The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-12-19
ADVICE TO THE
 LOVELORN
By BEATRICE TARTAN,

new-fashioned girl. We hear them discussed all the time nowadays. Girls write to me protesting their allegi- their fnsistence on being enrolled in one or the other classification.
 And more and more I wonder if there's all this need of building fences and drawing lines of demarkation. Isn't the heart of Q true woman to be found beating under chiffon hams too, regardless of certain ex- ternalitieS2
 I like to see a woman holding fast to definite standards of fineness and dignity in this whirling and some what unbalanced world of ours. But I hate to see a trimly tailored, rouge less, 1ong-skirted woman looking at a sister whose character may not sheer silk stockings and skirts reveal ing practically their full expanse from the knees down.
 After all if there were a fire in a building where both worked and it was found that the top floor hadn't been warned, have we any proof that 1 it wouldn't be she of the scant skirt warn the other girls?
 The trouble with most of us is that we place too much faith in ex- ternals. We see something which is symbolic of something else and inn nnediately we conclude that we know all about 1t.
 I'm not arguing for all the exter- : nals, cheapness and tawdrinesS of cos tune, which seem to have such a hold on the feminine imagination today. I'd like to do away with it. Girls should go to business In neat. prac- ticaI business cIothes-their uniform, their badge of honor as women who work.
 am arguing, however, for a clear CT understanding between girls. I want to women stand together. I'm sure that if we didn't draw our ! long skirts away from the short skirt flounce their brief skirts at us. it would be to everybody's advantage.
 You don't see men turning their back on a chap who happens to be checks They get by the clothes and go after the man who's wearing them. And frequently he turns out to be fine chap, in spite Of the fact that his taste hasn't been educated. If he is, he's likely to be keen enough to observe how gentlemen dress, and before long his garish cheeks become quiet blue sergeS and his loud talk moderateS, too.
 The overdressed little girl we see parading the streets may not be vi herself after a sporty type of society woman or some of the get-rtch-qu1ck upstarts of the new industries: And she doesn't know what ca.ricature she is.
 She may guess what appeal she makes to men of the cheaply emo tional type, but she doesn't know how dangerous that appeal or how little good it will bring her. And how is she to know if she's on one side of a barrier over which no honest, simple. healthy, common sense girls ever glance?
 Preaching wouldn't do any good. Lectures would antagonize. But sim pie friendliness, good Fellowship, a warm taking it for granted that women are really sisters under their skins" cordiality confidence and all the honest kindliness that meE show each other and that women fail so often to practise-these would lift our feminine standard.
 Is the real girP' afraid to be de- cent to the sham one? Are her stan dards so weakly embedded that she's afraid they wouldn't last? Fife! Are not truth and honesty strong enough to stand the ons1aughts of cardboard swords? Let's stand together girls For together we may meet and solve the difficult problems of our tur- bulent world.