The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-27

over log, as possible Difficulty of walking in narrow, tight skirts also causes them to assume the knock-kneed, pigeon-toed posture that to me is simply
 unspeakable. Furthermore. the long tln- ics and the broad girdles contributes an- other element to the spiritlessness of the modern attitude. In fact the really cor rest attitude of the midsummer girl of 1914 seems to be a desperate attempt to express through the lines of her costume and her body mental and spiritual en- nui'
 That's what I'm trying to get at" said the woman who had started the conversa- tion. Tt hurts me to see the little nam by-pamby looking creatures shuffling along the streets in low heeled, flat footed shoes, with no more elegance or dignity or grace than bar maid. Why in olden
 times our mothers and grandmothers were described as bearing themselves with dig
 nity and queenly grace. I must say that
 the present styles do not contribute much to this attitude"
 Certainly not" was the reply Take the coiffeur, too. It decidedly empha-
 sizes the woman's forward movement
 The hair from the crown of the head is
 thrust over the brow with the little spit
 curls sticking out like so many little
 creeping vines and tendrils. and with the
 back of the head looking as if 1t had
 been knocked in with baseball bat. This gives the head the appearance of being heavily weighted in front. The designers of coiffeurs must be trying to initiate the
 mythological conception of opportunity.
 She it is whom the ancients represented
 as half bald, all the hair she possessed
 being on the front of her head Like
 Time she must be seized by the fore
 lock, for once passed there was no hair
 to grab and hold her back
 Pm glad you've given me your opin-
 ion.' said the first speaker, "as to the
 why's and wherefores of the present ar
 rangement of sloppiness and round shoul- ders and poor carriage. I agree with you
 that the styles have a great deal to do
 with the conditions as you've aptly
 pointed out, yet at the same time think there are other reasons. I think undoubt- edly the collarless gown is what has ex- posed to such an alarming extent the
 manner in which women carry them
 selves. It reveals their necks dropping and lstless like a lily on too fral a stem, and you know there is nothing so forlorn and hopeless looking as a wilted flower, and that is the way most of the women look these days. Why. when 1 was youngster at school, I remember Tow my teachers and my parents were always after me about holding my shoul- ders up and carrying my head like thoroughbred I even had to wear braces. l remember my mother sent to New York and got some braces that looked like a harness. and she girded me up In them and I wore them for at least four years. I would have been switched good and proper if had allowed myself to slop along like a lot of the women and girls I see on the streets to- day. That's the main cause, I believe. Parents and teachers do not pay enough attention to carriage and grace
 But it's the fashion, demonstrated the other. "Carelessness. sloppiness, ard a general negligee effect is what every woman. young and old, Is trying 10 achieve and the oueenly type the dignifed type. is as ont of date as hoop skirts and
 crinolines. Clothes just hang off now. and
 the hair is untidy; the feet are poorly
 shod and the general effect is ro''nd
 shoudered and slouchy. You are very
 much out of date if you are espousirg the cause of high collars. queen1y carriage. dignified repose and a high spirited air. That is absolutely obsolete
 well. if the girl of today could see her self as see her" said this elegant grand dame of the old school. "she would re- form, even in these blistering midsummer days, when the thermometer is still in state of cheerful activity"