WOMAN COSTUMED FOR HER WAR JOB

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white chiffon (Empire lines), a very small, deep pinkish-red rose had a white rose-

bud bound close to it with a bit of blue ribbon. This was placed under the bertha of

cobweb lace, and demurely in the middle of the short-waisted bodice. Again a robe

d'interior of white satin charmeuse, had a sleeveless coat of blue, reaching to knees,

and a dashing bias sash of pinkish-red, twice round the waist, with its long ends

reaching to skirt hem and heavily weighted.

Not at once, but only gradually, did it dawn upon us that most of the gowns bore, in

some shade or form, the tricolour of France!

CHAPTER XXVIII

WOMAN COSTUMED FOR HER WAR JOB

VERY now and then a sex war is predicted, and sometimes started,

usually by woman, though some predicted that when the present

European war is over and the men come home to their civilian tasks, now

being carried on by women, man is going to take the initiative, in the sex

conflict. We doubt it. Without deliberate design to prove this point,--that a

complete collaboration of the sexes has always made the wheels of the universe

revolve, many of the illustrations studied showed woman with man as decoration,

in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and during later periods.

The Legend of Life tells us that man can not live alone, hence woman; and the

Pageant of Life shows that she has played opposite with consistency and success

throughout the ages.

The Sunday issue of the Philadelphia Public Ledger for March 25, 1917, has a

headline, "Trousers vs. Skirts," and, continues Margaret Davies, the author of the

article:

"This war will change all things for European women.

Military service, of a sort, has come for them in both France

and England, where they are replacing men employed in

clerical and other non-combatant departments, including

motor driving. The moment this was decided upon in England,

it was found that 30,000 men would be released for actual

fighting, with prospects of the release of more than 200,000

more. What the French demand will be is not known as I

write, but it will equal that of England.

"How will these women dress? Will they be given military

uniforms short of skirt or even skirtless? Of course they won't;

but the world on this side of the ocean would not gasp should

this be done. War industry already has worked a revolution.

"Study the pictures which accompany this article. They are a

new kind of women's 'fashion pictures'; they are photographs

of women dressed as European circumstances now compel

them to dress. Note the trousers, like a Turkish woman's, of

the French girl munitions workers. Thousands of girls here in

France are working in such trousers. Note the smart liveries of

the girls who have taken the places of male carriage starters,

mechanics and elevator operators, at a great London shop.

They are very natty, aren't they? Almost like costumes from a

comic opera. Well, they are not operatic costumes. They are

every-day working liveries. Girls wear them in the most mixed

London crowds--wear them because the man-shortage makes

it necessary for these girls to do work which skirts do not fit.

All French trams and buses have 'conductresses.'

"The coming of women cabmen in London is inevitable--

indeed, it already has begun. In Paris they have been

established sparsely for some time and have done well, but

they have not been used on taxis, only on the horse cabs.

"I have spent most of my time in Paris for some months now,

and have ridden behind women drivers frequently. They drive

carefully and well and are much kinder to their horses than the

old, red-faced, brutal French cochérs are. I like them. They

have a wonderful command of language, not always entirely

or even partially polite, but they are accommodating and less

greedy for tips than male drivers.

"At Selfridge's great store--the largest and most progressive

in London, operated on Chicago lines--skirtless maidens are

not rare enough to attract undue attention. The first to be seen

there, indeed, is not in the store at all, but on the sidewalk,

outside of it, engaged in the gentle art of directing customers

to and from their cars and cabs and incidentally keeping the

chauffeurs in order.

"An extremely pretty girl she is, too, with her frock-coat

coming to her knees, her top-boots coming to the coat, and

now and then, when the wind blows, a glimpse of loose

knickers. She tells me that she's never had a man stare at her

since she appeared in the new livery, although women have

been curious about it and even critical of it. Women have done

all the staring to which she has been subjected.

"Within the store, many girls engaged in various special

employments, are dressed conveniently for their work, in

perfectly frank trousers. Among these are the girls who

operate the elevators. There is no compromise about it. These

girls wear absolutely trousers every working hour of every

working day in a great public store, in a great crowded city,

rubbing elbows (even touching trousered knees, inevitably)

with hundreds of men daily.

PLATE XXXIII

Madame Geraldine Farrar. The value of line

was admirably illustrated in the opera

"Madame Butterfly" as seen this winter at the

Metropolitan Opera House. Have you

chanced to ask yourself why the outline of the

individual members of the chorus was so

lacking in charm, and Madame Farrar's so

delightful? The great point is that in putting

on her kimono, Madame Farrar kept in mind

the characteristic silhouette of the Japanese

woman as shown in Japanese art; then she

made a picture of herself, and one in harmony

with her Japanese setting. Which brings us

back to the keynote of our book--Woman as

Decoration--beautiful Line.

Sketched for "Woman as Decoration" by

Thelma Cudlipp

Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Japanese Costume

as Madame Butterfly

"And they like it. They work better in the new uniforms than

they used to in skirts and are less weary at each day's end. And

nobody worries them at all. There has not been the faintest

suspicion of an insult or an advance from any one of the

thousands of men and boys of all classes whom they have

ridden with upon their 'lifts,' sometimes in dense crowds,

sometimes in an involuntary tête-à-tête.

"Other employments which girls follow and dress for

bifurcatedly in this great and progressive store are more

astonishing than the operation of elevators. A charming young

plumber had made no compromise whatever with tradition.

She was in overalls like boy plumbers wear, except that her

trousers were not tight, but they were well fitted. A little cap

of the same material as the suit, completed her jaunty and

attractive costume. And cap and suit were professionally

stained, too, with oil and things like that, while her small

hands showed the grime of an honest day's competent, hard

work.

"The coming summer will see an immense amount of

England's farming done by women and, I think, well done.

Organisations already are under way whereby women propose

to help decrease the food shortage by intelligent increase of

the chicken and egg supply, and this is being so well planned

that undoubtedly it will succeed. Eggs and chickens will be

cheap in England ere the summer ends.

"I have met three ex-stenographers who now are at hard work,

two of them in munition factories (making military engines of

death) and one of them on a farm. I asked them how they liked

the change.

"'I should hate to have to go back to work in the old long

skirts,' one replied. 'I should hate to go back to the old days of

relying upon some one else for everything that really matters.

But--well, I wish the war would end and I hope the casualty

lists of fine young men will not grow longer, day by day, as

Spring approaches, although everybody says they will.'

"Mrs. John Bull takes girls in pantaloons quite calmly and

approvingly, now that she has learned that if there are enough

of them, dad and the boys will pay no more attention to them

in trousers than they would pay to them in skirts."

We have preferred to quote the exact wording of the original article, for the reason

that while the facts are familiar to most of us, the manner of putting them could not,

to our mind, be more graphic. Some day, when the Wateaus of the future are

painting the court ladies who again dance pavanes in sunlit glades, wearing wigs

and crinoline, such data will amuse.

That the women of Finland make worthy members of their parliament does not

prove anything outside of Finland. That the exigencies of the present hour in

England have made women equal to every task of men so far entrusted to them,

proves much for England. Women, like men, have untold, untried abilities within

them, women and men alike are marvellous under fire--capable of development in

every direction. What human nature has done it can do again, and infinitely more

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