Middletown transcript., 1918-07-27

| When q woman knows there are three
thousand jobs open to her and that
she can command as good salary as
| the man she sent to war, she is not
going to be niggardly about getting
new clothes, enjoying herself and re-
| furnishing her house.
Human nature never changes, no
matter what else changes on this plan
ct, and spending will be wOman's an
tidote to hard work. If she has been
repressed in the matter of buying at
tractive things for the house or for
her body, she will go out and gorge her
self on those things when the first free
dom from debt gives her a buoyant
feeling Of happiness.
The business of feminine apparel
! should always have been attended to
by women, not men. This channel Of
activity is being directed to its right
course. A million or more men on this
continent, who are mixed up in wOm-
| ems apparel, will have to give up their
places to women, who have an instinc-
tive knowledge of what other women
want, and do not want. With train
ing, which will give them a cool head.
a smooth tongue and the ambition to
rise, they will make admirable clerks,
floOrwalkers, heads of departments,
buyers and shopkeepers.
1t is toward the apparel business that
they are rapidly drifting. That is their
desire, and all their preliminary train.
ing of the centuries has fitted them for
this particular sector of industry. Be-
ing in the business. they will spend
more money on clothes. and they will
influence the expenditures Of other
women.
It is useless to tell women that they
must not buy clothes. The refOrmerS
mean well, but they are planting seed
on barren soil. There must be some
pleasure in this world, or we would all
go mad with the pain and anxiety OF
it and if you ask three million women
to work for their living, you must give
them the chance to deck themselves
out in bit of gay plumage and 60 out
and eat and laugh; otherwise, they
will become useless for all service, pa.
triotic or Industrial.
Demand for Evening Clothes.
Let me tell you an odd thing about
this development of wOmen's work,
which has been brought about not only
through their service in paying posi-
lions, but in war relief work.
&c <ho
ming clothes by women who have here
tOfOre never INDUCED in them. We
are only following in the footsteps of
human nature as it has asserted itself
in France and England during the last
eighteen months. Paris has shown an
extraordinary interest in this develop
ment. and the London thinkers and
merchants have found it to be an eE.
crossing by-product of the war.
Evening dress has always been a
thing for the luxurious. 1t has been
INDUCED in by those whose lives were
more or less given to leisure. Millions
of women have not considered it nee
essary to change their somber street
clothes into low or half-lOw, fragile
ones for the evening meal or evening
gayeties. The street suit, with a few
changes, has served during the waking
hours. The shirtwaist and sport skirt
have filled in the rest Of the service
needed.
But this condition no longer exists
in Europe, and it has changed in Amer
lea in the twinkling of an eye. Why?
Women have more money; they have
more opportunities; industry, charity,
war relief hospital service and COM
mittee work have brought women from
the depths of social obscurity into
hourly contact with those who lead
fashions and live leisurely lives.
All of this has lifted the art Of
dress instead of degrading it. 1t en-
livens life; it brightens the prospect
of our sacrifices; it is light to our
endurance.
Copyright, 1918, by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate.)