The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1917-07-28
SHORT SKIRTS SHOCK ST. B.
Shall School Boards Become Directors
of Fashion?

The Plaquemines Lower Coast
Gazette thus editorially discusses a
matter that may yet assume state
wide, if not nationwide, Importance
in it's bearing upon the functions of
school boards and kindred public
bodies and the hitherto irrevocable de-
cree of that imperious autocrat, Dame
Fashion:
From the report in the public
press of recent meeting of the
school board of st. Bernard we learn
that the eminent moralists of that
notable suburb of New Orleans are
making quixotic efforts to control
the dress of the fair ladies who are
teaching school in that parish. The
edict, or ukase, that has gone forth
with a unanimous vote is to the effect
that the ladies of ST.. Bernard en-
gagged in teaching the st. Bernard
children must maintain st. Bernard's
well known and characteristic mod
esty by wearing skirts reaching at
sIeastste the ankles .ss ~
sThere is some reasonableness about
this. as we can recall nothing small in
or about the parish Of st. Bernard.
excepting the feet of the fair ladies
thereof. Its citizens are quick to aid
in every public enterprise and the
representatives that they sent to
Washington and to Baton Rouge are
of the highest type and earn sincere
and hearty encomiums for the work
that they are doing, not only for st.
Bernard, but for the state at large.
There is another element of justitica-
ton in st. Bernard's action in this
respect and that is the earnestness
with which it has taken up good roads
question and forced it on to the most
brilliant success anywhere in the state
thus far. We might say that If the
spirit Of E. John Ellis wanders back
at times to his native Louisiana OF
course he would first visit his native
Tangipahoa, but fitting over the
waters of Lake Pontchartrain he
would surely visit the old shell road
that he built with the consent OF the
federal government from the st. Ber-
nard upper line down to the National
Cemetery. That little piece of road,
about a mile long, was the germlnal
point from which St. Bernard took its
cue and today it stands as the leader
in the entire good roads movement IN
this state, with more miles of shell
road in proportion to its total road
ways than any other parish.
"These facts may be the underlying
cause Of the action of the school
hoard although they attribute it to
the desire of the board to maintain
modesty. May it now, however, be
that the roadways in St. Bernard
have now attained such degree OF
perfection that there is no danger OF
the longer skirts of the ladies drag
ging through the mud, and that any
wav if is now safe to have them reach
as far as the ankles? The element OF
cold feet may come in for considera-
| fion at this point, and yet after care
fnl thought and earnest inquiry we
have not learned of single case OF
cold feet in the parish of st. Ber-
| nard. What they want they go a1tei, :,
and generally get. They go after !.
with a degree of earnestness Una,
keeps them warm, or even NOT, until
they attain their desire. ~,
tiIt will require more thought tnan
we can give to this problem at the
,orasant W. time. as to the underlying
causes of this resolution adopted
unanimously by the school board OF
St. Bernard. We have muddy roaus aT1
in the parish of Plaquemlnes. We
have good shoes, but sometimes oui
neople get cold feet, perhaps IRON
some confused perception OF tne
course of things. Just what the re-
s1lt will be we scarcely know. We
have learned to initiate st. Bernard
in the construction of roads and ad
mire st. Bernard very much Tor ne
initiative in the good roads WORK
hut when it comes to the control Q.
the garments that the ladies shall
wear. whether the heels of their shoe
shall be two and one-half inches o
only one-half of an inch high, .
whether their skirts shall reach dow
to the ankle or up to the calf OF tn
leo we are not prepared to say.
would require judicial mind an
considerable time and we may say
considerable observation and invest
cation to arrive at sound conclusion.
and perhaps the final decision of tn
men. who are the only ones alioWe
70 vote. woman suffrage not yet ha'
mo been attained in Louisiana, woul
) he adverse to the decision Of tt
! school board of the parish of st. Be