The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-31

Every face was marred by care l AhI but that was yesterday" | If there is one thing above all others that a stylish woman will not confess i it is that she is dressing to please tf1e men. The truth is she craves to LOOK her best in the eyes of admirer, lover and husband.
 | No one bemoans the advent or an absurd fashion more than the women who are dismayed by them, but 1orceo into wearing them. When it comes down to the truth of the matter, men are to blame for fashions freak1Sn- 1 ness by not rising up en masse Ill pro testation against them, not openiy, put bv clever ruses. What sweetheart VIII feel quite satisfied with her new hooped gown if her lover remarks with well simulated sigh, Of course l don't know anything about women s styles, but in my eyes you lcok a thou- sand times swecter, more glrllsh, III the dress you have just laid aside dhan in this new one. If you want to make me happy wear the other dress or a new one made on those pretty simple lines" Nine girls out of ten Will brave fashions eccentricity to look
 
 care for.
 1 lThe married man has a better grasp on the situation. He need not be so careful in choosing, his language; his arrows can s-rike home with surpr1s- ing accuracy He can adroitly shame the wife who cares for his opinion into not countenancing outlandish. modes, especially in the case where she has glided past the fair and forty period and has accumulated more than her share of avordupois lit is effective 1T the husband of such wife throws up his hands in apparent horror when she shows him her new beruffled, hoop- skirted gown in triumph, exclalming:
 Now, Lucy, what could have pos sessed a fat woman-yes, 1 say Tat woman-like you to stand for a carl cature of that kind I cannot under stand. You will appear to weigh two hundred in it. Couldn't you have real ized it will make you seem to be years older than you really are? When we are seen walking together, people will suppose at a casual glance that I am taking my mother out for an airing. If you want to please me wear some thing built upon simple lines"
 Of course the wife is thrown into spasm of grief and tears, but the dress has become so obnoxious to her she hies straigl1tway to her fashionable modiste, ordering the hops and the hustle removed.
 If all the women, young and old, who constitute society, refuse to ac- cept this freakish fashion, or that one. the makers of styles would leash their imaginations, giving a little serious thought to the fitness of the modes they launch upon a world of suffering women. Men, and men only, could work a reformation that would be an eye-opener to fashion creators.
 Every one should realize that change of fashions, instead of being O punishment is really a blessings boon to the thousands of women who seek work in silk, wooden and cotton mills; to the thousands who sell them over the counter; to the dressmake1' who enters the home to sew for small wages; to the great modistes who en- ploy hundreds of clever sewers. fit ters and embroiderers. The changing of womens whims in clothes gives employment to women who must toll for their bread. The only thing men should find fault with is the absurdi- ties of women's dress.
 Men should set their feet cautiously down on the fat lady wearing skirts so tight she has to be hoisted by main force into a street car, or wearing behooped affair that means extra cars for the company, if dozen or more hoop-skirted women of ample girth are to be accommodated within cars limits, or separate cars for mere men. Pretty yoU-~ things can look like charming old pictures no matter what they choose to don. Yet men must begin to. frown down absurd fashions on girls. If girls look pretty in them, older women will wear them or die in the attempt