The Washington herald., 1913-11-12
THE "EXTRAyAGANT"
WORKING CLASSES
Poorer Folk Cannot Help Reaching
Out for Things the Modern
Gentry Wear.
BY FRANCES sHAFFER.


good, legitimate reason for the high
prices that are keeping us awake
o'nights say. among other things. that
women are too extravagant in the
gowns and hats they wear; that they
are not content to dress according to
their station" but must follow the
whims and ways Of women of higher
rank and Of money a-plenty.
There's the working girl. they say;
why doesn't she refuse to be led astry
by the lure Of high-priced trappings that
take all her earnings. and make her
ridiculous beside? And why doesn't she
subscribe to the severely simple that
better fits in with her station? Let her
dress In keeping with her income, they
urge, and in harmony with the work
that she follows. and there will not be
SO many complaints OF inadequate
wages. For trouble is sure to follow
when she tries to reach beyond nee
station"
And the wife OF the ordinary work
ingman; It is simply insane. they de-
clare, for her to try her silly best to
get in line with the wife OF rich Mr..
Moneyoags, who has more gold than she
knows how to spend. II she would
stop looking up and would pause to
the vast stretches between. would take
on the cheap feathers and make-believe
laces and go home, content with her job
as a workingman's wife. And she>would
look, and would be. vastly more SEN
sibie.
And quite likely she would, she and
the working girl and all the rest who
offend. Because everybody knows II is
weak and foolish. and q few things
more. to buy all sorts of furbelows that
cannot be afforded at all and are quite
out OF keeping with the poor little
wages earned. and perhaps with en-
vironment as well.
But, looking back to the days Of the
colonists, when extravaganza in dress
was not a question OF personal choice
but was more or less regulated by law,
one Is glad. after all, that all classes
OF women are left free to work out
their own salvation when II comes to a
question of what they shall wear and
how they shall wear 1t.
The very spirit-unregulated,. of course
that leads the working girl and others
with the slenderest of incomes to fol-
low. close as they may be, every whlm
Of fashion that comes along. is only a
reflection of the seh-same spirit that ex-
isted in earlier days. For II was not
so long before the broader spirit OF the
new world led men and women to pro-
test at the freedom allowed the gentry
In matters OF dress and the restrictions
put upon the so-called lower classes"
II our women in the humber stations
today went about their work in short
gowns of bright-hued blaze and petit
coats OF linsey-woolsey as they did in
HkRlv fhap TT1f1hf
be able to lay aside many a pretty
penny for that sad old rainy day. But.
you see. there is something In American
air that counsels folk to rebel. just as
it did a couple Of centuries ago.
For then. you remember. while the
men among the gentry were wearing
silks Of gay colors, velvets richly en-
broidered and gold or silver-buckled
shoes, with the choicest OF lace fiow-
ing from their sleeves, the working
men. and all who were farther down.
must content themselves with colored
baize jackets over checked shirts. can
vas ticking or leather breeches. wooden
hose OF homemade variety. and cow
hide shoes On Sundays they might rise
to the dignity of a white shirt, and
perhaps the leather breeches might be
made shiny with blacking-but there
they must stop, because the ideas and
regulations of the mother country had
not yet been brushed aside.
But in time the men grew discon-
tented with their leather breeches, cow
hide shoes and all. and the women
ceased to be satisfied with their linsey-
woolsey gowns. Probably the men be
gan to dream OF gold buckles on their
shoes and OF laces dropping from their
while the women wanted copies
of the gowns and hats the gentle
women wore. At any rate, the select
men of those times had to stop making
note OF the 'ribbands and great boots
that were worn, because the spirit aof
equality was awake.
And 1t has been awake ever since.
Can 1t absurd, unreasoning. insult
able, unbecoming, IL we like, the un-
regulated reaching out OF poorer folk
for the things the modern gentry"
wear and have and do covers too much
OF the spirit that prevailed in earlier
days for us to fail to understand.
It is one OF the products OF American
soil, one that wisely tended may de-
velop into a sturdy kind OF growth. or
may lead to trouble. But
Il is in the very air. we breathe, and II
Is impossible to destroy the worst or its
any more than the best