Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1917 — Can Men Reform Woman’s Dress? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Can Men Reform Woman’s Dress?

By LAURA JEAN LIBBEY

, Selfishness was everywhere. Greed had carried love away; Every face was marred by care— Ah! but that was yesterday. if there is one thing above all others that a sty|ish woman will not con- — . fess ls that she

is dressing to please—the..._JU£Q i . The truth is she ctaves to look her best in the eyes of admirer, lover .and husband. No one bemoans the advent of an absurd fashion more than the women who are dismayed by them, but forced Into wearing them. When it comes down to the truth : o f_ the matter, men ate to blame for fashion’s freakish-

ness by not rising up en masse t n protesta ti on against them, not openly. but by clever ruses. What sweetheart will feel quite satisfied with her new hooped gown if her lover remarks with a well-simulated sigh, “Of course I don’t know anything about women’s styles, but in my eyes you look a thousand times sweeter, more girlish, in the dress you have just laid aside than in this new one. If you want to make nip„happy wear the other dress -or a new -one- made on those pretty simple lines.” Nine girls out of ten

• will brave fashion’s eccentricity to look adorable in the eyes of the man they care for. The married man has a better grasp on. the situation. He need not, be‘so careful in choosing bis language; his arrows can strike home with surprising accuracy.' He can adroitly shame the wife who cares for his opinion into not Countenamang outlandish modes, especially In the case--where she has glided pas| the fair and forty period and has accumulated more than her share of avoirdupois. It is effective if the husband of such a wife throws up his hands in apparent horror when she shows him her new beruffled, hoop-skirted gown in exclaiming: < - “Now, Lucy, what could have pos-

sessed a fat woman—yes, I say woman —like’ you to stand for a cartent ure of that kind I cannot undfcrstand. You will appear to weigh 200 In it Couldn’t you have realized It will make y’ou seem to be years qidet than - you-really are? When we are seen walking together; people will suppose at a casual glance that I are taking my mother out for an airing. If yott want to please me wear something built upon simple ilae#.!’ Of course the. wife is thrown into, a spasm of grief and tears, but the dress has become so obnoxious to’her she hies straightway to her fashionable modiste, ordering the hoops and the bustle removed. If all the women, young and old, who" constitute swlefy.refusetb accept this freakish fashion, or that one, the makers of styles would leash their Imaginations, giving a little serious thought to the fitness of the modes they launch upon a world of suffering women. Men, and meh only, could work a reformation that would be an eye-opener to fashion creators. Men should set their feet cautiously down on the fat lady wearing skirts so tight that she has to be hoisted by main force into a street car; and wearing a behooped affair means extra cars for the company, if a dozen or more hoop-skirted women of ample girth are to be accommodated within a car’s limits, or separate -cars for mere men. Pretty young look like charming old pictures no matter what they choose to don. Yet men ipust begin to frown down absurd fashions on girls. If girls look pretty In them older women will wear them or die in the attempt. (Copyright, 19W.1