The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-03-24
A WoMAN,s EDITORIAL.

A WoMAN'S EDITORIAL.
An intelligent Hampton woman has
4 written the Marshalltown Times-Re-
publican in sober discussion of the
I harem skirt and feminine folly of
dress in a manner so bright and SEN
! sible that the editorial wri-
ter on that paper steps
aside in masculine meekness and
modesty to afford her article the
/ place it requires by right of conquest
as womans editorial" Following
I his example, we reproduce her views
in extenso.
Why all this cry and attempted leg.
/ islation against the harem skirt9 asks
1 the Hampton woman.
1 | am not faddist-but a plain ordi-
nary woman-a mother-a home max
er and home keeper for my husband
and children, yet, to me, it seems that
the harem skirt is but the beginning
of much needed evolution in wom-
ems clothes.
A woman is handicapped by her
skirts though they are not the much
and justly despised "hobble' skirt. She
has yards and yards of cloth suspend
ed from her waist (usually) with the
1 fullness OF each skirt hanging around
! her feet, and many times trailing in
/ the street.
| Skirts are inconvenient; they trail
and get wet, dusty, and germ-laden,
4 then they trail on the floors at home
and unburden hemselves where your
children creep and play. They get
wet and muddy and communicate
their general nastiness to the feet
1 and legs of the wearer.
They invariably hang in the way
/ when one climbs stairs, or steps into
carriages or street cars. They impede
walking in wind and are almost an
impossible barrier in wading deep
snow or tall grass. If the men We're
compelled to wear them a week there
would certainly be mighty and a
sudden abandoning at the earliest pos
sible moment. They are not warm.
| They hang away from the body and
/ allow the cold to blow up under
them.
All women do not have a city's
I! paved streets to walk upon. Many,
especially rural teachers, have to take
country roads as they find them,
blocked with snow, muddy or bordered
will tall dew laden grass. To these
as well as to many others, / believe
the divided skirt would be boon.
The garments in themselves have
no sex. We speak of masculine
dress" or feminine dress" because
familiarity with men and women
wearing their respective dresses has
made it seem but natural that they
should always be thus associated.
A glimpse at the dress of men in
bible times discloses the fact that
men once wore as inconvenient a
dress as women do now. Perhaps
their departure from the old toga was
as startling as the harem skirt If
they We're SO vastly superior 10 the
! present day dress of men, why do the
men not return to them:
Old Mother Nature. God or some
force made men and women with legs.
shocking as this latter disclosure may
be, and ! cant quite see why women
should drape Yards and yards of cloth
over their natural appendages, and
hamper their every movement.
IF women were made with. shall /
say base? somewhat like an old
dash churn, ii would be obviously
4 necessary to wear the conventional
skirts.
They are immodesi and Indecent?
No. they are neither; they are only
as YOU think Of them If you are as
modest and moral as YOU ought to be,
4 the harem skirts will appear morally
right to you They protect the body
much more fully than the skirts Of
the present or former days and do
not disclose the figure any more.
They are a new departure and like
all new departures must stand the
ridicule accorded them Columbus
was crazy when he thought the earth
round. Robert Fulton was ieered
when he tried to start his ffrst steam
boat Calico was forced TO recant
when he said that the earth moved
even the lowly Nazarene was forced
to die among thieves, because he
| taught something new
| I do not want to be masculine or imi-
| tate the masculine dress or swagser