The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-01-07
DISTRESS CAUSED
BY DAME FASHION
Everywhere That Dress Goods
Are Made Suffering Is
Intense.
INDUSTRY FACES CRISIS
Electricity in Air Blamed for
Explosions on Battle
ships.
INDUSTRY FACES {
pY WILLIAM PHILIP sIMMs.

Paris January 6.-F1fty thousand
mon and women in and about Roubaix
are cold and hungry: mos, Of ,nem
eat but they have not enough; some
arc utterly destitute. Dame fashion,
hobbie skir,ed. bindly copied by wo-
men everywhere. is TO blame. And
And Roubaix Is not the only district.
everywhere that dressgoods are made
the situation Is more or less tile same.
During the past year the loss In
wages of the poor at Houbaix--tho
only locality concerning witch sat
t,stics are availao.c--umounteu 10 no
less than ;i,000,ovo.
The hardest part OF The winter IL
set TO come Eggs. ~ cents a dozen;
meats. 50 10 80 cents a pound. milk,
cents quart: no vegetables avail
able: the cheapest coal, $40 ton!
These arc the Things that the 2o.uvD
idle at ltoubaix ana their cn,ldren arc
facing now. Certainly. poorly ted on
the cheapest foods. aud with not
enough OF what there IS, some Of
these VIII not survive the winter; puny
ba hies. the ncnc-too-sirong. Odd and
the otherwise feeble. Will go down and
out. martyrs, along with the fur bear
Ing animals and the gany- p4umrd
birds TO the vanity Of women.
The cause Of the present trouble Is
simple. Whereas eight yarde Of ma
teridl used TO be required 10 dress
three and four yards arc now ample:
In some cases even lcsa. Scores or
dress factories have been forced 10
close or discharge most OF their am
ployCs. Ths chairman OF III textile
manufacturers association declares
that the Industry has never faced such
crisis. In addition TO the hobble
skirt craze in the United States tariff
ia practically prohihitive. and accord
inS!y there are 40 .aien 10 speek OF In
America.
The desire OF women 10 initiate mon.
says tho chairman. Is in his opinion,
the cause for the ludicrous hobblc
skirt They want to look Ike men,
dressing in about the came amount
OF material ns would so into ono
trouhcr leg and vest. OF course there
is u superexaggeEation OF tho effect,
women SO tying themselves up that
can neither walk nor move with grace.
yet tEere is no economy to tho wear
ers OF the hobbie-a dress costs to-day
the sumo as II did when skirts were
fun, perhaps even moro.
When the hobhle skirt came In nj
the door OF fashion. the petticoat flow
out the window-or hid in the Junk
icmand for the article. Women are
wearing silken. knitted boomers in
stead The women and girls (princi-
paily). who formerly made their Nv
Ing In pctticoat factories, are nIso
Idle.
But, says the Petit Parislen, which
paper sent special correspondent 10
toabaiN TO investigate the calamity.
women have always suffered in AN
10,
themselves. 30 no one could expect
thcm to let little thing like 10000
men and women and children. freezing,
starving and out of Jobs, stop them:
otherwise they simply wouldn't havo
n thInS to wear"
That electricity in the air is the
prihe'pai cause OF explosions aboard
battleships. at powder works, or gas.
oiine tanks on aeroplanes etc "a ma
contention OF General Chlpel COM
n'ander OF the seventeenth division.
infantry, Of the French army.
The blowing up Of LA Liberte," in
the Toulon Harbor on September 25.
the oficer attributed to this cause;
likewise the Maine" disaster. he pass-
Ing over the finding of the special com
mission. which, investigated the latter
cause. without a word.
than ten years ago worked out q
table, based upon meteorological data.
ana arrived at by mathematics, fix
ing the dates of the worlds worst
calanit!es caused by the so-caIled
spontaneous combustion. These dateo
are; January 3. 8. 1s: February Is;
April 3; July %. 25. 81; August 7 to
Is and % to 80; September g. In
september to 8. IL to 20, 81, go. 20:
g
2s: December /. 6. IS
Jack tars may we'll rest on pins and
needles on theee dates. At these
PERIODS OF the year, according to Con-
erai Chapel atmospheric conditiona
are more than apt to be favorable to
the explosion, without seeming cause.
of powder magazines. Aviators should
also take heed; their gasolene tanks
are liable to take fire without APPARENT
reason. Powder mills are prone to
blow up
Cause? Too much atmospheric cleo
tricity.
AS far back as 1896 the general
formulated this rule:
When an explosion occurs without
reason. at ahy given point either
storms are actually prevalent or storms
are approaching said given point"
For Instance. at Toulon. September
20. aboard the battleship "Gloire." a
Shell exploded killing several people;
September %, at TouIon. shell ex-
ploded aboard the "Narseillaise":
September 25. at Touion. la Llberte"
blew up: Spontaneous combustion"
seemingly was. the cause OF all these
accidents Each OF these dates cor
respond with the generals chart. and
the fact that the period from Septem-
Der 20 to 2b was characterized by
particularly low barometre and abb
normal electrical disturbances, shows
that his rule held good.
In Italy the same storm did much
damage buildings were destroyed. etc.
And on September 81, at Montechiaro.
powder mill blow up with loss Of
life The same storm was felt along
the BriiiSH coast and on September
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