The Washington herald., 1912-06-25
MODERN STYLES IN
WOMAN'S DRESS
Hint that Women Are Degenerating
from Old Standard.
By FRANCES sHAFFER.

! A while ago a woman in Chicago, Miss
Mary Bartelme, was appointed associate
| judge, the first woman jurist in Illinois.
And wonder II you read her recent
| arraignment Of the modern style Of
dress? It is sharp, and one believes it
is sweepingly unfair and untrue. But
! will you read IT?
| The way women Of the present day
| dress is responsible for a large part Of
| crime throughout the country, and in
| Chicago in particular. We need q few
| old-fashioned mothers TO make their
daughters dress properly"
And then. in proof OF her assertions.
she marshaled some Of her listeners
| through the downtown streets, pointing
I out striking examples OF the types she
had in mind and driving home her argu-
ments in rather forceful fashion. so far
/ as appearances went.
A Bit Unfair.
One must repeat that it seems a bit
unfair to point an accusing finger at the
incongruities, or something worse, in
woman's dress when there are so many
ether grievous ills TO combat, and untrue
to lay at the door Of the present-day
styles the responsibility for much Of the
crime in the world. But one may drop
the relation Of dress to crime and still
find much to deplore in some OF the
awful results of styles that will not bear
eXaggerauon without being ridiculous or
offensive, as it happens.
And Miss Bartelme is by no means the
only one who looks at the worst of the
bad styles and comments audibly and
fOrcefully. Sometimes It is women, who
look, call it a pity, and go on their way,
hoping for better days to come. But
again, 1t is men. and they neither under
stand nor appreciate. For they forget
that It is only the few women conspicu-
GUS both because OF their unsightliness
and their rarity, and that the many are
as conservative, as modest II you like,
as in the periods when styles were not
so grotesQue, when exaggerated.
A Happy Medium.
There is always a pleasant station To-
Gated somewhere between a new style
and an old, and while one does not care
to go about in the voIuminous skirts OF
yesterday, it is well to stop this side Of
the sheathing process, which Is neither
pretty nor womanly, II one may use a
word which is much abused and over
worked.
But the trouble is that while discrimi-
mating women abide at the halfway sta
ton, and never get away from It, there
Is remnant Of girls and women salts
ned with nothing but the extreme
They are the offenders who wear the |
very tight skirts that make US stand a |
bit aghast sometimes, fearfully asking |
what may come next. They are not sat
is1ed with the pretty Dutch or V-shaped |
neck, but drop it down almost 70 ball |
room proportions They wear the short |
est kind OF short sleeves, similarly at |
nome only in the ballroom and-but the |
sight is too familiar to need elaboration. |
And one hopes. the time may come |
when those who are away up in the mat
ter OF dress may influence the rest OF the |
feminine world to keep away from styles |
that lead to all sorts Of wretched COM
ments and comparisons. |
For back Of It all there is rather more
than a hint that women are degenerating
from old standards; that mothers are
not as watGhfuI for their daughters or
as mindful for themselves as in other
days and that the new freedom that
mas come womanward some unwhole-
some license has crept IN. TO the detri-
ment Of the whole world.
Should Set Good Pace.
You and I thoroughly believe that that
Is not true; we think il no more than
Meeting style, bad, 20 be sure, but
nothing worse. But because there are
many who are less tolerant who proph-
esy evil days in the wake of all this
neWness,' II Is doubly important for
thinking, discriminating women, moth
ers, and all, to set a good pace.
Because, whatever else may come or
30. the world Of women is still main
tanning its standards, and Il has no de-
sire whatever for license to get away
from single restriction that helps IN
their development.
1t brings to mind the old talk Of ''pedes-
tails" for women
I wonder II the world realizes the
difference between pedestals that cramp
md demoralize an others that are whole
some and quite acceptable,
The world may not-but women do.
And the very women who are most snx-
Gus to see the passing OF the last re-
striction-sometimes falsely dignifed byl
he name Of ''pedestar'-are Just as In
Iistent upon the maintenance of all the
wholesome regulations that have helped
Ieep women enthroned = bit, In some
Tayg