The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-14
TALL GIRLS ARE
 NOW ALL TIE RAGE
Stretch, Giriie, or You'll Be
 Counted a Has, Seen
SHORT ONES ARE TRYING
An old-Fashioned House Where Chan deliers Were Removed and Even Then the Ceiling Was Too
 Near the Floor.


 l From the Omaha Bee.
 If the number of very tall women con- tinues to increase the architecture of eer- i tain rooms will have to be changed For | instance. in several high-class residence l streets are certain rows of comparatively i small houses, two and a half three and three and half stories high These l houses are always in demand. From time to time extra bath rooms and heating l plants have been installed in one or an- other otherwise even the brass knoclkes l on some doors, the houses are practically l the same as when built This in fact is one of their charms. or rather It used to be. An agentfwho used to have an easy 1 time when it came to renting one particu- lar row of these houses received a shock i not long after a new tenant had sgnd lease and moved into one of them, when told that unless the drawing room chandeliers were heightened the tenant would have to move out again. What was the matter? the agent wanted to l know Those chandeliers with their beau tiful prisms and brass mountings had | always been among the most admired ] features of the house.
 "Oh, yes," responded the lady, we have no fault to find with them except that they are hung too low.
 T did not find this out till yesterday, when I had an informal afternoon recep~ ton and a guest was caught fast by the top of one of the plumes on her hat in drop of the chandelier. and noticed that ever so many of the young women had to circle away from the chandeliers as they moved about the room"
 Never Such a Complaint. But never had such a complaint be- fore" protested the agent. getting up and standing under the chandelier, which was certainly a good bit above his head. 1 How tall are you?' asked the tenant. About five feet ten and half inches, madame'
 1 You don't look it." returned madame. "At any rate many of my daughters friends, wearing as they did enormously high hats, looked about seven feet, and l ~-AA-S 1 ducking those chandeliers"
 "Alieel" she called. Alice came in ] equipped for the street-a tall girl in a modish hat decorated with an imposing 1 aierette At her mothers request she circulated under the offending chandelier, the central drops of which and her ai- grette almost met.
 You see!" madame exclaimed signifi- cantly. And my daughter Is not nearly 30 tall as some of her friends"
 The agent did see. He saw also that to heiahten those chandeliers would absorb a big slice of the profits from that house for a year and that there would be a obig kick coming as he told the tenant from the owner, man who did not hap pen to have tall daughters. Nevertheless those chandeliers were heightened the tenant herself taking her complaint to the owner.
 Tea Room Out of 1t.
 More significant still is the case of a merchant in populous and popular thor oughfare, a well paying adjunct of whose business is a tea room. This tea room is in two adjoining sections. the rear sec l tion. which is reached by two or three 1 steps up being about three feet lower i in the ceiling than the other. Opening from the former is pretty little parlor containing pins. powder and other ac- cessories to the famale toilet A few ] years ago when the tea room was first opened the rear room was the fayorlte ! Of late the merchant has noticed that the rear room, the larger of the two, by ! the way, is less popular than the front l One day he asked the head waitress why 1 this was
 .T think it's because the ceiling is so low, sir.' she told him.
 But the ceiling has always been like 1 that and customers seemed to like it," he said, puzzled.
 Maybe it's because the womane are wearing such high hats" the waitress went on. T heard one woman say the 1 other day as she came out of the parlor that she felt as if she were taking the door along with her"
 1 After that for day or two the pro- prietor kept his eyes open and wondered why he had not before noticed how many very tall women visited that tea room. As one and another took the steps to the l rear room it really looked to him as if there might be danger of millinery graz ing the electric bulbs dropping a few inches from the ceiling. Something would have to be done he saw and done soon if he would keep his business. As a re- suit in the early summer masons and carpenters marched in and proceeded to sink the floor of the rear room to level With the front foOIl
 How Skirts Have Grown.
 When this anecdote was told to the manager of the dressmaking department of large store she nodded understand
 ingly With wave of her hand toward a long row of very tall cases filled with imported costumes displayed on lay fures she remarked:
 Ut was only yesterday that customer asked me If we had patrons tall enough to wear some of those gowns, and I tolc her yes, we had. In reality, though, there are two or three skirts in the cases tha may have to be shortened before they art worn. In all lines of ready made costumes the imported and the domestic, too, cost ing hundreds of dollars few dollars the manufacturers are taking no chances , It Is easy enough to shorten skirt, bu 1 almost impossible to lengthen 1t and al the number of tall wonnen especiall, among the prosperous classes, has beer steadily on the increase for some years