, JAN. 9
1922.
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SHORT SKIRTS, AID TO HEALTH, MAY DEFY FASHION
. By MARTHA COMAN.
l'tIN the swing of a golf club depends
l I the width of the skirt a tennis
rncquot decides the type of corset.
a woman shall wear, while a butterfly dive
dimes" of all discussion as to the rl‘oprietv
of a one piece bathing suit. Such is the
importance of comfort when one is engaged
in outdoor sports.
These athletic activities of womer, which
have become popular within the last decade
and a hell, have revolutionized the feminine
silhouette and changed bonds into freedom.
No women in the world are less hampered
by their clothes than the American women.
and there is no other country where ourtdoor
spcrzs are so generally indulged in as here.
Followers of Sport May Defy
Paris Dress Edict This Year
[-‘o devoted have sports loving women be-
come- :t» their comfortably short skilts that
whm lairis recently decided that feminine
ankles “ore to be shrouded in folds of fash-
maierial American women openly
They declared they just wouldn’t
go llavk to long skirts, or even to skirts
much longer than they had been wearing.
Not one of the dozens interviewed on the
subject of whether American womanhood
was again to become an adiunct of the Street
icimllie
rem ‘1“"d
Cleaning Department and help sweep up‘
curbs and sidewalks favored the ankle length
skirt. And invariably each based her objec-
tion on the discomfort such a skirt entails
when going up and down elevated or subway
steps or boarding a surface car.
Sport fashions have been accepted an the
daytime dress for the business and profes-
sional Woman. They all know the comfort
of a sport suit and the bloomers‘and bras.
slere and pliable corset worn underneath.
and to support them in their determination
to cling to comert for working hours they.
call attention to the trim appeamnoo of
women “he dress in this style.
Physicians and athletic instructors stand
by them in their refusal to permit any radi-
cal change in the favored sport dress. Health
experts heartily approve the short skirt for
everyday wear, both for looks and sanitary
attributes. So does Dr. Thomas D. Wood,
athletic director of Teachers College, and for
the same reasons. Both declared the sen-
sible dress of to—day about as sensible as ever
had been achieved by the combined aid of
those who design fashions and those who
Wear them.
An act of Congress, which permitted the
late Dr. Mary Walker to wear male attire
because she considered it more comfortable
and better adapted to her activities than the
long, wide, hail-cloth stiffened skirts and
leg 0' mutton sleeves in vogue in the heyday
of her career, never quite accustomed or
reconciled the public to seeing a. woman
dressed in men's trousers. Yet the recent
nppmrnnr‘e of young women wearing knick-
orbockers as they strolled along the avenue
caused scarcely a ripple of excitement among
the thousands of afternoon hhoppers. Sports
have accomplished wonders in the meta—
morphosis of feminine clothes.
At Last Men Are Used to
Seeing Women in Trousers
If the world hadn't grown accustomed to
Seeing women riding astride in the neatest
of breechcs and costs, or hiking over the
country roads in khaki knickerbockcrs. of
skiing in brother's army logs. or playing
{on in the trimmest of bifurcated tweeds,
here probably w0uld have been more necks
oraned to see the fair pedestrians us they
proceeded down the promenade. We are
fitting used to common sense in dress though
he common sense is by no means the ugly
hing it formerly was.
The "Rainy Daisies," as the members of
that club which instigated the fashion of
the short skirts are called, gave a vivid
picture of what streets looked like twenty-
five years ago, when the feminine members
of society were unwillingly enlisted in the
street rimming job. The little movement
started then by a group of Women “shocked
the public more perhaps than cigarette smok-
ing or skirts Worn up to the knees. And all
they wanted was the public's approval of a
fashion that lifted home just a tiny bit abOVe
the ground.
Did they get it? Ask any of that little
band of “Rainy Daisies" who trot'c-d forth
in wet weather and in snow and even in
sunshine wearing skirts that measured ex-
actly four inches from the ground They
will tell you that instead of approval they
were jeercd at by men and women small
boys threw stones at them and society
women drew aside their owu trailing skirts
as if there might be contamination in the
very presence of a dress so shocking that
it showed the wearer walking on a perfectly
good pair of feet instéad of on stilts or
wheels.
F
1
Physicians Approve of \Vomen’s Deman'd Thai: Unsanitary, Dust Raising Dresses Be Barred W
and Reform Gained Originally by Rainy Day Club Be Continued-"Sports Responsible
. The accompanying illustrations show how the influence of sports has affected woman’s dress.
