GIRLS AND THEIR DRESS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14844, 22 February 1919, Page 4

GIRLS AND THEIR DRESS.

.*. VARYING OPINIONS IN AMERICA. CHICAGO, Dec. 28.— 1s the .present fashion m women's - dress hygienic and moral or unhygienic : and indecent ? This discussion i came up before th . adininistratjon .-section- of the ■American i Pjjjolic ' Health Association convention hefe, . v .- : ? Dr. Jeanette.- Throckmorton of .Charl- -■/ ton^la., denounced the 'present, fashions! ;•■"■' She.said: .^Morals ;. and? dress 'are iinti\i mately associated, and^ never 'before '-has modesty in..-dres£?seenied--»to be ■ so % . little m among, our ''young ■ girls.; The customary ' street ■-■ dress of •> last l summer was an ' offence '"to v one's "finer ' sensibUir ties.y with^its abbreviated skirt, -shoes designed*. to attract '< the -eye, hoseklikewise/thinnest of crepe waists, -with" only a 'little ribbon and lace ' underneath and •; cvt 1 so low in-, the neck as ; to be m;- -; decent. ' I believe the « good ■ women of ; our country are to blame they ••'■■ do not frown upon sueh 1 vulgar costumes. We, must 'teach our girls that they have * a responsibility toward, young men, \ that -the uniform is a 'symbol of a sacred cause, anduf they aid tho man who we'aVs it to degrade himself, they surely are ' degrading the cause for which he is fighting. A^ great factor m accomplishing this is to dress modestly, so as not to attract or arouse the sex passion. The. majority of young girls who come into my office m winter half tolad, from choice rather than ( from necessity. This condition prevails also among college girls m injr State, and I presume feminine nature is no different _ m your respective States. I deplore the custom of the last few years of wearing no underwear m winter. If mere man' m the dead of winter should strip off his flannels and, attired m a lownecked undershirt, silk pyjamas, cobweb stockings and? paper-soled slippers* should venture forth to spend an evening aY the opera, with no protection about his bare shoulders except a pearl necklace, it would be necessary to remove him from the theatre m an ambulance. Pneumonia or influenza would set m. Yet high school girls and college glirls and some of their, mothers,, too, do this very thing. Bfence \*e are forced to conclude that the feminine physique, frail though it appears, is able to resist hardships andf exposure that no mere man could survive. The corset worni by the majority of women is a relic of Victorian barbarism, and tends to produce that ideal of feminine lieauty of the age of hoop skirts. Gradually there is coming into use the corset known as the straight front, which gives the desired upward and backward' pressure on all the viscera and which fits snugly at the hips and loosely at its upper extremity." Dr. Throckmorton also denounced the fashionable footwear for women, which, she says, induces flat feet and the slouching walk, copied from the fashion sheets of the last two years. Her fear for the health of women was 'declared fanciful by one or two of the men doctors m the audience. One physician said that the death rate from tuberculosis among women had gone ■down since the introduction of, the standard loose corset m 1904. ; * Dr. Effie L. Lobdell, of Chicago, endorsed? the peekaboo waists, thin stockings and all the other features of modern dress, declaring' that they strengthened the constitution of women. She said this kind of clothes also compelled women -to keep clean, something j they did not always do before. She was not afraid for the girls' morals.