The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-03-24
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Washington, d. c.
CLIPPING THE FLAPPER's WINGS.

the overjoyed. oYerdressed dear young
thing. full of sentiment and illusion,
is drawing to a close. "Gladness' and
glad rags are going out of fashion.
| According to Miss Jane d. Rippin,
national director of the Girl Scouts.
within the next ten years women are
going to abandon all creative attempts
at illusion. and live a peaceful, thrifty
| existence, like men. They are going to
wear plain business suits and severe
hats, abjure high heels and cosmetics
land exercise restraining influence on
their eXuberant gladness, especially
while at work Miss Rippin herself
is doing all that she can to bring this
admirable reform about.
! Every day" she says, I'VE arc
| teaching the girl that her body isn't a
! Christmas tree on which to hang a
lot of ornaments. The young scout
! becomes accustomed to the wearing of
her own simple uniform and sees its
value. OF course, she cannot wear it
always but she is taught that the next
| best thing is a plain piece dress
with a belt. Her scout shoes are big
| and broad with low heels, and she
knows the dangers of high heels. AS
/ for cosmetics, every one of our girls
comes to know that girls who wear
artificial things on their faces have
artificial things in their characters"
BY taking them while they are
young this way, and intoxicating in
them wholesome respect for grim
and, even occasionally homely real
ity, it is hoped that the "too-glad"
outlook can eventually be slammed
out Miss Rippin is aided and abetted
IN this useful campaign by various
women's clubs, including the Wall
Street club. the Irene Thrift club. an
organization of chorus girls, and A.
Mitchell Palmer. whose interest is in
squelching not so much gladness as
extravaganza.
While the campaign is inva ding even
our drawing rooms with the idea of
clothing them a little more fully and
less fancifully. it is particularly di-
rected at the modern working woman.
1ouhg women who wear distra acting
clothes to the office, whose gladness
effervesces and spills over into the
SOBER working hours, and who monop-
olize business telephones for protract-
ed, mirthful conversations with their
various acquaintance, and who insist
upon 1oyfully VampinE the boss when
the poor man. is anxious to get thru
the dictation and out to his golf are
not expected to occur in the future
The Wall Street club is taking these
species or gladness under it's wing in
the nope of definitely saddening them
Miss Elizabeth Sibley, president of
the organization, has very decided
views on the subject. which she con-
fldently expects to impress upon thou
sands of young women employed in
the Wall Street district, during the
coming year.
Not everything that It is necessary
to know if one is to succeed in a bust
ness office is taught in preparatory
schools or business courses" declares
Miss Sibley. There are questions of
dress and department which most
important. Older women " have
gone thru the stage of Off work
which these girls are just entering. can
give them a word or Two of advice.
which we feel should be of some
value"
AS it is, conditions are so shocking,
according to Miss Sibley, that one wo-
man, the head of large banking
house. recently became SO embarrassed
at the diaphanous attire of the other
feminine workers that she raised all
the windows in the office and then
tactfully suggested that the girls put
on their coats SO that they would not
take cold.
At the recent convention of the Ma
tional Federation of Business and
Professional Women here, where the
subject of dress reform received a
great deal of discussion, Mrs. Chris
tine r. kefauver, supervising inspector
of the bureau of industrial hygiene of
the New York department of health
created a, mild stir by her assertion
that many a wife becomes unduly
suspicious of her husband If he has
in his employ a girl who dolls up like
a fashion model" In her opinion it
was up to the modern business girl to
suppress her glad appearance in order
that the boss's wife might rest in peace
and comfort. Mrs. Kefauver is not
especially interested in the welfare of
boss's wives. except in SO far as they
interfere with the success OF business
women.
THE business woman may not real
iZe it, but it is not fair to herself to
dress for the office in unsuitable
Clothes she says. THE time has
come when entering business with a
woman does not mean merely the fill
ing of gap between school and mar
riage. It means as much today to
girl as it does to her brother. She
must therefore avail herself of every
opportunity to make it a success.
What would We think of a-man who
wore dress suit to the office in the
morning? And yet women go into
offices in gowns suitable FOR tea or
dinner.p
Mrs. Kefauver knows OF one case
where a young office worker, doubt
less victim of glad propaganda about
the goodness of the human race Gf
you look on the bright side of things).
lost her position thru dressing a trifle
too exuberantly for the role of a clerk.
Happily unconscious of the unfavor-
able impression she was making upon
a cynical public, she went about the
efficient performance of her duties
until one day the wife of one of her
employers clients happened into the
office and saw her. That lady imme-.
diately demanded that her husband
take his legal business to some other
office where the young women en-
ployes were less gorgeously attired.
which so upset the young clerks boss
that he fired her.
If the present reform campaign
were confined to the dress and man
ners of office workers, one would not
attach so much Importance to it, but
even chorus girls have become in
fected by the desire to be sober