El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-02-21

~ REPRESENTATIVE HAHE has in
* troduced bill into the Missouri
legislature prohibiting women
from wearing dresses that button up
the back unless the buttons be as large
as a dollar The bill provides for
fine Of 81 TO So. with a jail sentence
Tor persistent offenders
Representative BOettger is the father
of a law which has passed the Iowa
legislature that makes it lawful for a
husband to refuse to pay any bill OF his
wife that he does not consider reason
able and necessary, so that II an Iowa
woman is tempted by hundred dollar
hat or pearl necklace its up to the
merchants who sell her these geWgaws
TO get their money if they can.
These bills show US that the mighty
masculine intellect is again graphing
with the great problems of govern
ment that are too profound Tor women
70 understand or to participate in 50
that the franchise has been withheld
from the feeble minded sex.
Could anything be more unjust? Is
anything more calculated to make the
worm turn2 Should such an action not
be clarion call to arms to all women
20 protect their inalienable rights to
have such 1asteningS on their clothes
as they please, ana to button, or hook,
or pin themselves together as in their
Judgment they see ftp
Those who object to giving women
the right to vote say that they fear that
women would be prejudiced and par
ISan- and not able to take large and
comprehensive views OF great ques-
tons as men do. Perhaps so. But we
nave yet TO hear OF any woman legis-
lator who has ever considered such a
JElnS as meddling with the clothes OF
man, or trying to get any law passed
that would curtail his liberty in dress,
or prescribe the number or size Of the
buttons on his WaistcOat
personally / am in entire sympathy
with representative Hayes bill to abOl-
lSh the dress that is buttoned up in the
back, and If he had added an amend
ment to ii making it a death penalty for
any uresSmaller TO so construct a gar
Hent, 1 should pack my trunk and hike
Tor Missouri by the next train There's
nOuhlng to be said in favor of the dress
Ihat hooks up the back with a million
little invisible hooks, that fasten in
thread loops that are concealed in i'm
penetra5Ie places except that it enables
a wife to get good and even with her
husband for everything that he has
done amiss.
1t is the great matrimonial revenge.
but, ike all revenge, il leaves bitter
ness and strife in its wake Still the
moral effect of clothes that fasten up
IN the rear mas got nothing to do with
the fact that a woman has a right 10
wear EN- that way if she wants to. and
mere man has no business interfering
with her privileges in the matter
As for representative BOettger's bill.
nothing good can be said 1t is rank
uespoLsm- and the mere idea of any
man presumlnS to decide what pur-
chaSes are reaNouable and necessary
for woman is not to be borne for an
instant What does a man know about
the kind and quality of clothes that A
woman nceds2 Nothing. Absolutely
nothing Why, only the other dav in
NeW Jersey a judge decided that a
dollar was enough of any woman TO nav
Tor corset Think of that We stout
women who achieve straight front fig
treS Dy means or cunningly devised
stays that cost-well. it's no mans
cuisines what they cost. The result
Justifies the expense
Ot course, as a matter of fact, when
men pass laws regulating women's
clothes, women simply stand aside and
smile II amuses the men and doesn't
aItect the women, who 90 on wearing
hat they please, for, although men.
when alone with members of their own
sex, may advocate such measures. no
man mas the nerve to try to enforce it
on his own wife.
mere are some places where angels
care not tread, and even the fool doesn't
rush in, and one of these is a woman's
wardrobe