The Washington herald., 1920-06-07
Judging n Girl by Her Clothes.


1t Is a safe thing to judge q girl
by the way she dresses. Her clothes
are her shop window in which she
displays to every passerby the line
of brains. and heart, and general
characteristic she carries in stock.
Is a girl sloppy and untidy in ap-
pearance? Would her blouse be. bet
ter for a visit to the laundry? Are
her shoes run over at the heels?
Does her suit need pressing. and
her gloves and stockings darning?
She is lazy and trifiing. She will
make the kind of a wife who feeds
her family out OF paper bags, who
wastes money. and against whose
lack of thrift her husband will
struggle in vain. BY the time she
is 40 she will have degenerated into
a fat slattern who lives in a frowsy
wrapper, and eats chocolate creams
all day, and reads silly novels, and
who weeps because her husband and
children like every other place on
earth better than home.
But il a girl always loks spic and
span, and as IL she had just come
out of a bandbox, IL shows that she
has energy, and pep, and the de-
termination to achieve results, and
get there. For 1t takes time and
labor to keep well groomed, and
only the woman who isn't afraid OF
work and trouble looks de luxe
when she hasn't a de luxe pocket
book.
No psychologist has as yet ex-
planned the exact moral effect OF
corsets on the feminine character
but there's a subtle and occult con-
nection between the two. The
woman who doesn't grid her waist
line up, doesn't grid her mind up
either. The woman who Is sloppy
in dress is invariably sloppy in her
thinking.
She is never direct; concrete with
a settled purpose in life. as is the
woman who laces herself into her
straight front as the warriors Of
old buckled on their coats of mail
before they went forth to battle.
Both of them are full of fight, and
out to win. And they do IL.
Therefore, IL you want Topping
clinging vine of a woman pick out
a stylish one. She'll be soft and
mushy physically and mentally.
But If you want a dependable, help
mate wife who will carry her half
of the domestic load, choose one
whose moral backbone is reinforced
by good whalebone.
Does a girl always wear a hat
that looks as IL her worst enemy
had picked IL out, and clothes that
III frrkN ~ 49, e
instead of throwing the mantle Of
charity over them and distracting
attention from them by emphasiz-
ing her good ones?
1t shows that she lacks taste, and
tact, and the ability to make the
best of things. Such a girl always
fumbles the game of life. II her
husband Is rich she will spend twicS'
as much on her establishment and
get half the results another woman
will. If her husband is poor she
will never help him rise in the
world. for she will never know how
to make the right friends for him,
or to give that illusion of pros
perity that so often leads to real
prosperity.
And always such a woman is vain.
opinionated. and pigheaded, one Of
Else she would realize her lack Of
clothes sense and go to a good
dressmaker who would turn her out
properly.
Does a girl go to business groom
ed in fiimsy finery, and jingling
beads, and bedecked in phoney
jewelry?
1t shows she has no Judgment.
and can not be trusted to handle
matters that require good. hard
common sense. No woman ever
climbed the ladder of success in a
beaded Georgette blouse and spool
heeled shoes.
But IL she dresses for business
in simple, plain waists, and tailored
suits and shoes that permit her TO
think of her job instead of how
badly her feet hurt, II indicates that
she has intelligence, balance and
the intention of making good as a
worker instead of using the Office
as a husband hunting preserve.
Does a girl dress beyond her
means?
1t shows that she thinks more of
her looks than she does of her repu-
tation. Because she sets EVERYONE
wondering where she gets her fin
cry. for sometimes she pays for her
furs and imported gowns with
everything that makes womanhood
fine and beautiful. and sometimes
she buys them with the very life
blood of her poor old father and
mother
{ The poor girl who looks like a
daily hint from Paris makes a peey-
ish and discontented wife,. who is
always envying rich women and
who regards a husband as nothing
but a cash register for her to punch.
The man who marries her will spend
the balance of his life lodging the
bill collector, and give thanks to
Heaven for merciful deliverance
when she elopes with some other
simp with. a longer pocketbook than
he has.
But the poor girl who wears SIM