The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-09-14
EVERYDAY
SLAX BY.

In oriental countries the women are
the slaves of men. Shut up in harems
and zenanas, they are owned body and
soul, and we of the west pity them.
Yet there is one form of slavery
which holds us-a form of bondage
east. The Japanese woman still clings
TO her kimono, the Turkish woman
has her silken trousers, the woman Of
India her wells and her bangles; none
of them is bound, as we are, to the
treadmill of change.
For years we have exclaimed with
horror at the small feet of the Chinese
women, yet am told that the son of
a former Chinese minister rose in his
place in one of the public schools of
Washington when the teacher mad
vertently spoke of binding of feet.
You talk of binding feet" he said,
scornfully. yet you wear your cor-r-r-
sets!"
The teacher s,ho told me of the lit
tie scene said that in that moment
her point of view changed and she
began to see that we of the white
race have some things yet to learn
of the people of almond eyes.
Today Chinese women are practi-
cally released from the barbarism of
bound feet, yet we, who call our
selves civilized, SUBMIT to being hob
ions which make US truly uncomfor-
table and which try our nerves and
tempers
we have ceased to dress because
of artistic ideals. We belong to an
age of display. The gown of today
must not be the gown of tomorrow.
This season we are demure in violets
and grays, the next season we wear
flaming corals and scarlets and the
xyn al cfY a
like zebras.
How gladly we would wear blue or
green or brown for a decade If our
dressmakers did not impose upon US
combinations which we are too weak
to resist.
eff we were only like the birds Of
the air." little woman cried recently
as she viewed the opening display OF
q certain French shop, where the new
fashions were shown in all their
hideousness. Then we could wear
always the same plumage-and
should choose to be a little brown
| wren"
Yet at that moment she was gown
ed in a spotted foulard with a bright
green tucker and a hat with green
willow plumel Not in any shop could
she find the dress of her desires!
| What we need is leader, some sar-
torial joan of Arc, to. rise and free
us from the tyranny of shifting
| STYLES. There are thousands of wo-
men who would sigh blissfully If they
knew that they could wear the same
gown without alterations for two
| years. They long for the best black
| silk of our mothers days, for the
| Paisley shawIs which were laid away
in cedar boxes to be taken out each
winter and worn again and again.
Now and then when 1 go to the
| theater and see some simply dressed
! heroine wearing gray, with white
cuffs and collar, / am impressed with
the beauty which needs no adorn-
| ment. Yet the impression wears on
| as soon as l am once more In the
shops, where are displayed the bizarre
blouses, the spider web wells. the
strange hats which modern woman
kind buys and wears.
| The leader who shall emancipate US
must be a woman of beauty and of
| forceful personality. Perhaps you will
| say that she could not work reform.
/ Perhaps not If she urged upon US the
/ awkward modes which in the past
| have represented reform" But the
| fact that women have adopted the
i tailored shirt waist and the short
1 skirt and that nothing has made
/ them give it up shows that they know
| good thing when they see 1t.
Il 1t is no wonder that women are
nervous. They are so harnessed and
strapped and buckled that they live
1 IL a state of irritation which would
drive the average man crazy. I be-
Il lieve seriously that the dress ques-
Il ton is more Important to US at pres
emit than that of suffrage. Women
would have more time, stronger
bodies, clearer brains, If they were
not haunted constantly by the specter
of changing fashions.
Let us be beautiful, II we can, and
smart, but let US strive for the sim
plicity which shall free US from the
shackles which now bind US
a1Eor Ann -hKroEeev