Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-10-18
TheatriCa1S
To-Day" a Leaf From Life, Frankly Reveals Conditions of
 Clothes Mania In New York

|sary. They give the medical students who attend them light on how to treat such cases. Students of the theme of the betterment of the race have seen several plays under the direction of a medical society. If there were vast organization for relieving the feminine half of humanity of the menace of the clothes mania that society would give it's hearty Endorsement to 'sTo-DAy." In the case of misguided Lily Wagner, her husband killed her to cure her of the craze that had soiled her life, but see ing .To-Day" and thinking about it will suggest less dramatic cure.
 One of the chief problems of every day life in the cities and in many small communities is how to induce women to dress according to their incomes. Talk to any thoughtful dressnnaker and she will tell you, unless you show uri- mistakable signs of the mania your self, that the grip of clothes upon her patrons is appalling. Although earn ing her living and sometimes fortune in dressing women prettilv, she herself tleplores the waste of i'll considered dressing-the waste in money, in in terest, in sanity, for seeing things out of their proportion is insanity. She will tell you that there are women to whom clothes are the science and art of life. They care for nothing else, think of nothing else. They are pos sessed by velvets. obsessed by chinfons A moderate liking for pretty gowns and hats and wraps is entirely normal. It is in its simple, natural form an ex- pression of woman's sense of beauty
 and fitness. But it is only one of the interests that make up woman's life. A simple, we'll thought out wardrobe is within the means of most, worheh It was within Lily Wagner's. But she cared inordinately for handsome gowns. The sight of dhe mounted to her brain and befuddied 1t as the fumes of wine befuddle the drunkard. Beginning as pretty girl with an average interest in dainty apparel, the liking grew into an obsession. 1t became q monster that destroyed her.
 Watching the swift unfolding of the tragedy, the cure Is suggested by the 1 sight of the heroine in her home. Lily in the silk frock she has bought, but not paid for. jars the simple atmos- phere of the honest home. It recalled what one of New York's cleverest and most popular clubmen said to me, "To meet some women outside and then in their homes is an eye opener" It was comment on the snobbery and hypoc- risy of twentieth century living. A woman's wardrobe should rise no high CT than the level of her home. If her gown is finer than her abode the differ. ence is an ill omen of that woman's future. Her home, as a rule, is no bet ter than she can afford, nor should her clothes be.
 The cure? Yes, ''To-D -Day' is a con. structive play and offers 6 remedy Lily is shown as idle, as allowing her rnother-in-law-a patient, lovable moth. er-in-law, by the way-to do all the work of their little household, While she sits thinking of heaven knows
 what" There Is the remedy. Lily might have learned to shop intelligent. ly and to make her own clothes or most of them. So she might have filled
 her closets with frocks that were
 pretty and suitable, and by such sim.
 pie means the awful tragedy of her life would have been averted.
 To- Day" is moral play. That play is 8 moral one which shows the sinner suffering the penalty of his sin. Lily Wagner died for her love of clothes.
 HerS fate clears the vision of every
 woman in the audience as to the true value of clothes in a well ordered life.