With the old time one and the clinging ankle length walking suit with the modern business
dress.
Note the one piece bathing suit contrasted
And the expressions that these matrons of
the uncmancipated group wore on their
faces would have discouraged, frightened
and slain the short skirt wearers if the
thoughts behind the expressions could have
been realized.
When this first organized group of women
decided it was high time to lift the hem of
dresses to a decent and sanitary height
above the pavements and to put a stop to
the carrying of germs from curbs and pave-
ments to hearth rugs all they asked for was
a modest four inches to escape, though they
voted in favor of a skirt six inches from
the floor for those who liked them so aston-
ishingly short. But the club members them-
selves were satisfied to accept a freedom
of less.
And to let the public know that they were
in dead earnest, that they stood for a prin-
ciple, for an advance for women, for greater
health and comfort for their own and future
generations, and not for a mere fashion.
they adopted a uniform and topped it with
a; blue badge which they wore on one
shoulder.
Rainy Daisies Led Van
In Short Skirt Crusade
The movement gained converts. Skirts
lost contact with the ground but they won
approval in various quarters, and at last
drcssmakers were compelled to" cut their
models after the accepted fashion of the so.
called rainy day skirt. Dressmakers then,
as now, tried to discourage an attempt on the
)art of women to dictate as to what they
should wear. But the women won out and
they have continued to hold on to weir
short skirts ever since.
Periodically these makers of wom's gar-
ments sought to revive the long, trailing
skirt, according to the reminiscences of one
Great Demand for Our Apples Abroad
ping choice Newtown Plppins to
Lendon, where this famous apple is
much in vogue among fashionable English
folk. The Newtown Pippin received its for-
mal introduction into high society in Eng-
land in 1861, when Charles Francis Adams.
then United States Minister at the Court
of St. J amcs s presented Queen Victoria with
a large barrel of the luscious fruit that had
been grown in a Massachusetts orchard. '
It is an interesting fact that since 1851.
when the Royal Mail liner Dee carried Mr.
Adams's celebrated barred of Newtown Pip-
pins to England, the American apple his
steadily grown in favor with the British pub-
lic. Sixty years ago American apples were
almost unknown in England; to-day given
sold in all the English fruit stores. Com
pared with any of the leading American
Varieties even the choicest Devonshire sp-
pies seem puny and flavorless.
The extent to which the export apple trade
has increased can be gathered from the
fact that this season the Royal Hall and
other-teaming) lines will carry 6003100 bar-
fwgis mot Eastern apples across the Atlantic
THE season has just started for ship-
piy the English and Continental mar-
mouh ham! containing no 'poupdc at
born the Northwestern Stub-r760
them-willie chipped over-
I
“In Milan. three million bones of,
land to New York and other Atlantic ports
for canvcy'tnce to European markets
=The lloy 31 Mail liners will not only carry
mrgoes of Eastern and Western apples to
England and the Continent from New York.
but the company's new service to Europe
from Vancouver and Seattle, via the Papa--
ma Canal. will transport this season the
biggest apple shipments ever sent from
the Pacific coast. No fewer than sou, 000
boxes of apples from Washington, Oregon
and Idaho have been booked for shipment
to England alone.
AM proportion of the apples supplied
to the English market come from the Cana-
dian fruit districts of Ontario. Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
where the harvest of Baldwins, Kings, New-
town Pippins, Spies. McIntoshes and Runnels
this season In unusually heavy. With the
exception of Maine, however. where there
has been a. phenomenally large yield the
New England apple crop has been light.
The Western apples. such as Winesap,
Oregon Pippin, Spltzenberg and Delicious.
figure conspicuously in British fruit shops,
the Wines”. like the Newtown Pippin, hav-
ing won the approval of royalty. When
King George. as Prince of Wales, visits-d
Oanm about twenty years ago he was up
mus. impressed by this gppie that he ’or-
dared at use of Winsome {ope mute liar).-
We House every amen;- mercy-El the.
Windsurf“. ._ ‘7'
of the original "Rainy Day" band, but they
met with no success. They would lengthen
skirts by an inch or two one season and the
public would rebel. They'd try it another
a season, and the same thing happened. Dress‘
makers might determine the width -of a old”.
but they could never dictate as to its length
if they set the fashion for anything beyond
a certain height from the ground.
