Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-12-17
BY ANNE R1TTENHoUsE.

70 7HEN the gift-giving season
Nh\X approaches there is invari-
WV ably babble of gossip con-
corning fIfs One of the
tirne-llonored gifts that Americans
make to each other is piece of peltry,
large or small.
As far back as one can look into the
annals of American fashions the pos
session of sealskin coat was account
ed supreme happiness. The woman who
had such a garment linked with a pair
of diamond earrings. either strntted in
her vanity or tried to look unconscious
of the envy of her neighbors.
Other times. other wishes Three
decades have passed since the sealskin
coat was a desirable possession. and
the diamond earrings swinging from
long loop that went through
pierced hole in the ear speedily sank
into that blackness of barbarism from
which they had sprung.
The fur coat and the diamond ear
ring are with US again. and again hui
man nature responds to the same old
call. They are not in the shape in
which they prevailed for so many
decades among our best families.
Looking back on the pierced ear with
Its pendant bauble we have a shudder
of horror to think that enlightened and
Christian nations should have really
permitted their women to retain this
bit of savagery without bitter protest.
Our mothers had their ears pierced
children
II we were born before the barbarism
was abolished. Gentlewomen, these.
our mothers and grandmothers, who
thought it improper to mention the
words bed or bath in mixed company
and-who were Mortified at the idea that
a woman could speak Of the privacies
OF her toilet except in the presence of
intimate friends. Surgical operations
were no more discussed in mixed COM
pany than other subjects that were
considered indicate, If not impure.
Those were the days when women did
not talk about the price of things,
poverty when it didn't exist nor tell
how cheaply they could buy this or
that commodity of life.
All the sins. all the vices were as
rampant among men and women then
as now, but much of life was con-
sidered too indicate to be mentioned,
and although the men of the family
may nave drunk their bottles OF port
until they were lifted from under the
table by the servants and put to bed |
to sleep off a drunken stupor the wom- |
en- of the family usually considered it |
the role of gentleman and not a sot |
Women's greed then was the same as |
Womens now. They desired above all !,
things a sealskin coat and barbaric |
baubles hanging from a hole cut out |
of their flesh These demure women |
did not realize that in this latter adorn- |
ment they were only few inches away |
from the women who wore ornaments |
hanging from their noses How could |
they do it? How could they regard |
with any serenity pictures of African |
savages and not realize that between |
the latter and themselves there was /
bond that should have been immedi- |
ately severed?
These stern Victorians shuddered at
the thought OF the body being exposed, !
and it is probable that this was the
only thing in the savage that shocked
them. but they did not realize that that
precious pair of diamond earrings for
which they shaved and toiled and
begged and sometimes married was
just bark back to the primitive pas
sion for adornfnent
Can't You remember, if it was in your |
day, the millions of little girls that
went to school with tiny straws stuck |
through their tender ears gloryins in
the TACT that this preliminary process |
was the beginning of the channel that |
would lead to diamond earrings? There
was often pain surrounding these bits |
of straw that stuck through the ears.
but 1t was stood with hereism because
1t was done in the name of vanity. |