Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1909 — Dress the Root of All Evil In Society. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Dress the Root of All Evil In Society.

By MAY SUTTON.

Champion Lawn Tannia Player.

DRESS is one thing on which every one in the Newport society set is mad. 'And the extravagance of dress and ultra fashion is the only thing with which I find serious fault This outrageous devotion to fashion, the endeavor to have the latest and moat extreme creation of the mode, is the ROOT OF ALL EVIL OF SOCIETY IN AMERICA. Divorce, which I consider the worst evil of America; suicide —ALL CRIMES WHEN FOUND IN SOCIETY ARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO CLOTHES.

WOMEN CANNOT BE HAPPY, CONTENTED OR THOUGHTFUL WHEN THEIR MINDS ARE OCCUPIED WITH CLOTHES ALONE,

AND SURELY THEIR BODIES CANNOT BE NORMAL WHEN THEY ARE INCLOSED IN THESE SAME CLOTHES, FOR THEY ARE AS CRUEL AS THE TORTURES OF THE INQUISITION. WHEN THEY ARE NOT ONLY UNCOMFORTABLE, BUT ACTUALLY IN PAIN, IS IT ANY WONDER THAT THEIR DISPOSITIONS ARE SPOILED, THAT ANGER FOLLOWS, AND THEN DIVORCE, SCANDAL, SUk CIDE, ANYTHING?

That is why athletics for women are beneficial, although some women even when they go in for athletics cannot get away from clothes and the constant thought of them. Most of the smart set in Newport dress too elaborately for ordinary affairs and make up too much. They CAN’T FORGET THEIR CLOTHES at any time. I believe they DREAM OF THEM. If they could get clothes out of their beads for a few hours every day, dress normally and sensibly, take some good exercise, GIVE THEIR BODIES AND THEIR MINDS HALF A CHANCE, they would have a good time in life and there would be an end to most of the scandals, beartbreakings, divorce —all kinds of trouble.