The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1914-10-31
CLOTHES ARE OFTEN
A FATAL LURE
DOROTHY DIX SAYS PROBLEM IN
PLAY TODAY" "MAKEs
you THINK"
(By Dorothy Dix


Whatever else may be said about
the modern school of drama, it at
least makes you think.
No one. for instance, man or woman
having seen Broadhurst and Schomer's
great play, To-day" which comes to
this city shortly, can go away without
bordering over the problem 1t pre-
sents. You may not like to ponder
over it. You may not like to even
think OF the phase of life it repre-
sents. But you can't help but thrash
1t all over and over in your mind,
for To-day" is a play that simply
throws the gauntlet in your face. 1t
dares you to forget it, as you have a
hundred milk and water plays that
you have seen and that you never
thought Of a second time after you
left the theater. 1t challenges you not
to consider the theme upon which II
is built, and IL defies you to deny its
truth.
Everybody is going to see To-day"
Everybody is discussing it. There will
always be two opinions about it. One
is that we should ignore the fact that
such places as Mrs. Farrington's apart
ment and that such people as Lily
Wagner and Mrs. Garland exist, on
the principle that if you have a can
Ger and never admit it or take any
treatment for it it will disappear Of
itself, or at any rate, that it's good
manners to ignore unpleasant sub
jects.
The other view is that the wise and
the brave thing is always to face the
truth, and that the only way to cure
a plague spot is to cut it out. 1t may
be painful process, but its prophylac-
tic.
Personally, | agree with the latter
PoihI VI NiSW, anu Gall tHlHh VI no
play on the stage whose lesson for
women is so direct and so terrible and
so much needed as To-day 1t is
a voice in the wilderness
crying out to them against their be-
setting sin.
Fine Clothes Her Ruin
For the story of To-day" is the
story of a woman who comes to her
downfall through love of fine clothes,
who literally sells her soul for few
Yards Of chiffon and a handful of
beads. And the thing happens every
Jay. The American woman is not
experimental. Her great overwhelm-
ing passion is not love of man, but
love of dress, and more girls are led
lstray by the desire for fnery' than
by all the other tempters in the world
1t is this theme that To-day ex-
ploits with a power and a gripping
that are never to be for
gotten. The play tells the story of a
young couple, Frederick and Lily
Wagner, who are typical of modern
life in New York, in that the man is
bending every energy to make money,
and the woman to spend 1t, and they
are living beyond their means The
man is fine fellow, who has made a
great deal of money in daring real
estate speculations. The woman is a
selfish little fool bent on getting into
society, vain of her good looks and Of
her reputation for always being
dressed in the very extreme of the
style. |- rf a n
There comes day when the hus-
bands business collapses, and he Is
eft bankrupt. The fine home, the
motor, the wife's jewels are all sold
20 pay the creditors, and the Wagners
70 into cheap little fiat to live. The
husband has youth and energy and
ability, and he knows that he can
'ecoup their fortune, but the wife is
miserable without the fine
,lothes, the gay restaurant parties and
he society to which she was accus-
omed i'm their prosperity She is
litten, with the clothes mania as a
nan Is with drink and buys fine
gowns and hats secretly and lies to
yer husband about their cost and
lreads the day the bills will come in
or them.
In this crisis there comes to her a
ormer friend, Mrs. Garland, gorgeous
y dressed and with tales of the gay
world. Lily Wagner pours out to her
he story of her misery in her poverty
md her longing for the soft things of
life. Mrs. Garland tells her that there