The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-08-21

snort skirts, OF course, was tn.
argument 1t arose as argument.
have a knack of doing, at the din.
ner table. A most hospitable table
too, in a perfectly old house bull
three years ago. The host, a mar
of vision, OF Scotch ancestry, had
seen prohibition on the horizon
when everybody else had regarded
1t merely as a passing cloud. AL
his old masters were therefore In
the ceilar-the works of Gordon, the
Haig brothers in great profusion, as
well as the inspiring examples OF
the widow Cliquot.
Present. the head of a famous firm
of bond brokers who had trans
ferred his business to the golf
course; his wife. a woman of great
courage and the saving grace OF
humor, who had sold all her jewels
except her reputation. a war prof.
teer with the usual selfconscious
expression and an enormous fortune
in tax-exempt investments; his
wife, whose million dollar pearl
necklace had kept her out of So
ciety; writer of best sellers who
represented merchandise; an author
who was read by none and stood
for literature; the host. who has
already been praised enough: a lady
of few points but considerable
roundness, who was addressed as
a hnoo1ren aha 10
been a dressmaker, and l.
And / started it half way through
dinner by asking this lady whether
short skirts had been brought in
to conform to the recent athletic
habits of women or in the wake of
suffrage as an indication that they
didn't give a continental whether
they ever achieved marriage or not.
And that began II. What do you
mean by the recent athletic habits
of women?" demanded the expansive
modiste who had begun in a cubby-
hole and wound up in a family man
sion: whose hungry door had once
been open to all and sundry and
whose lordly portico was now
haughtily guarded by a giant
dressed like an admiral.
Yes, pin him down to that said
Mrs, Bond-broker, who had won a
cup for croquet in her youth.
saw that I was in for 1t, and
plunged. ITS the slim and sexless
happer, initiating the boys she SO
greatly resembles. who rides, swims
and COLTS, plays tennis and craps
I said. "Only a few years ago no
woman would have outraged her
complexion or ventured to develop
the muscles Of her calf by taking
exercise"
You forget DIANA" put in the
Literary man.
And Godiva, who rode bare
backed" added the best-seller, who
was obliged to know these things.
They were both before my time"
I said, land, anyway. Diana went
after her food, while Godiva onfy
went out once, and even then on a
bet. It's only in the last year or
two that a self-respecting man was
ever asked or would ever have con-
sidered the possibility of playing
any outdoor game with woman.
You know that! Why. it was only
Ave, years ago that the first woman
ever walked over a golf course and
then her heels made such frightful
holes on the greens that her hus-
band never dared go to the Country
Club again. It's history"
And what do you mean by as
serting that short skirts indicate
a woman's independence of mar
riage?" asked the hostess, glarine
at me. She had three daughters.
whose eager efforts to enter mat
rimony and leave spare rooms IN
the parental home she was cease
lessly assisting.
They leave nothing to the imag-
nation" .ventured to say. "It.s
a well-established statistical fact
that since the invention of the short
skirt marriage has fallen Off s21-3
per cent. Man wants but little here
below. but he hates it to be
handy"
II agree with you" said the best
seller. u walked the whole length
OF Fifth avenue, yesterday. and
never looked over my shoulder
once. Whereas, IL the skirts had
been down to the ankles, I should
have seen nothing but faces and
probably fallen in love"
But 1T gives us a sense Of free
DOM" cried Mrs. Profiteer.
"As though you had escaped from
4 lunatic asylum" snapped the best
seller. who had become my ally.
"Or had left home in such a
hurry that xpu had forgotten to