The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1922-10-26
PUT AWAY "DUDs'
People of Today Universally
Wearing Less Clothing.
Assertion Has Been Made That Health
Has improved Since Knee Lengths
SuppIanted Red Fiannels.

How far this nation has departed
from the ways Of its sainted fathers
The pious old New England custom
Of sewing up the children from fall 70
spring In red flannel u~nderclothes
may still be followed In remote ana
G~od-fearing rural districts, bIt In
larger centers of population people
are wearing scandalously little pro
lection against the blasts of winter.
And they're wearing less every
year! That the moderns don't all per-
fish OF pneumonia is only another
proof that our grandmOthers didn't
know as much about hygiene as they
thought they did. And everybody who
was ever stitched up for six months
In red flannel will admit that the boys
and girls of today are happier as well
as cleaner than those Of the past.
With the modern girl exposing her
chest and knees to the blizzards and
the modern boy defying February
with loose. sleeveless and knee-length
lawn combinations. II is curious to
realize that up TO the last generation
1t was considered necessary TO a
wool next to the skin, not only In
winter but also In summer.
Listen to Youman's Dictionary Of
Everyday Wants." published In 1884,
the New York Sun ~enjoins:
"Dress children warmly. wooden
f1annels next their person during the
whole year. BY every consideration
protect the extremitles well. II Is
ignorant barbarlsm that allows a child
TO have hare arms, legs and feet, eve
in summer"
If the writer of that censOrious dec
laration is still alive. having failed 70
expire from wearing wool next TO his
hide. he must he terribly shocked at
the "ignoront barbarism" of 1922, with
It's shameless display Of arms and
legs-or climbs" as he would prob
ably call the latter.
Those were the davs when people
slept with their windows shut he
cause they thought the night air was
"poisonous." Don't blame them too
much. for the doctors gave 'eIn that
dope about the night air. Yes. and
the poor old docs believed II them
selves.
1t was the doctors, too, who spranc
that fuzzy one about wearing wool
next the skin summei and winter.
And then when the victims got fever
ish the doctors would bleed 'em. A
fear Of cold. a fear Of fresh air. a
fear OF all nature was the keynote of
medical practice In those good old
days OF our daddies. The irritated
and exhausted wool wearers used to
die plentifully from pneumonia. then
called Inflammation Of the lungs.
When that happened the doctors
must have sneaked out and breathed
some poisonous night air. or that he
must have left off his flannel night.
cap. or neglected to take his blue pill
and black draft. or that he should
have called the doctor one and
thereby parted earlier with his first
quart Of blood.
A New York doctor OF today was
called to a pneumonia case while an
icy blizzard was blowing. The pa.
tlent was a child. Her Temperature
was very high. The windows were
shut tight.
"Open the windows ton and bottom
as wide as Won can" said the doctor
To the Mortified parents.
And despite protests and domestic
Inconvenience the thing was done. In
response to the anxious forebodings
of the father the doctor said:
why. II you threw that child into
a snowbank she would melt the snow.
but 1t would do her more good than
harm"
The child lived to be a fapper with
hardly more clothes on her In winter
than In summer.
IS