If in those twenty-five years since the
first sanitary skirt made its appearance
dresmakers have been unable to put women
into long skirts what chance of doing it
have they now‘, even though Paris favors
the ankle length and is predicting that no
matter how much of a hue and cry American
women raise against this hampering fashion
they will come to it in the end? The "Rainy
Daisies” calmly point to'the history of their
own movement and feel perfectly satisfied
that the anti-movement will die a natural
death. ..
A skirt that Just covers the knees was the
last thing in the world that this club had in
mind when it marched forth as a group of v
protesting women, women bent on ‘abolishing
wet. bedraggled clothes. floppy Shoes and
ankles and dripping pe‘ticoats. Never did
they expect to see their modest protest so
frightfully exaggerated. They frankly
acknowledge that the skirt movement has
gotten away from them, but they point
hopefully to signs that the worst is put
and that modesty will again characterise
the lower portion of feminine dress Com-
fort and wholesomoness was ‘what they
worked for. and they feel that both are still
Wills without sacrificing modesty -
The four inches my. the _i_loor skirt. was
not the only starillilg change that the
"Baby Daisies” were resDOnsibi'e foe Their
the. rebellion was started at the 9’ch
logical inou'ncnt, for women were getting
one of their nippedvln I”! the waist masts,
mi liaphupn squeezing Decides, the tight
Mor them
fact the harness that fashion had evolvei
for one half of the human race.
It was three or four years later that the
straight front corset made its debut and
waists began to be let out to something like
their normal circumference, while dia-
phragm“! and abdomens came in for their
share of freedom. The hour glass eifect
disappeared with the long skirt, and then
women started all sorts of freedom and com-
fort innovations until they have developed
a type of dress that is more comfortable and
free than men' s ordinary clothes Men' 3
tweeds and soft shirts and collars are almost.
identical with the costume that the modern
woman wire fm- outdoor activities.
. It was an easy and a logical step from the
straight front stay, which replaced the old
whaieboned armor. to something even more
pliable and unconfining. By rapid stages
there was developed the athletic corset, then
came the brassiere,‘ and later women of
slender figure abandoned either or both of
these very trivial garments and enjoyed an
uncorseted existence.
The modern corset is so carefully designed
and ,so unobjectionable as a gunman: that
physicians have ceased exhorting woman to
discard it. The corset for ordinary wear is
built on lines that in no way menace health,
while the affair of hooks or laces and a. few
bones to sures ever so little softly woven
cloth, intended for riding or driving an auto—
mobile. for golf or tennis or hockey really
makesI little difference in the appearance
of the wearer. It is usually put on form
fort instead of t.
School and gifls‘ back meets are
among the most' picturesque events of the
entire year-.159 old bloomer- costume has
been bemendousiy improved upon Ind the
mostfushlonable gemeflnsu of this and
Magic!“ groups cums mam
silo-m suits the! co 9 him and
blouse in firth”: and am noon.
‘ It. be We,“ that blowers. one.
Manuela Mutton page unconcbmunnestj
‘about twenty years ago.
vaffi' ’W”’“ .c”.~.‘y".’+.yw°“ .‘3. :
furtively in gymnasiums. have gone the
way of skirts, and now they blissfully on—
circle the feminine leg several inches above
a perfectly bare knee. 7 Fredom of movement
is what the style affci , and that's exactly
what a track suit should encourage.
The one piece bathing suit is following in
the path of the astride riding habit. If it.
has not already won the right to appear
encasing the figure of a. feminine swimmer
at any and every beach then it wi‘l unless
all signs fall. Shades of Ocean Grove and
Father Bradleyl What strides have been
made since the days when the Puritan in-
sisted that the most pious looking ocean-
going apparel be worn at a seashore resort.
How could any woman hope to learn to
swim or actually propel herself in the water,
even if she had mastered the strokes, wear-
ing a bathing suit such as was prescribed
by Puritans and dressmakers? The old style
surf costume bound every muscle that should
have had the utmost freedom“; and the
material was so heavy when it became water
soaked that a person could scarcely drag
herself ten feet across the sand without.
dropping in a faint.
The mermaid of to-day is vastly different
in every way. She swims and she likes it.
