MATTERS OF TASTE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 100, 30 April 1927, Page 18

MATTERS OF TASTE

A COMPLICATED QUESTION

I desire to celebrate the Mayor of Almendralejo. He is a man of spirit such as is rarely found, a man who knows what ht likes and is not ashamed to ask for it, a man who does not like a thing any the- better because everybody is.doing it, but rathir the worse; in fact, .v man who actually has a mind of his own, says a writer in tho London "Daily Telegraph." You all known the hero who, having gr-on out that he hated shingling or bobbing, comes home to find that hk wife and daughters are shorn, ■■ and straightway forswears himself. Whether this is fear, folly, or sudden conversion, I will not now discuss. The poh-t is that of such adaptable gentlemen 'here are legion. "You also know," as tho man says in tha play, tho orthodox male whose one demand of his ■woinenkind is that they should be as other women are, who cannot now endure a woman with, long hair, even as twenty years ago he scoffed at women whose hair was short. Speaking with broad inaccuracy, of these two classes the male sex is composed. But the Mayor of Almendralejo (it is a difficult word to spell in tho same way twice) stands by himself. Ho hates the fashions and will not stop hating. He knows exactly what he likes, and he mea;.s to see that he gets it. '

In Almendralejo (it is in Spain, but i o not ask me ior more precise information) the villag maidens wear "short hair and comparatively shorter skirts.''

I should like to sen, perhaps I had butter say that I should not like to see, the skirt which iB "comparatively shorter" than an Eton crop. Tho Mayor felt that he could Ticar it no longer, or, rather, ho could not bear it unless it were longer, and "proposed to the municipal council that a/lino should bo loviod on all offenders."

This seems difficult in practice, however admirable'in' theory. What is an offender? Tho Mayor might draw up a standard, so many inches > ' skirt and of hair to be necessary for immunity, any damsel exhibiting less to be taxed. But this would never bring satisfaction to his Worship's sound taste. -' Tho length of a sk'rt is not' absolute but relative; it' must be measured not by inches but with reference- to the legs inside ; and outside. Nor is there any judging of hair by length. Of some we can hardly have enough, of othor kinds tho less is grown tho better. The Mayor of Almondralojo, a .man of strong convictions, will not readily agree with me in this, but if ho will eomparo the extremities of his village damsels, ho may perhaps admit. that there are different degrees of i liquity. I lil-# to believe that it was a perception of these practical difficulties rather than ■ lack of sympathy with tho Mayor's purpose which induced his council to reject his scheme of: lines. But I am not sure. Theso men who decline to swim with the stream, to be in the fashion, are very seldom popular. But thoy are not easily baffled. Tho Mayor being unable to work by way of penalties decided to see what rewards will do. He haß put -up: two prizes, to be awarded one to "tho most beautiful girl with tho longest skirt, and the other for the best. head of hair most becomingly dressed." • Thus the maidons of Almendrnloio (I hope I shall never havo to write that word again), seeing how beautiful is length of skirf and lcngtli of hair will be inspired to go and do likewise^ and, which '. is even more important, their swains, having cpmparcd the short with, the long; will never again care for the short. ■ I wonder if it will work out like that. I am not so simple as to suppose that the fashion of shearing will bo more enduring than other fashions. But I have never found any reason .to believe that men in.general, if left to their own unaided taste, prefer Jong hair to short, or short to long. They have Aot sufficient independence of mind.