Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-02-05
MISS INNOCENCE.

N>>N
dresses timely article to fathers OF
young girls in which the evident ten
dency of feminity in her teens 10
adapt for herself the fashions OF her
elders, is deplored. What has become
of the young girls?" demanded TINS
writer who pleads for the return OF
Miss Innocence. We have made mis-
take, he declares, in letting our girls
grow up too fast There is neither
meekness nor shadow in the eyes OF
Miss Sixteen. today; she is smart
and amusing but she is no longer
Sweet her bearing announces an IN.
dependence that Is too assertlVe ana
I'VE do not like to think OF her as
wife of our son." The situation which
commands the attention Of fathers Is
outlined as follows:
"A member of our staff was sent TO
find out what young girls are wearing.
She did not go to the shops supported
by the socially exclusive, but to stores
patronized by the middle-class, pros
porous mothers. Here is what she
found most popular for girls in their
teens, bound for mountain and shore:
Small editions or limitations OF what
smart and dashing matrons and
widows are choosing. Split skirts to
be worn over spider web silk stockings
and no petticoats; waist Of lace and
net so thin as scarcely to veil the shad'
ow lace lingerie worn beneath; pumps
cut low in the vamp, with dazzling
buckles and even sparkling heels;
sporting coats in garish colors and
blatant stripes instead Of simple
sweaters: evening frocks so tight or
skirt as to make even the bunny hug
a DANGEROUS dance, and bathing suits
not of modest, line-enveloping flannel
and serge, but Of silk which clings
when wet, the very quintessence or
suggestiveness. All the sartorial weap-
ons Of the oriental siren offered to
Miss Sixteen! Small wonder she is
woman among men before her hour.
"Recollect how you used to laugh
when you found your sisters crying
over the Elsie Books st. Elmo The
Wide. Wide World Dora Thorne' and
East Lynn You wouldn't laugh TO-
day II you would come home unex-
pectedly some afternoon and find your
seventeen-year-old daughter reading,
wide eyed, such books as The Yoke
Three Weeks and The House OF
Bondage Doubtless you would snatch
the book from her hand and set
match to 1t; but the five cent circulat-
ing library at the corner drug store
will supply another copy, or her chum
will lend her one.
During the past theatrical season,
a splendid and artistic production OF
Little Women has been touring the
country. A woman friend of mine who
laid the foundations of her literary
taste in Louisa Alcott's books happen
ed to stop in small Pennsylvania city
druing the run of Little Women She
dropped in to the Saturday matinee
and found the theater crowded with
women-women of her own genera
ton, grandmothers, mothers and
aunts, laughing and crying with Meg,
10, Beth and Amy. The grandchildren.
children and nieces OF these women
were sitting dry eyed and bored. At
rival theater. a. cheap dramatization
Of The Common Law was being play
ed. That house was crowded with
the young girls
There is much food for thought in
the article from which, we quote and
clearly it Is the parent who should do
the thinking. The problem presented
is not one that calls for general public
attention only insofar as a reasonable
measure OF agitation may help to
awaken the parent to his duty. The
immediate harm of the condition de-
scribed comes to the child herself,
not the public.