMEN CLOTHES MAD
Draws From Evelyn Thaw's Plight Lesson
That Vanity is Most Dangerous

That Vanity is Most Dangerous
New YORK, February 23d.-There
should be another Carlyle to write new
! and more terrible 'Sartor Resartus," says
Dorothy Dix.
Women are clothes mad. They are sell.
ing their souls and their bodies for q
handful of lace and chiffon and velvet.
The curse OF. dress is upon them, and is
sending more of them to perdition than
the curse of drink is sending men to hell.
We need no other reform SO badly as We
do to curb women's passion for adorning
themselves.
There is ONE thought, above all others,
that | have brought away with me, day
after day, from the Thaw trial, for the
very foundation stone Of that tragedy is
built on Paris hats and gowns. The
haunting spectre that stalks through it il
the lay figure of the dressnaker, and over
the horror and degradation Of it all you
see two women bartering away everything
that is good and pure in womanhood for
a few rags Of fnery.
And the history Of Evelyn Nesbit and
her mother is potentially the history OF a
multitude Of other women. In New
York there are hundreds and thousands
of women who have deliberately elected
to follow the broad way instead of the
straight and narrow way, so that they
may walk in silk attire. They sin, not
through any love, save the love of dress.
Clothes are the temptation that they have
not been able to resist.
If you will look below the surface you
will see that the only real passion Of Eve
lyn Nesbit's life is for fnery. Clothes
are the only things she has ever thought
of seriously; the only thing she has ever
thought worth while struggling for; the
only thing she has been willing to sacrifice
herself for. In all her narrative on the
witness stand this note of dress ran curl
ously through it and it gave hard, ma
terial sound to it that was also pitiful. 1t
was pitiful to see one give SO much for SO
little.
Stanford White, who knew the hearts
of light, foolish women, as an anatomist
knows every fibre OF their bodies, knew
that the surest way to appeal to Evelyn
and her mother was through their love of
dress, and he began his wary plan of at
tack by sending to the girl gift of hat,
feather boa, a beautiful red oak-a long
cape-and some red crepe out of which
the mother was to make the girl gown.
There are many things woman forgets
but never her first grown-up long dress.
This was Evelyn's first, and her face
soitened as she described it. 1t was red,
she said, with little black dots in it, and
she wore with the red cape. Her mother
finished it off, aud sent it to the theatre
one night, with note saying that she was
to wear it to a party to which Stanford
White had invited her at his studio.
She put it on and went, an innocent lit
tie Red Riding Hood, going as unwearily
as ever the child in the old nursery story
into the VOLTS den. As he looked upon
her. perhaps the cynical man had his sar-
donic vision OF the scarlet woman she was
to be.
Doubtless, at the first, Evelyn Nesbit
was, as she has sworn, the hapless, help
less victim of White, but the continuance
of her friendship with him was merely
that she might be provided with the ex-
trayagances of life and trail beautiful
gowns up and down Broadway. A great
love dignities, and to degree, condones a
great sin, but she never pretended to
love White. He was always repulsive to
her. Describing her first sight Of him she
said:
81 looked up and saw great, big, fat
old yellow man standing at the head Of
the stairs waiting for us. l thought him
fideously ugly"
Whites marvellous talents, his brilliant
conversational powers, his charms OF man.
ner, were all lost Oh the little sixteen
year-old chorus girl. TO her lie was just a
fat, old, yellow man.
| That was what he remained to the end.
But the fat, old yellow man had an ex-
quisite taste in dress aud lavish hand,
and he loaded her down with finery, and
SO she stified her scruples, physical and
moral in mousseline de sole, which has
been the winding sheet of many another
conscience beside that of this poor but
terhy's.
And the mother lived with her in ex.
pensiye apartments, where she, too, dress,
ed gorgeously, and was blinded by chiffohs
SO that she could not see where the money
came from that bought her fnery. Nor
does she appear TO have had any better
eyrsight in regard TO Thaw, who she
cheerfully allowed to pay her and her
daughters expenses abroad, until they
quarrelIed in London.
is not this the quintessence of tie trag'
edy of the love of dress? A girl selling
herself for clothes and her mother stand
ing by, sharing in the spoils and now the
end. Blood for every red dress. Black
shame for every dark dress, Deathless
jealousy for every green dress. Wasted
form and pallid cheeks for every white
dress. A crown Of remorse and despair
for every feather aud flower hat she hal
ever worn Nothing left but clothes
whose splendor and. whose gayety vii
mock the misery Of the heart that beat
under them.
If Evelyn Nesbit was the only girl wh'
had sold herself for clothes and he
mother tile only mother who stood b.