The Washington times., 1936-10-19
Human Side of the NeWs
Bu EdWin C.. Hill

>could not resist it. 1t broke on
the Russian shores with deluge
of cosmetics, fancy gowns, "trip
peries, nail polish and what not,
Stain, the man of steel, was flat.
tened by a powder puff. 1t may
play the devil with a classics So
ciety, but there it is.
In the up-take of FaScism in
Italy, there were certain grim abso-
lutists who urged a standardized
dress for women, and an edict
against display. Mussolini, who,
among current iron men, seems to
know something of human motiva.
tons, had other ideas. Italy had
some great coutouriers. The genius
of a Schiaparelli, for instance, was
innate in the people.
II Duce fostered rather than sup
pressed this penchant for diStinc.
tive dress. At his side during his
rise to power and in later years
was his friend and adviser, Mar.
gherita Sarfatti, brilliant and
comely Jewess who knew how to
dress. She travels a great deal.
She is a reminder to the world
that Italy is on good terms with
womankind, so far as dress is con.
cerned.
Several days ago, before the
story of the new Nazi evening
gowns appeared, was talking with
an old friend who has knocked
around the world a lot and pieced
together many odds and ends of
human behavior. He told me
story which is pertinent here.
ADOPTS DRAPERY
"Many years ago." he said, Il
was down in the Chucunaque
and Darien region on the border
Of Colombia, with two COM
paniOns.. Hacking our way
through the jungles, we fell in
with some little ChOcOi River
Indians. We were the first
white men they had ever seen.
We became good friends, par.
ticularly with their chief and
his wife.
Cup the river were some muir.
derOuS San Bias Indians who
had killed every white man who
tried to enter their country. We
were all knocked out with beri.
beri and chagreS fever, and the
tropical rains were coming in,
when we lost our canoe in the
rapids and at the same time got
word from our Indian friends
that the ferOciOuS San Bias out.
fit was bound down the river.
Through sign language, we got
1t all straight. We thought we
were done for, but the next day
at dawn, here was the little
chief and his wife, with their
pirahua all stocked up with
yams and jerked meat, ready to
take us to safety.
"They took US several hun.
dred miles down the roaring
river to Chepigani, on the west
coast, farther away from home
than they ever had been before.
Here there was an American,
running a primitive mahogany
Sawmill. He had a supply of
calico, beads and trimkets with
which he paid his black work
men - descendants of black
slaves who had escaped from
BalbOa'S expedition in 1882.
'"The chiefs wife never had
had a dress and never had seen
one or picture of one. She was
wildly excited about the calico.
We bought her all the gaudiest
bolts, and all the beads. She
draped a few yards of calico
over her and began Strutting
around the sawmilI with a long
calico train. She looked for a
thorn to pin it with on the
shoulder. I took off my college
fraternity pin and pinned it for
her. She went down tn a pool
by the river side, studied her
reflection and readjusted her
drapery."
Deep, ancient and mysterious
are the human springs of desire
and action-aS all dictatorS must
learn, sooner or later.
Copyright, 1885, by King Features
Syndicate Inc