Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1910-04-09


sion that remains with me in remem-
bering some of the male members Of
my congregation"
High cost Of living arguments
are futile in the face of the modern
demand in woman's dress" asserts a
minister of another denomination.
I'VE are prone to raise our voices
against the trusts, and declare We
are being trodden upon and robbed
by the extortionate prices of food.
1t may be true, but the real prob
lem for the man of the middle class
the wage-earner on a moderate sal
airy today, is dress.
Wives Make Living Costly.
"He pays the grocery bill of 50
per week. Probably it will figure
80 per month. His wife expends
$40 for a modish gown in the same
month and $40 more for a hat that
droops fore and aft and suggests the
Last Days of Pompeii
"If she be up-to-date, the hat
must have a foundation and this
must be built upon SIS worth of
hair from the head of some Chinese
woman. At least I am informed
that our American women, instead
of being satisfied with their own lux
uriant braids, are paying good Amer
ican dollars for the hair of Chinese
women. If there be a daughter in
the household, she will spend even
more than the mother
"The wage-earner himself pays 80
for a hat and $40 for a suit, and it
must last the greater part of the
year. Women's fashions demand !;
change at least each six months. Yet
we prate of being robbed by the
trusts and of the high cost of liv-
ing 1t impresses me that the real
problem lies in the monopoly of
those who set the styles"
No Reason for Extremes.
'It strikes me that women's ideas
in styles are something like Edmund
Vance Cookies lecture, Eating Our
Grandfathers, :" saws a fourth min
lister. Cooke, in his lecture, tells
of a savage tribe that had followed
cannibalism for centuries, and con-
tinued the practice because it had
been the habit of the grandfathers
before them. He used to illustrate
the need for individual independ.
ence.
1T seems like that with our wo-
men. They wear these hideous af-
fairs for adornment because other
women wear them. The leading
stores set the fashions, and they fo,-
low blindly, some of them disgusted
with themselves because they dislike
the newest mode, but keeping in the
beaten track. If few women would
a - kA
to the days of simplicity and econ
omY, they would gain the undying
gratitude of a great mass of men
ledgers balance and shudder each
time they pass millinery display"
No Help to Church.
Modern fashion, while it may not
be positive menace to Christianity,
is certainly not aiding its cause" is
the statement of one minister. ut is
rather carrying us back to the days
when pomp and ceremony were put !
ahead of nobler ideals. 1t is harmful |
to our girls, and is bringing about |
an altogether undesirable environ |
ment for our young women. Inter
est in home comes second to that of !
personal adornment. Styles in wo-
mems dress today represent a mass
of falsities and artificial aids that
are not only costly but injurious.
Girls are not being taught to
think of such common domestic /
things as cooking and sewing. |
Rather, they spend much of their 7
time figuring out how to get the
amount of hair fastened on
to the small amount of head some /
Of them possess. Tastefulness AMI /
neatness have given place to elabor- /
ate effects in coiffures and curls,
tight-laced gowns and French heels. .
Law Can Be Evoked.
In Chicago and other eastern ,
cities the authorities have aroused |
themselves and the pompadour has |
been prohibited in some places. In
Chicago the murderous hatpin has
become a subject for a city ordin
lnce. Employers have refused TO +
employ women who persisted in dec
Orating themselves with unseemly
ornaments.
IF women would turn from these
-hings to the better things of life,
We would have a nobler and broader !
spirit of humanity"
Thousands of hours are wasted
Zach day by women adorning them
elves for public. inspection" de-
,]ares another clergyman. Il am
ed to understand that the modern
woman of fashion spends at least two
hours each day dressing her hair, or
rather, intermingling it with false
in order to support
ornate creations of the miliiner's art.
Display is Sinful.
1T is ridiculous, | might almost