Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-12-06

noon Is SnOp or Office worker. She will,
it is true, go to extreme limits to make her
self fashionable, But she still flaunts the
short skirt and dares the horrible fate Of
beil perhaps regarded as old-fashioned.
The short skirt, We have been told, is COM
Portable, and when not carried to extremes
is far less to be decried than the hobble
skirt, sheath gown, the transparent X-ray
skirt, the germ-catching train, and other
vhims Of recent years.
The knee is getting more attention than
it has had for centuries There is even a
sentiment in favor of return to knee ex-
posture for men. While women are so i'm
petuously pursuing freedom and their
rights, men, it seems, havs been entrapped
by fashion into foregoing their long-held
right of freedom of the knees.
While his lady went weighed down by a
ton of silk train, '--e courtier of a few CEN
turtles back proudly strobe about in doublet
and hose or breec' es and boots. A good calf
and trim ankle were assets of manly
beauty. man might load himself down
with velvet Gaze. He would wear sleeves
that resembled giant sausagos. He would
even appear in trunk hose. which made him
look as If he had Iumpkin about his waist,
and forced him to go through doors side
ways. But his leg remained pretty consis-
tentlJ in evidence. And among all the gos-
sip and trades against extravagant fashions
there is no reco-1, that we can find, to
show that the world ever objected to the
masculine knee.
The Pest of PantaIoons
Yet at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, statesmen and tradesmen alike al
lowed themselves to be encased in trousers.
Even Thomas Jefferson, whose shapely calf
was SO widely admired, surrendered to the
demands Of style. This step taken by Mr..
Jefferson called forth signs of regret. It
was admitted, however, that he could do no
differently, considering that he was of the
progressive school of politics. For politics
were the means by which trousers were rail-
roaded into the ashton in this country
The Republicans, being the progressive ele-
ment, took to wearing full-length pantaloons
as a symbol of their courage to abandon the
conventional. The Federalfsts, on the other
hand, chung to the knee breaches and buckled
shoes as a badge of gentlemanly conserva-
tism.
1t is interesting to Eote that the society
of the Early nineteenth century regarded
trousers as uncouth. An official refused the
Duke o. Wellington admittance to an as
sembly in London because he appeared at
the door in trousers. Mistress Monroe, at
the White House, made it rule that gen.
tlemen were to attend the presidents recep-
ticns in the conventional small clothes But
at last trousers took the place of knee
breeches even at society functions.
That the modern mans clothes are un-
beautiful, unsanitary, and uncomfortable
has been pointed out by Irwin Cobb in an
impassioned plea for the return Of short
bre. shes such as are worn in the army and
for golfing. He feels that the govepipes in
which modern man stalks around hide a
feature of his anatomy about which he can
i'll afford to be over-m odest. He points cut
that a man generally retains the shapeli-
ness of his calf long after he has lost the
slender waist and wavy pompadour Of youth.
But 1t is the comfort of the army breeches
which Cobb bewails most. He predicts that
knee breeches will eventually be one of the
fruits of the war since so many men had
the chance to test their advantages.
1t would be a rash prophet who would
dare predict that the feminine leg is to be
out or in next month. But 1t may be fore
casted with certainty that the leg will not
retire to its old status of continual seclu-,
sion. Now that it has been dragged into the
limelight it will be with us, at intervals
ANYWAY for vears To come