Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-01-16
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 q vast
organization for relieving the feminine
half of humanity OF the menace of the
clothes mania that society would give
its hearty Endorsement to To-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 a 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 dressmaker and
she viii tell you, unless you show I'M
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 prettily, she herself
deplores 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
viii 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 DOS
sessed by velvets, Obsessed by chiffons.
4 moderate liking for pretty gowns
and hats and wraps is entirely normal.
1t is in its simple. natural form an ex-
preston of a woman's sense of beauty
and fitness. But it is only one of the
interests that make up = woman's life.
A simple. well thought out wardrobe is
within the means OF most women. 1t
was within Lily Wagner's. But she
cared inordinately for handsome gowns.
The sight of one mounted to her brain
and befuddled it as the fumes of wine
befuddle the yirunkard. beginning as
a pretty girl with an average interest
in dainty apparel. the liking grew into
an obsession. It became a monster that
destroyed her.
Watching the swift unfolding of the
ira gedy, the cure IS suggested by the
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. 1t recalled
what one OF New York's cleverest and
most popular cIubmen said to me. ITO
meet some women outside and then IN
their homes is an eve opener" It was
4 comment on the snobbery and hypoc-
-isy of twentieth century living. A
wardrobe should rise no high
or than the level of her home If her
gown is finer than her abode the differ
ance is an i'll omen of that woman's
future Her home, as a rule, is no bet
-er than she can afford, nor should her
,lothes be.
The cure? Yes, To-Day is con-
structive play and offers a remedy.
Lily is shown as idle, as allowing her
nother-in-law-a patient, lovable moth
by the way-to do all the
work of their little household, while
be sits thinking OF heaven knows
what There is the remedy. Lily
night have learned to shop intelligent
y ana to make her own clothes or
most of them. So she might have filed
Ter closets with frocks that were
'retty and suitable, and by such sim
lie means the awful tragedy OF her
ife would nave been averted.
To-Day is a moral play. That play
5 moral one which shows the sinner !
the penalty of his sin Lily /
Wagner died for her love of clothes.
Ter fate clears the vision of every
Foman in the audience as to the true
alue of clothes in & well ordered life