WOMAN AND FASHION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1908, Page 4

WOMAN AND FASHION.

Wo are told (s»ys tho Argonant) that women in prison talk about nothiug but the fashions. Crime and coquetry go 'hand in hand, and oven when ineanity •as extinguished tho l^st spark ot womanliness thero still persists coquetry and the passion for adornment, oven with tho most absurd ornaments, coloured rags, and bits of tinsel. The miser's greed for gold is as nothing to it. Tho lovo of tho female prisoners for decoration has been usefully employed for purposes of discipline. Women prisoners when first admitted aro required to wear a coaree costume of a repulsii'o yellow hue. By good conduct they raise themselves to the second grade with its corresponding costume of plain blue and brown Exemplary behaviour, long continued, brings its reward in the shape of a simple, elegant tailor dress of gray wool. Never was there a more efficacious plan. Even the most turbulent were reduced to impeccable conduct by the dazzling proepeet of a becoming dress, and tho atmosphere of the prieoi). would compare favourably with that of tho average Sundayschool. It is errange- that coquetto has become a term of disfavour. Mpn profets to avoid tho coquette, and women regard such a oharge as an insult. And yot tho only unpopular women aro fhofo wbo aro not coquettes. Intellect and wit are only forms of a universal instinct, and tho maD who denounces coquetry means nothing more than that certain forms of it arc dißtattefwl to him. There is no man who can not to be captured by finttery, no man who is imonsiblo to it, and coquetry is tho art j of applying it in such n way thai it shall do its work undetected for what it is. One woman will do it by a fimile and a glance and another by an ability to discuss the origin of coal or the conquests of Attila. Tho intention is the eamo. "Ma wanta a package of dy*> and she wants a faahionablo colour, ' said a little girl to a druggist. "A fashionable co!j our? echoed tho pharmacist. "What does I she want if for ; eggs or clothes?" "Woll," replied tho girl, "tho doctor says ma has ftomach trouble and ehe ought to diet. And ma says if she has to dye it she might as well dyo it a fashionable colour. —Boston Traveller.