And brother does not have a costume any
better adapted to the popular aquatic sport
than she who has made the one piece aflair
acceptable almost everywhere. The one
piece woollen suit, that is as light as a
feather in the surf, sheds water like a duck's
back. keeps a. bather from catching cola
f
H...
when shc site on it'c roach,
thing in its fnvor, .md only the most prudish
person, who knows nothing about the sport.
could have any rrasoimbic objections to it.
3.85 {lIC UV 6‘}???-
Tthe sat-no clamor: rs nzainst giving
women any cliaii-‘e to expand th Er lungs
and grow healthy and sift-ll; {rum indulg—
ing in outdoor spurl‘, an ill" Siiim who made
a fuss about women tiling asll'ixlv. They
were horrified when llll‘ first lrco lir-s riding
. habit was, worn and they said so in the loud-
cst of \'oi:es. But about nintty-nine out of
one hundred cqucstrionncs l on see anywhere
now have on riding brooches instead of
riding skirts. And no on is scandaiized at
their appearance, and if any one does stop
to think about the rider he or she probably
says, "“‘hat a healthful exercise and how
splendid she looks on a horse."
Vi'omen tournament golf players appar-
ently prefer skirts to knickers. They are
usually pictured in tweeds or jerseys with
sweaters or tailored coats. While the fed to:
playing golf is largely responsible for the
adoption of a sane and healthful style of
dress for outdoor occasions, it is noticeable
that the golf skirt is never worn extremal!
short. Midway between knee and ankle is
a length that offers all necessary freedom,
and the width should be ample to permit the
player to swing her clubs and follow through
without ever having to give a thought to
her dress. The golf knicker has arrived,
however, and on almost any course near the
city you will see women stepping out briskly
across the greens in this feminlzed version
of the mannish suit.
For hockey and tennis the same unham-
pered point must be considered. Sometimes
it is bloomers that a girl prefers, or it may
be a short flannel skirt and sweetest. The
schoolgirl plays hockey in her "gym" bloom.
ers and a middy blouse, if it’s warm enough,
and a sweater if it's cold. You can see her
almost any day in the park with her hockey
sticks. A dozen years ago she Would not
have dared show herself outside a gym-
nasium in anything so utterly unfeminine,
though necessary from an athletic point of
view, as a pair of bloomers. Thus has the
sex progressed toward sanity and health in
dresses.
Making of Incandescent és Mantles
ILLION’S of incandescent gas man-
tles are used yearly in the United
States. The method of lighting in
which they are employed is now funnies- to
every one, although it was introduced only
Yet very probably
there are but few persons who use the man-
tles who know how they are made or what
they are made of. Here is a brief sum-
mary: 3" I ‘
Knitting. A thread of suitable size is knit
into a tubular fabric on a machine modified
from those usedgln knitting underwear.’ A
large variety of stitches is made and desig-
nated as single weave. double weave, triple
weave, &c.
Satin-sting. The lengths of knitted fabric
are placed in a suitable vessel, and the so-
called lighting fluid In poured over them.
After the tam-iced: soaked in at. lighting
fluid for a certalnjength of tune it input
w an equaflm for the pm of
equalizing the amount of fluid canted by
each web. The abs-lo is then placed upon
sniuploformidglassorwoodanddried.
Bowing. The fabric Is now taken and
folded in at one end and carefully platted
and ”an use-mm dim W to form
the hem and l50il of m manila-
- mar: tbejli'caa lb use ““1.
fl 4
saturated fabric is shaped over a wooden
form.
Burning out. The modelled fabric is then
hung on a suttable'hook and ignited at the
top. The thread is burned out, leaving the
ash composed of the oxide of thorium and
cerium.
Hardening. After the cotton is burned out
the sort, flabby ash is placed over a blow-
pipe, where the gas and air are controlled
in such a way as to—blow it out to the form”
of s. mantle.
Dipping. In order to prepare the mantle
for the subsequent handling and for ship-
ment it is dipped into a. bath of collodion and
allowed to dry.
Trimming. Attic the collodionized mantles
are thoroughly dried they are passed to an
'operator, who trims 03 the rough edges of
theskirtnndreduoesthemantlestoa
uniform length. '
Packing. Loop mantles are suspended in
W! tube. by cords; can mantles are
mounted 6!! supports and the supports so-
oureb fastened to the cane. fissile. are
mmmmmemmommny
in Mohmwmmd mantle:
to sense.
In was. oetalli magnets»...
city of ayoidm‘g the use. 5! m
Win _ - m_lteym_fl'ih m
.g,’
m"
Norwalk Chronicler