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Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16610, 6 December 1919, Page 2

It is probable that most husbands wore interested when they road in tho cablegrams on Friday evening that a French doctor had discovered that tho wearing of silk stockings by women was a cause of influenza and also of trench feet. They probably also tools the opportunity of reading the cablegram out to their wives, and found the subject of stockings shelved by an inquiry as to tho symptoms of trench feet. Tho proper reply would of course have been that trench feet was a disease common in tho trenches which caused a permanent swelling of the feet, so that women who suffered from it would always require at least size 6 in boots. Unfortunately telling retorts generally arrive a little too late for effective use and the discussion probably came to an inconclusive end with decisive remarks from tho lady as to the silly tilings they put in the newspapers, instead of a determination never again to purchase silk stockings. From a practical point the chief objection to silk stockings, apart from the cost, appears to be that they must be very chilly even in our temperate climate. If influenza is spread by bacteria it certainly is unlikely that they would be attracted even by such a display as recently caused an obstruction in tho streets of Welliugton, leading subsequently to a case in the Afagistrate’s Court, The cable man responsible for sending such nows may be rebuked by the more serious, but ho might point out that oven bachelors of so serious a. temperament ns tho apostle Paul did not go through tho uoikl with eyes shut; lie must in fact have noticed many things, for he orders that women should wear modest apparel, “not with broidered hair, or gold, or costly array.” Though some commentators .consider that silk stockings would come under the head of “costly array,” the apostle did not specifically mention them, otherwise the husband would have been provided with more powerful authority than the statement of a French doctor, who quite possibly had no eye for a well-turned ankle.