THE SCANTY SKIRT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14926, 26 February 1912, Page 8

THE SCANTY SKIRT.

ITS EFFECT ON INDUSTRY,' AN APPEAL TO FASHION QUEENS, -. .-■.:':■ ••-.^>■<.■■ • • ■■■•^<J:>s'i'^|^fj A nttmber of fashionably-dressed women were having afternoon tea ono day recently in a Paris restaurant, when, a man seated || ! ||| at a table, a stranger to everybody preseat, leaned forward and began to address . the assemblage. They listened —they were too ; surprised to do anything eke-Htoi presently they became deeply interested in his remarks. He- apologised for addressing them, but he was doing so in the interests of the starving inhabitants of Roubaix, whence ho had just come. And the cw*«' of all the trouble was the scanty skirt, ■ A writer, in a London paper thus reported the incident :— You know," he said, "that in the prehistoric days, a year ago, when full skirts were in fashion, eight or nine yards went to a woman's skirt. Now, since the fashion has changed and women try to ' lock as much as possible like neatly-folded • umbrellas"several of us laughed, and the tall mannequin from the Maison X paid for her tea and glided majestically out—" skirt needs four yards only, even less. • (tee need, not be a minister of finance or a prolessor of mathematics to calculate front this that only half the stuff is. needed, how|:; !i 3 ; f: that was needed a year ago, and that jus: half the number of people need be eraployed to make it. In '>loubais alone there are 20,000 men and women out of work and starving because of'your tight skirts, mesdames. / '' "These narrow skirts which yon iasis* on wearing, mesdames, not because they 'are graceful or pretty, but because fashion bids you wear them, are causing unimagin-' able misery in many countries, and in many towns this winter. For it- is not only th& makers of dress tissues who are suffering. The narrow skirts have done away with—par? / don met he use of petticoats. You need not be told figures. I could give you but the plain .fact is more than sufficient. ■ There are 90 per cent, of tho petticoatmakers out of work all the world over, mesdames. They took to biousemakmg at first. The pay was less, but it was some- ■• thing. . ]<; "Now the kimono blouse lias come in. A yard square of material instead of two ' ', yards as before, a. hole for the head, two V eeams at the sides for the big sleeves, ft i hem at the waist, and that's all. The blousemakers are starving as well. , 0' , ,' the 15,000 looms in Koubaix, mesilantfs, ; . 8000 are silent now. The'manufactories • are closing down. There is a cry ,0* • famine. There will be rioting before longMesdames, I ask you for nothing except* ■ _ little pity. Do not send money to Bonbaix or elsewhere. Think, now that the Christmas season draws near, of the poor women and the children who are starving. ■ ' -. Do not be slaves to fashion. Give fashion your orders. If you all wear full ekirta again, full skirts will once again bo beautiful. And pardon me, mesdames, for talking seriously when' you would have , ■ preferred to listen to the music." * .'■ He paid for his tea and left the hotel - - The band struck up a waltz from " The Dollar Princess." "But the great hall of ■ • tho hotel emptied earlier than usual. Did any of those women go to their dressmakers before they went homo to dinner?