Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1919 — KIDDIES TO DON COLORS OF FLAG [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

KIDDIES TO DON COLORS OF FLAG

Victory Clothes Successfully Launched as Change for -♦ Youngsters'*. UNBLEACHED MUSLIN IS USED Material Is Found to Make Substantial Lining for a Jacket, as Weil as Being Suitable for Frocks for Children. New York. —Nothing so,delights the heart of a child as to hold a flag in its hand. Youth and the: symbols of patriotism are linked. Wasn’t it Galsworthy who gave us that association of the two gay elements of life in saying of a girl that she carried her youth in her flags flying? It was clever, therefore, of the designers to launch the youngsters into Victory clothes. The elders may express their relief, from the tension of terror that handcuffed us all for four years by bursting out <?f the chrysallis into the butterfly, but their clothes will not be parts of the flag. It is not fitting, writes a leading fashion authority, that any but- youth should wear the bits of red, white and blue which, combined with a certain skill, make the alluring Victory clothes of this hour. ~ There are'tiny frocks for tiny chil-

dren in which the colors only flash as that are run through two buttonholes in the front or back pfa round collar and drop to the ' hem. There are frocks for older children which are made of red, white and blue stripes held in by soft sashes of colored bunting in the three colors. There is a return to a far-off and fascinating fashion in the blue bunting frocks for children between eight and ten years lold which are touched up with red bunting and ornamented with white turnover collar and cuffs. There are pleated skirts of red flag bunting with straight little cuirass biouses of blue bunting fastened in a straight line down the front with red buttons. The cuffs and collar are taken from the time of the Stuarts. They are made of white linen edged with linen lace and touched with red and blue buttons. Z There are red and blue hair ribbons for girls; there are red and whitestriped awning rompers for the nursery fastened with blue bone buttons; and one of the successful frocks, of the season is made of ordinary unbleached piuslln smocked with red, white and blue, worsted threads, the design giving a blurred impression of It was a clever idea, this, the children of the land in nagwa tumes, making them living, joyous svmbols of the red, white and blue which today is the banner of freedom all over the world.. And it is not only our flag that they represent; it is the flags of the allies. * „ Frocks of Unbleached Muslin. Two months ago Doucet of Paris gav*> the world a new Idea when he used unbleached muslin edged with

tiny, colored fringe' as a lining for jackets.lt had the fripie qualities of endurance, originality and cheapness, this new lining. It-vvas a war-time necessity, so Doucet tnodght, but it speedily became a piece of economy that threatened to be a high fashion. Probably the spring will make if exceedingly popular/ It is a good idea for those \yfto deplore the lack of.service in coat linings, especially in these days when one is not sure of dyes. The use of unbleached muslin for Interior decoration has become well established, especially for country homes where curtains of this fabric are edged with colored fringe and bedspreads and pillow-shams are made of it with borders of colored cloth; In turkey red or dark blue. Came Out of the South. One woman who was enchanted with a Victory frock of this fabric exclaimed: “Why, that’s the material I use to cover my ironing board!” It is. And ft~wfll wear as Well on a youngster as on an ironing board. ' ' ' This style <?f costumery for children came out of the South, out of Virginia, where unbleached muslin is well known and the devastation of war, its restrictions, privations and economies, is still a terrible memory even to those who were born after the Civil war. It is rather a strange thing that some of the great centers have adopted juvenile clothes that have been designed

and made by Virginia gentlewomen ever since the war began. Many a youngster going to' a party in a house which stands on a pedestal of millions, as well as others who trail into Central park with their expensive French nurses, are wearing adorable frocks from some little southern town, made very often by aged fingers that have kept the art of rolling, whipping, streaking and tucking with fine cambric needles and the thinnest of cotton threads. ~ ~ ~ I. Children Lead Fashions. The Reason has impressed upon those who are interested in juvenile clothes the fact that the youngsters are sometimes well in the’ lead with new fashions and that their elders stumble along after them. Once upon a time, when the world ■was young and cruel, it considered it correct for children to be bones and costumed in brocade »d metal, heavy embroideries, long skirts and stiffly-pointed bodices. It was cruel to make youth the resemblance of age. Today we make‘age the resemblance of youth. In that lies our wirility, our enthusiasm and our sanity. The children lead the way in Jjelts around hips, short sleeves, smbcked blouses, bobbed hair, socks, low-heeled shoes, straight lines and uncorseted figures. Their mothers, and sometimes their grandmothers, imitate them. 1 It behooves women to look upon this parade of fashions, with interest, for the little human 'flags running down the path of fashion today are blazing the way for us. fl (Copyright, 1918, by McClure Newapapw Syndicate.)

At the lift is shown a dainty frock of pale-green organdie trimmed with large daisies formed of narrow white braid, with yellow used for the centers; two square pockets in front. At the right is a little boy’s “Victory’ smock of unbleached cotton, embroidered in red and blue.