The Washington herald., 1914-06-19
Dress and Morally.


Dress and Morality.
NJ ALExANDER RLLSlE.
Long years Of study have rounded out his shoulder.
and thinned his hair He wears goid-rfnmed specta
cles and when he speaks to you he blinks in curious
fssbiSu But there is a merry twinkle in his eyes
whS bellies the stern expression of his countenance
His had is massive you realize at that is the
bead Of great soldier or mathematician And i
lis in truth wonderful head containing store Of
knowledge marvelos for its complexiy and complete.
ness.
Judea, Phoenicia. Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Sparta
Carthage Rome the thrilling scenes of their history
familiar him the events of the day to the
average man. Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Alexander
Pericles. Hannibal Plato, ARISTOTLE, Caesar; he has
communed with them, studied them. followed them in
their conquests trumphs and disasters. They his
companions ready to spring into life at his call and
again enact the of their epoch-mak;ng lives
His brain is stored with historical political psyche
logical and natursstic facts His mind is vertable
encyclopedia of logical ethical physical and meta
physical philosophy.
Yet he is musty bookworm, poring over ponder
Gus tones and living wholly in the days of old He is
wideawake patriot, thoroughly conyersant with the
topics and problems of the day. II is his greatest
delight expose the faaces OF our latter-day CIV
ilization, and suggest the remedies
One day conversation turned to the subject of
modern dress and its relation to morality l found
this pet topic with the old professor and listened
attentively to his interesting views.
"Man is the sole living inhabitant of earth that
clothes his body" he said in emphatic tone. Every
other species OF animal life is content with the
ing nature has designed for it, does this seem to
have worked out detrimentaly And in primitive
times knew not this need of bodily coverings civiza-
tion alone brought with it the hitherto unknown
tions of shame and modesty. Yet man is the most
immoral creature of earth In no form of life on
the face of the globe do find the great
that exist among human beings Is there not some
strange connection between these facts; great
truth Humans their bodies, and there springs
into existence forms of perversion unknown even
the lowest savages.
"The Spartans went unclad until mature years, and
Spartan virtue synonym for the conception of the
greatest courage, viriy and self-sacrifce. You
call the story of the traveller in Sparta who asked
citizen what the penalty for adultery was. He was
told the offender must contribute as high as
the Colossus of Rhodes to the public treasury.
But how there be an high? he asked :
"How can there be an adulterer in SpartaT replied
the citizen
"The things we are accustomed to from birth hold
no attraction lure for Thus il is considered
unusual immoral for the hands to be left bare the
face uncovered the visible. Similarly, were We
to behold the entire body uncad, from the moment of
BIRTH we would possess the same mental attitude to-
ward it do toward the face or hands. For there
is nothing shameful immoral about the human
body, would our minds then contain the morbid
curiosity toward it they now hold.
at is only the unknown, the mysterious, that at
tracts u.s. And this mystery has been heightened by
modern dress, particularly that of our women Why,
the dress of woman today is thousand times more
immoral than if she to go entirely nude
What do we find? There is no frank exposure of
bosom, Shgure or limb, but half-concealment and
sensuous effect expressed by tght-ftting dresses of
thin material fimsy open-work waists slit skirts low
necks. gauzy fabrics etc. Yet the women would be
the first to cry in Mortified and indignant protest
if they accused of accentuating the all-too-
prevalent sex evils
For that is the great of wrong; that is our
trouble. There is too much sex in our world; too
much morbidness. At every turn, in every walk of
life, is loudly acclaimed and thrust upon us. We
are never given opportunity forget that there is
such thing SEX and due to this our life has be-
come unnatural
"In normal health are never conscious of the
various parts and organs of the body until we use
them. But in time of ill-health and abnormaty,
the part of the body which is afflicted is constantly
calling the seat of consciousness that is there
and it is unwel. So we are sexually unwe, alb
normal
"As a sweeping and complete cure, l advocate re-
turn to nature and natural life Let cast prudery
to the winds and bring into life regime of sunshine
and health We have suffered long from the tyranny
of dress; let us overthrow the tyrant"
could not help but admit the force of the pro-
fessor's logic. But could not keep out of my i'm
agination picture of the old man walking along in
the garb he's strongly advocated his high hat firmly
perched on his almost bald head his spectacles resting
on the tip of his nose, and he, in absent-minded
reflection, lingering volume of Sanskritl
A Tel g..