Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-03
Little Talks by
Beatrice FdHfdT

y week or ten days ago a girl wrote
TO this column saying she was too shy
to make friends with men, that she
shut up like a clam when any were
about, and that she was very unhappy
over her fate-the letter was signed
Lonesome Twenty-three."
Up to date 1 have received for this
girl eleven proposals of marriage four
teen letters from men saying they
would like to make her acquaintance
and seventeen from women stating they
would be glad to befriend her and try
to see that she has a better time. Forty
two in all, letters for a girl whose chief
claim to distinction is that she shuts
up like clam when n man is about"
Are these letters so many straws
showing that the wind has begun to
blow from a different direction. and
men-after a surfeit of the other kind
are looking about for girls of a queer
type?
1 am sorry it will be impossible for
me to forward any of this mail to
Lonesome Twenty-three." as personal
introductions are taboo in this column.
But no doubt when she realizes for the
first time how men really regard n
sweet. modest girl, she will be less i'll
at ease with them and reader with the
give and take of small talk.
l hope so at any rate, because this
modest violet type of girl is more
than refreshing after the Haunting
sunflower type that has wearied our
eyes at every turn for the last few
years, and which is about as restful
for war-jangled nerves as a screaming
circus poster
l am going to quote part of one of the
letters that came to me from a young
officer in regard 10 the shy little girl
VINO shuts up like a Glars when a
man is about. What has become of
the old time girl that a fellow used to
able to visit in her own home: instead
OF meeting on the street corner as
they do nowadays. and when the man
arrives, insisting on taking him to a
cabaret, where she can shimmie.'
drink and smoke to her hearts con-
tent. then home. James. in a taxi?
The young lieutenant goes on to saw
that what he is looking for is a real
pal who will have some interest in the
sane, wholesome things of life. and who
does not spend her entire time skating
on thin ice without stopping to think
OF the consequences until it is too
late.
New Fashions in Girls
Spring fashions in girls seem TO be
changing, for styles in girls change as
much as they do in skirts, boots or
breakfast foods. And perhaps the
challenging young person who has
occupied the public eye so long is get
Der. Her vivid complexion. her extreme
and scanty attire, her impossible shoes
her braNado went with" the clamor
and confusion of war. But now that
we are getting back to the paths of
peace our taste will favor a more rest
ful type than the Bellona of the hobble-
skirt and the impressionable com
pleXion.
Intimations of the change are al
ready apparent in the advance fashions
skirts are longer than they have been
in several years. the too revealing
blouses are drifting to the limbo of the
bargain-counter, where their scant
flimsiness may he bought for about
half their former price Better and
more expensive models conform more
and more to an ideal of decency.
Hats are less bizarre than they have
been for the last season or two, finally
faces are less reminiscent of a basket
of dyed Easter eggs.
Yes. their makeup is heap more
neutral than when we left 'em" a
Western Doughboy was heard to re-
mark before he was an hour on Ameri-
can soil They handle their camou-
flage whole lot better-less trowel
work"
Eject of War on Fashions
1t would be interesting if one had the
necessary time to trace a cause and
effect relationship between war and
the bizarre in dress Look over old
prints of the Napoleonic period, and
the women wore, if possible, even less
than they have during the last three
or four years. The skirts of the En-
pire fashions were shorter than any
worn of late, and there was, without
exception, the same uncorseted effect
of silhouette.
Chroniclers of court gossip. rich in
backstairs detail. speak of the amount
of cosmetiee used by Josephine, Marie
Louise, the Bonaparte sisters and their
ladies. The lengthy and comprehensive
detail with which these embellishments
are traced, suggest a modern tax re-
turn in their subheads and compli-
cations.
One particularly nauseating mess
that seems to have been held greatly
in esteem consisted of crushed strained
strawberry juice mingled with various
oils and greases into an emulsion. 1t
was smeared on at night and was
supposed to be a sovereign remedy for
freckles.
As long as Napoleon persisted in
making jig saw puzzle of the map
of Europe, fashions kept up their
hectic tempo. Color styels with the
makeup were turned in key with the
blare of trumpets and the rattle and
crash of artillery. The ladies-bless
'em"-kept up a sympathetic accomp-
animent at home in the matter of styles
and finery, with the desperate drama
proceeding at the front. Yet who so
demure in appearance as these same
ladies when ii was all over.
Not many years later. when Queen
Victoria came to the throne, vision
of girlish sweetness, in ringlets. white
muslin. blue sash and heelless slippers.
we perpetrated that type through the
fashion prints of several generations.
No heroine of the best sellers from
the forties. fifties and sixties ever ac-
complished much in the way of romance
without her book-musln frock and blue
sash-emblems of girlish innocence
Are we to have return of these
charming stage properties? The
eleven proposals and fourteen letters
from men-wearied by the blare of
the modern type-suggests that such
a revival is likely.