Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-01-05

ana admiration OF all beholders while
in reality they are objects of cynical
ridicule ana contempt.
1t Is a common thing to see an .Ameri-
can family in which almost the entire In
come is spent upon the daughters backs
The father is worked to death. and often
forced to go into debt in order that the
girls may have the latest thing in gowns
and hats. and wraps. The table is
pinched that the money may be spent on
finery for the girls instead Of food.
Mother works her fingers to the bone
that the girls may have twenty-button
length kid gloves. Every other member
Of the household is shabby, while the
girls look as IL they were millionairesses
when they appear in public.
The parents justify themselves in do
ing this by saying that they are giving
Mamie and Sadie their chance, meaning
thereby their matrimonial chance, for 1t
is a hideous truth that even loving faith
ers and mothers groom their daughters
for the matrimonial market as carefully
and frankly as a horse fancier does his
wares for the horse market.
Now, It is not to be disputed that a
pretty face is all the prettier when
framed in a picture hat; that a lisscme
form looks all the more willowy in a
well-cut and well-hung frook. and that
not even the grace of heaven can do as
much to redeem a bad complexion and
enhance a fair one as a sealskin coat
does 1t is also beyond argument that
men, generally speaking, like to be seen
out with weli-dressed and stunning-look-
ing women.
So far the clothes have the best of the
argument but there the matter ends.
Undoubtedly "dolling girl up to the
limit" to use the slang phrase OF the
hour, will get her beaux, young men
whose attentions are without intentions
and mean nothing. But over-dressing a
girl will do more than anything else in
the world to handicap her matrimonial
prospects.
The modern young man is an intensely
practical individual. who wears his poek-
etbook over his heart, and when he be-
gins to think about marrying girl he
also begins TO figure on how much II
would cost to support her, and when he
beholds her clothed like solomon in all
his glory he gets cold feet.
silk and lace thingumbob she's got on
certainly does make her look like a
reach, but I'm wise. It would set me back
about two months salary. None Of this
imported French stuff for mine. It's all
right to take girl out to parties and
the theater whose clothes make men
rubber, but when / marry III look about
for some girl who can make her own
dresses and won't expect me to tog her
UP as If she belonged to the four hun
ircd."
1t is only too true that a sensible level
headed, ambitious young man, with his
way to make in the world, is not only
not attracted to the overdressed girl, but
he is repelled By her. especially IL he
knows that her people are not in circum-
stances that would justify them in giving
her such extrsvagant raiment. He sizes
up the girl who is dressed beyond her
means as extravagant, selfish and heart
less. and these are not the qualities that
ne Is looking for in a wife.
II she lets her mother wear the same
old dress for three years. while she has
q dozen new ones every season. but II she
forces her poor. old, hump-shouldered
father to work overtime to pay her bills,
what will she do to husband? he asks
himself, and the answer is nothing that
leads him to assume her shopping ticket.
To overdress q girl Is the surest way
to drive away from her the men who
are worth marrying. 1t does the girl an
lrreparabie' injury in that during the most
formative years of her life II impresses
upon her plastic mind the idea that
clothes are the most important thing in
life, and the thing that she must get at
any cost to others. and even at any cost
to herself. The love of dress is every
whit as dangerous 10 a girl as the love Of
liquor is 10 a boy and the desire for fine
clothes has sent Just as many girls to
HE gutter as drink has sent boys there
OF course a pretty girl should have
pretty clothes to a reasonable extent, but
her dress should be in keeping with her
means and station In life To so beyond
This. and to sacrihce,a whole family in
order TO deck her out in finery is TO d.
her no kindness. but a cruel wrong. tor
The overdressed girl is one OF the answers
20 the perpetual query, why man don't
marry.