A WORD TO WOMEN

Evening Star, Issue 15319, 20 October 1913, Page 2

A WORD TO WOMEN

'""'' PRAY LISTEN, LADIES. ' .■' Yon.there, with, tlje hobblo skirt! You there, wich tho hig.h heels! You there, with that plume jutting oirbhigh above your hat! We havo .not bceh introduced, but, pardon me, I should very much like a word with you. • * ' * * ' «■ ■■» * * Tell me, why do you toddle along like a Jap geisha on board sabots? Why do .you tako those funny short steps like a competitor hurrying along in a sack race? Who do you expose your neck so uglily? Why do you hide behind a veil like an exhibit from a. Turkish harem? , * * * ■..!■* * * * ■»r . . * rso, it is not impertinence; no, nor mere idlo curiosity. I have a motive in asking. You say it is the fashion, and you wouldn't make such a fright of yourself if you had your own way? Why don't you have your own way? * * ■*.*.* * *' I I .didn't" make a. fuss when our grandmothers wore crinolines and bustles. ■ My dear, good woman, I wasn't around .then. But I'm very much around now, ' and" I want' to put ft to yon that because other nationalities ape the French there is fpo reason why you -should fashion your jigde on the demi-mondaine- of Paris. # * * * * * # Oh, dear, no! That's where you're French ladies are chic; they are jtriicetul; they know how to dres3 for a .■ballroom and the street. You would never see a.-lady—that is to say, an educated women, a* woman of taste—walking along the boulevards in a. garb you often see in Cathedral square! Ah, ; excuse me. No! .f hate to contradict, but you are quite - wrong; but even if you were right and the Parisians dressed even more hideously than they do in Cathedral square, even thon you must admit that it. would be uneesthetic—that is to say, in deplorable taßte.

* * # # #. #. * No! There you go again. No. I do not wisfli to offend. I merely wish, with your indulgence, to present the man's J>ofht of view. \'ou say men, too, follow, 'fashions? "Well, you have me there. But, then" again, they" don't wear bustles, or v.dtls, or,-pluses'. They don't have little cathedral spires' on rubber superstructures shooting up under their insteps. They don't- { Oh. yes, quite true! Men are vain enough—very fond of uniforms—adore themselves in > kilts-r-thinlc they ctre quite

great in busbies—yearn to wear decorations | !•{ —show off hideous legs in running togs— , think they look immense in spffts ! < Yes, yes, dear .lady, I capitulate. I agree • perfectly; but don't you realise we are .; not—we are not discussing men. Wo have ] n very much more attractive subject.' I *• * * " * * * * ". Flattery ! Heavens, no ! I hope you don't think I intend to flatter. An contraire, I want to give you some advice. . i know, but—but it isn't because the medicine is n»sty, that we should hate the doctor. . . . You see, I want to mend the women by what the Christian Scientists call the power of suggestion. Frivolous? No, not I, but very, very serious in reality. Now, why ■ are" women —New Zealand women, I mean—women who are in the mainmoro than ordinarily 'gifted and intelligent—that is to say, practical women—why'are our women content to be the playthings of some man modeller or milliner away on the top side of the planet—l2,ooo miles away ? To please the men! I'm glad you said that—that is just-what-I wanted "yon to say. Well, I desire i to break it to you as gently—as gently as possible—that your "'what , I shall call peccadilloes are having <]nite an opposite effect. No man is pleased with a . poupee—a doll—he ■ may pretend to be, and all that, but—"but deep down in his innermost heart—the - worth-while male hates a creature done up like a poll parrot, like a * *' * ' * * .* a ''i Well, perhaps that "is" going rather far. but- Now, look here. The great .tragedies and comedies and events of life ventre;, iround it he one problem of vital l hiunan interest.;:' Not oner of us, except lie has dust jn his marrowf but really and trnty desires to see the hero and the" hero-' one live happily-ev«r after. No, seriously, : Ihat is -what I ; mean. That is why the man and the woman. have come into the world. The Creator did not fiend us into . the woTld to niake of ourselves very bad imitations of birds, beasts, fishes', and creeping things. What do we admire most in a.brrd? Its naturalness, its natural poiie, flight, instinctive aplomb. A trout swimming in a .river, head up stream, is a picture of superb power, symmetry, and beauty, and you will remember old Walt Whitman's graphic imagery that " a mouse ■is miracle enough to stagger eextillions of infidels." You don't for the life of you perceive what that has got to do with, "the case! Well, see. This is my position. There never was a hero, yet but had an heroic mother, nor a statesman born from ft puppet, nor a decent citizen raised from a bundle of rags with a painted face. * * * * *. * * *

You follow? Wise women always contrive to drees wisely. It is only very shallow or callow men who are attracted , by what calls " a rag and .a' bone and a hank of hair." When a girl goes jerking along the Street: in. a hobbled skirt, on cathedral heels, and waving a plume or u./'barmaid's wing," every sensible male cries down the speaking tube to his inner monitor " 'Ware hawk/' or tolerates her, ipro tempus, for the cheap and tawdrv specimen she is. ';'' * * * * « * * : Positively insulting? Well, as it please.? ! yon. -But. women may as well know what one man thinks about them. Come now.

i I suppose. that you will agree that the i slashed skirt and the invisible crown nf

(which we hear no much and see pictured j jn the vivider magazines and weeklies is a '.shade over the odds? Well, yes. Yes, I ! thought you'd say that. -Well, it is only | a matter of degree. I think the, hobble is •j often, equally indecent and hideous. But it isn't .tha first point that I wish to I stress. As. you so aptly remark, " Evil to :him who evil thinks." That is one of those proverbs which hide a multitude of sins. TSut let us get back to the original starting point. I say this with the gravest 'sense of responsibility, that a girl in a simple tennis frock, with, sun-browned, ''■'■ healthy face peeping from midei- a plain Btraw hat is worth ten squaws done up in ; the modem kit. r , * * * # » # # ■ 2fo, not rude. },'ot at all. Merely emphatic. Of course, if we are throwing '/.hack to the aboriginal lalx-l and all the 1 women are gi owing trivial and dowdv .•'and want to devil up the deficiency, that

—that ;s quite another matter; but evon then they're losers because—well, .simply because they don't succeed. ... in fact thoy render ih.'vnselv'e.s (en times more distasteful! . ; . * * * '" * ■ * . •» Yon don't cuppa*? it's anything move • than talk—th:it I've unytiiing sensible *o suggest. AVell, maybe, or, again, maybe jiot. I flim prepared to allow you to decide. ■What) I rhoojd like to sec the -'New Zealand girls do iaAo j-hut the. Parisian dre.«s- ---• maker out, ' UMildn't do it? There would always" he —-! • ' , * * * . ■* # * . * Yea, yes; but listen ! Why not make a start? One or two original minds can leaven a whole community. Why ehould not the New Zealand women have their own . models, /.heir own designs, their own — distinctively. Positively take your breath away' 1 am sure you will acquit me- of any such desire. 'Do you know that they are doing it in America. I vas tunr'ng over the pages of the 'Ladies' Home Journal,' which has a circulation raining into millions, quite recently, and there saw the most wonderful colored illvstratione of what do you think'i ' American Fashions for American Women.' t A perfect cvo feast, of beauty and sym mfelry. Well, if we have no wains of oui own let'£ copy the American women. Any * thing orr earth <o escape tho poujpeedom o our present environment. t-', *'. * * ' * * t * # ?,'. Maddening nonsense 1 Well, look here ;;' it ono pi those human peg tops came up t< si"i*sr» in the strwi and threatened to be m; l'<J.«rnack it in the face! '