South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1921-04-30
Winifred Black
Writes About:
PhiLanthrOby

What times they are having over
( in France and most Of them are
about women.
The project Of the police OF Paris
4 has issued an order whereby no girl
who works in any OF the police Of
I fees as stenographer. clerk, tele-
phone girls or whatnot. may wear
a pair Of silk stockings. q diamond
( studded hairpin. a fur coat, a plum
! ed hat or a pair OF high-heeled
4 shoes.
/ All government officers and Off
Gals are expected to follow the ex-
ample OF the project OF police.
: Sh-can't YOU hear them rustling
the pettiskirts and the silk stock
ings and the fur coats-to say moth
ing of the plumed hats and the
/ high-heeled shoes?
And yet. somehow. one wonders
/ just a little bit about these things,
| and how the girls who work for 400
francs a month could ever think or
! affording 10 wear them. Four hun
dred francs month is about S27, at
the present rate OK exchange.
; OF course, French women are
, wonderful managers-some can Gre
ate a dinner Of FIVE courses out Of a
soup bone and the tough end OF a
steak, with a wisp OF lettuce and
drop or two Of salad oil to help out.
And a French woman can take
horse-blanket and a bit of harness
strap, and make an outing coat that
some rich American will be glad to
buy for 500 or $500.
Who Caused the Order?
But-boots and plumes and furs.
After all they do cost money-not
stage money. either. but the real
thing-even in Paris.
And It's a little difficult to i'm
agine that $27 a month and what it
buys. There's the board and lodging
and the little sous worth Of per-
! fumery without which no French
woman exists for a minute. There's
the hairdressing and the manicur-
| ing. And what have you left for
even a pair of brogans, 10 say moth
ing of a pair Of high-heeled slippers
with a gilt buckle and a scarlet
heel?
Brave man, the rrefect OF police.
I wonder who set him to work on
/ the job OF cutting down the expense
ar counts Of the girls in his office.
Has he perhaps at home an old
! fashioned wife. who turns her black
silk season after season-and by
| trimming ii with the jet from her
! grandmother's bonnet one year and
with the lace from her mother-in-
laws cape the next. manages to cut
quite a figure of fashion in her lit
tie circle?
And does il irk her when she
makes an occasional visit to her hus-
/ bands office to behold young per-
sons arrayed like lilies OF the field,
or more properly like Solomon in
all his glory-or even the Queen of
/ Sheba?"
Does she wonder where the dia-
mond combs come from, and does
she ask searching questions as TO the
cost Of certain fur coats, and want
to know who paid for them and per-
haps insist upon seeing the receipted
bill?
These are hard times for pubic
officials, even in France, with the
practical wide-awake wife Of his
bosom among those present in semi
( public affairs.
/ Years ago, there were no girls
I in the Office Of the project OF 20
lice, and if there had been, the wife
of the project would never have
known a thing about it, for il was
her affair to stay at home and ar
~ange the dinner-not TO go snoop-
ing about downtown, seeing plumes
and high-heeled shoes and things.
A Sign of the Times.
But nOw-things have changed,
and 1t would not be astonishing to
find that the project OF police of
Paris has but begun a crusade
against extravagantly dressed work
ing-women which will spread across
the seas
Wouldn't It be queer il Mr.. Dotta-
money should tell her husband she
thinks II very bad form for him TO
employ a strenographer who wears
a SIS coat and a pair of SIS shoes?
We take so many Of our fashions
| from France wonder IL we will
be bold enough to try to borrow this
one too.