The Washington herald., 1911-11-17
By JULIA CHANDLER MANI.

just a little while ago woman in
fashionable Chicago society was found
dead in her home. A tragic letter was
discovered which told the price she had
paid for the stylish clothes required of
her if she kept up with her social set. u
II can't go on with it" the letter
read. Fitting from one extreme of
fashion to another has wrecked my
health and emptied my purse, and more
than that plunged me so deeply in debt
to my tailor, my milliner, and my shoe
maker that see but one way out, and
that one l have taken"
The one way out was suicide.
And when the husband of this woman
examined her standing accounts in
fashionable shops he was staggered by
the thousands of dollars which they
aggregated.
One rarely picks up the newspaper of
a big city that one does not see in bold
headlines the tragic tale of some wom-
ans sacrifice to fashion.
First it is the life of woman who
cannot face her husbands and her own
ruin when her creditors close down
upon her, or again it is a woman Of
fering her soul to the juggernaut of
style.
The Price Is Tragedy.
Men and women pay in tragedy year
after year for the fckleness of fashion
and yet take no steps to save them
selves.
In the days of Our grandmothers two
or three frocks lasted for years. There
was the black alpaca or cashmere. with
its flmy white collars and cuffs for
everyday wear, and a good, strong
black silk for Sunday, and these were
worn without alteration until they were
threadbare.
1t takes a deal of moral courage for
the woman of to-day to be seen in
public gowned in last years frock.
So radical are the changes in style
from year to year that the woman in
last years gown feels awkwardan out of
place, and is the mark for all eyes be-
side the fashionably dressed woman
whose clothes have just come from the
tailor
We jump from full skirts to hobbies
from hobbies back to pleats: from
toques to merry widows, and back again
10 pinless hats; from empire waists to
the unsightly model that has the waist
line down to the knees, and back once
more to baby waists with such rapidity
that a woman has scarcely time to have
her clothes made according to a certain
style before that fashion is a thing OF
the past and she is asked to turn her
attention to another change which is
as far different from the mode she has
followed as chalk is from cheese.
Before a gown has been worn more
than few dozen times it is out of style.
and the owner must either have moral
courage to face the music of public
criticism or relegate her dress that is
as good as new to the attic, or sell it |
for song and dance -
Economy Not Considered.
In the cases of some changes-as, for
instance, from the wide to the narrow
skirt-frocks may be successfully made |
over, but the dictators of fashion take
the question of economy into considera- |
ton not whit, and the change is rarely |
one that admits the use of last years |
gown in any way whatsoever.
Nor is this deplorable condition con-
fined to frocks alone. for a radical
change in outside apparel demands that |
lingerie be cut on the same lines to |
insure a perfect ft And as for hats. |
well, women are forced through the
swift changes in the style of millinery
to spend enough money to put bread |
and butter into thousands of hungry |
mouths, for more perfectly good hats |
!re thrown away yearly than any other |
TtIcle of the feminine wardrobe.