Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1911-01-03
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Wonen'e Souls Are E|ated by
Gorgeous Clothes.
London Times Thinks It Has Found
Out Why Dress Is MaGe Such
Serious Matter-Tai;ca Mo In
terest in Any Sport.

LOndon.-It has remained for the
London Times to solve one of the
great social mysteries. Amazcinent is
mild term to apply to the feelings OF
Englishmen when they found in the
editorial columns Of the Thunderer a
leading article entitled The Problem
of the Big Hat
A joke in the columns of England's
most dignified journal would scarcely
have made a greater sensation. Friv
olity, lightness. the human touch. are
things taboo In Printinghouse square
And yet suddenly, without warming
comes this startling sign of juvenation
not regeneration, for the Times new.
er was young.
There is only one thing to account
for It, That awful burden, the prepa-
ration of a new edition of the British
Encyclopaedia, has recently been trans.
ferred from the Times to the Cam
bridge University Press. Tho relief
from responsibility has brought too
great reaction. 1t has gone to the
editors head 1t has led him to tackle
recklessiy and llghtheartedly prob
lem which has bafHcd the masculine
half of humanity since beyond the
memory of man. Without further de-
lay, here is his solution
1T is commonly said that women
are more unselfish than men. And SO
they certainly are in the home. They
will sacrifice themselves utterly for
particular men and particular chill
dren. Yet they will not sacrifice an
inch of hat brim or feather for the
common convenience. and they will f,
not tell us the reason of this seem
ing inconsistency.
Men demonstrate, and they smile |
and continue to wear the hats and the
feathers. Therefore it remains for us
to guess at the reason OF this behavior
SO strange to us, and we can only |
guess that it is the result of 4 sense
of the relative Importance Of things
different from our own.
When man goes to a lawn tennis |
tournament he goes to see the play |
and he assumes that women go for |
the same reason. Some do of course,
but they are not representative of
their sex. They are women who have
adopted the mans point of view, who
are overpowered by the influence of
their fathers or husbands or brothers,
The woman whose natural instincts
have free play does not consider that
any game is important.
'She is not, as man is, game play |
ing animal. Bvt since man always will |
be playing games she has arrived at a |
kind Of compromise with him. She |
will go to watch his games and profess
an interest in them on condition that
she may attend to her own business
all the while and her business is to
wear a large hat or whatever else it |
pleases her to wear
1T may seem a frivolous business |
to the earnest lawn tennis PLAYER, but |
then his lawn tennis seems frivolous |
to her. 1t is Just a popularity of his |
sex to make fuss about it.; she ac-
cepts his peculiarities without frctting
hers.
And after all dress to women is
something more than game 1t is
one of their means of expressing them
selves. Fine clothes make them feel
happy and as if they We're in a glori.
fed state of existence, freed from the
wear and tear of its life: in fact as il
they were true birds of Paradise, with
all the spiendor of Paradise in their
plumage."
There you have it. There is more of
1t, wherein the editor admits that only
Tolstoi and himself have a sutIi centIv
true insight into woman's nature to be
able to solve the riddle.
But the women have yet to be heard
from In their opinion of the 'rimcs'
resolution. We may be sure they win.
speak up promptly. 1t is safe to saw
the times mail bag is already swell.
Ing with feminine remarks on it's
Judgment of feminine character-pos-
sibly not all of them in contradiction
If it's view. 5