Evening star., 1918-12-01
BY ANNE RITTENHOUsE.


house costumes, however, theie is no
well defined line of action.
A European once said that American
women We're divided into two classes:
Those who changed their costumes for
dinner and those who did not. He
might have added that the divisions
also existed between those who had
dinner in the day and those who had
it at night. tits difficult to make
European take this statement serious
ly, for he cannot imagine civilized
spot in the world where folk sit down
to heavy courses of red meat, vegeta-
bles and dessert in the early afternoon.
He does not always remember that
his own royalty have liked heavy din-
ners before the sun went down, and he
would explain that custom reasonably
by saying that such custom did not
interfere with the work of the day, as
every one rested after eating and
usually retired early.
* X
The American world is getting along
though in the cosmopolitan idea of
having it's most substantial meal after
the activities of the day are over in
order that comfortable digestion may
take leisurely course and the mind
be allowed to rest from It's labors.
We are learning that a full stomach
and keen brain do not go together,
and when our millions of soldiers re-
turn from land where dinner is an
established pleasure of the evening
the homes Of the country will prob
ably change the dinner hour without
realizing that 1t is overturning u
simon-pure Americanism.
Whether or not the division between
who do not will be closed up must be
left to chance. 1t is custom that
grows with wealth and social sur
roundings 1t is not so much the
choice OF the individual as the set in
which one moves.
Women are like sheep, in that they
do whatever their friends do, as i,
rule, and follow the established rules
of the herd. 1t Is primal reasoning. or
instinct. this; and few people break
cized customs Of that particular mass
of which they are units.
In some of the most cultured COM
munities 1t is' the habit, for instance,
to make fresh toilet in the latt, aft
ernoon, one which serves for the late
these very people may, and usually
do. get into gayer and more formal
clothes for some evening entertain
ment that begins late. They Keep their
for their own family.
Among that great and increasing
mass who spend their eating hours in
public restaurants. not because they
prefer eating in mass. but because they
live In buildings connected with these
communal eating rooms as the easiest
way out OF the servant problem, the
pressure to dress for dinner is too
strong to be resisted, but a special
Kind of costume has been invented for
tion.. 1t is the whole balance of de-
mand and supply which governs prog
ress
And. owing to war conditions. there
mas come about over here still an
other fashion-the revival of an old
one-which is the use Of an elaborate
tea gown for those hours given over to
the family, and possibly few in
Inmates, in the. evening. This. too.
saves the more formal evening clothes
and 1t spares the street gown.
There lies the crux Of the Situation:
10 spare the better class Of clothes.
y ss
We must do that. Conservation of
material, money and labor demands
the effort. We have moved out of the
H,-e'i 'o SohAiholl " MANY AHleEICdllS,
of believing that there was plenty
where the first came from and care
was sign of parsimony.
We know now that the supply di-
miniShes as the season progresses in
one. or more of the three commodities
that govern the demand for conserva-
tion. All of us believe that our spirit
Is kept up by careful and happy dress
Ing and to avoid buying a new cos
tune when it is needed. and when we
can spare the money is not asked by
our conscience; but we have long ago
relegated the old recklessnesS in pur-
chasing to the limbo of pre-war things.
Even If we buy we conserve, and we
realize that by not doing so we are
not true to the best in the -ation or
ourselves. The rich are the ones who
knew this doctrine of saving the new
gowns by wearing tea gowns that
We're often reconstructed from ball
frocks that belonged to day that was
done. They turned and twisted lace
and tulle and satin into something
oriental or Egyptian. and wore it to
dinner every night when they We're
Is Wen known among certain set of
!he girl from a small town who was
invited to visit people of tremendous
social and monetary power, and who
FOUND that they wore these colorful
loose tea gowns down to dinner every
night. while she had spent her last
dollar and all her family's vitality to
that looked utterly out Of place at the
family dinner table.
They are served by two men, one in
clarat livery, she wrote despairlngly to
her mother. and there are hothouse
flowers Howe freshly placed on the table