Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-03-30

said the man scornfully.
And why mott" 1 asked. There's no
better criterion \ woman gets her
politics from her husband; her theology
from her preacher, and her opinions
from her acquaintance, but her clothes
and her way of wearing them are her
own.
III men," I said, thought women
as we'll worthy of study as women
think men are. you would long ago have
found out that our clothes constitute
a whole signal code for your guidance.
We are always wigwagging to you with
this kind of a dress, or that sort of a
scarf or a ribbon, but you have never
taken the trouble to learn the key and
find out what ii all means. The loss is
yours.
observe, for example, how much I'M
pleasantness a married man might
save himself if he would choose that
witching hour when madame has donned
her most becoming frock, and, conse-
quently, her most melting and forgiving
moods, when he has to make to her I'M
pleasant communications about the size
of her bills or the necessity of her stay
ing at home this summer Instead of
that, he blurts it out when she has on
a wrapper and every signal is hung out
for rough and squally weather.
What different answer even blum
dering Tom might have gotten If, in
stead of proposing to Belinda in the
morning when she had on her tailor
made frock and felt amply able to take
care of herself and tote her own latch
key, he had only waited until evening
when the very fragility and perishabil-
ity of her chiffons would suggest to her
that il is not good for woman to be
alone i'm life and have to pay for her
own frills.
who was that misunderstanding.
wasn't it?-who could take a single
bone and from it constitute the animal
to which it Belonged" | continued.
women can beat that 1t doesn't take
more than one feeting glance back over
our shoulder to enable us TO tell 10 what
tyne a woman belongs, just by her
clothes.
Take. for instance. the genuine shirt
waist girl. / don't mean the woman
who wears shirt waist like meal
sack, nor that miserable subterfuge who
wears ribbons around her neck in place
of a collar. Il mean the genuine thing.
The woman who can put on the ugliest
and most trying garment ever devised
and give ii a style that makes every
body else look slipshOd and dowdy. Her
skirt always hangs exactly so. Her
collars are always immaculate. Her
tie has just the correct set, her shirt
waist is always pulled down taut and
tight. and a shirt waist that stays down
is final triumph of mind over matter.
and of looks over comfort, that is
nothing short of heroic.
The woman who achieves that is sure
to be methOdical and orderly in all her
ways. She will never run off after fads.
Her views will be correct, and she will
manage her husband and her children
and see that they walk in the orthodox
way of which she approves She puts APP
pearances before comfort, and her house
will be furnished with sofas and chairs
too good to use. She makes a thrifty
wife. a good mother, and a satisfactory
friend who always keeps you at dis
Greet distance. For the young man who
is seeking to rise i'm the world, | should
highly recommend the geuine shirt waist
gin as a wife.
The woman whose clothes always
look as if they had been thrown at her
with a pitchfork is the exact opposite.
One look at her tells the story. She
wears soiled finery, so you know she
isn't dainty. She is lazy and sloven-
~ Her clothes are mussy because she
will take neither the time nor the trou-
BILE to care for them OF put them on
properly. In character, she is generous
and good natured. She is willing to
borrow and lend. especially borrow. She
doesn't resent liberties from other peo-
pie and she takes them with you. She
is hospitable, but you must take things
as you ind them, and you generally find
them helter-skelter. Her servants waste
and steal, and when the cook leaves, she
sits down and weeps over the servant
problem.
She's the kind of a mother who let's
her teething babies eat pickle, and then
bemoans the mysterious dispensations
Of Providence when they die. As a friend
she is loveable, but unreliable. She
never does anything on time, or keeps
an engagement, and you go to her for
sympathy, but never for help. The man
who marries that kind of a woman gets
a delightful companion, who will never
be hard on his faults, and who Will be
tender and affectionate, but he always
has to wear holes in h4s socks and use
patent bachelor buttons.
Another type is the kind of woman
who wears a flower bonnet with a rainy
day skirt She is the woman with no
sense of humor. no iGea of the incOn-
gruous. She buys her clothes because
something in the store strikes her as
pretty, and she never stops to think
whether it is appropriate or not. Shes
the woman whose fancy and heart al
ways runs away with her judgment.
She's good as gold, sentimental, and
easily touched.
IF l were going to get up a guild to-
send fans to the Esquimos, or to intro
duce finger bowls into the Cannibal
Isles I would look around until l found
a woman whose clothes were always in
appropriate to her age and station and
the occasion, and | should unhesitatingly
ask her to accept the presidency and
head the list of lady patronesses, and
I'd get her every time. AS wife, she
can only be recommended with reserve,
as she is invariably addicted to the auc-
ton habit and the bargain counter vice
As mother, she is too much engaged
in philanthropy to spare much time to
her children, and as a friend she is to-
be taken with caution, as she considers
your secrets and affairs her own, and
spreads them broadcast.
But why multiply instances? There s
the woman who always looks like dis
guised man. who is almost sure to be
Col hat vii