Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-08-18 | Page 44 | War Losses Alter Customs of Mourning

War Losses Alter Customs of Mourning Shall I wear mourning for my soldier dead, I a believer? Give me red, Or give me rova! purple for the King At whose high court my love is visiting. Dress me in green for growth, for life made new; For skies his dear feet march, dress me in blue: In wdiite for his white soul robe mc in gold For all the pride that Ills new rank shall hold. In earth's dim gardens blooms no hue 'so bright To drefis me for my love who walks in light! Gertrude Knevels. THE idea is steadily gaining ground as the casualty lists bring sorrow to many American homes, that the custom cus-tom of wearing conventional mourning for the soldier dead would be a sort of desecration as well as having a somber influence over the country. Quite decidedly a new etiquette has developed since the war concerning the wearing of mourning and the observances observ-ances of mourning in other ways, says the San Francisco Examiner. In England, Eng-land, where deep black crape and wide bordered mourning stationery were first introduced, the attitude is almost the other extreme, ,the women expressing their grief in service rather than apparel. ap-parel. Deep- mourning is seldom seen, the most conservative women limiting their mourning apparel to simple black. It is looked upon there as tho height of Ostentatious vulgarity to advertise ono's personal gTief so publicly. The subject has been discussed at great length in English papers, and out of it all comes a much more sane attitude to death than we were accustomed to before be-fore the wrar. In London and Paris women of the best taste do wear black, sometimes But even this is not considered essen tial. The old idea that a woman wear- ' ing mourning must not bo seen in public pub-lic places has likewise been abandoned. ' They are far too busy to go into such retirement. Jewelry is taboo, and, in fact, few women of the best taste whether in mourning or not wear elaborate jewels as in the days and nights before the J wiir. If it is considered bad tasto to ; make a spectacular emphasis of woe, it ; is looked upon just as callous to make a point of flaunting luxuries at a time when many people are not even sure of daily bread. In commenting on the prevailing at- . ' t'itude toward this subject of war-timo ( mourning apparel, a noted authority has this to sav: . The first impression of a visitor to j England, apart, from the prevalence of -khaki and navy and hospital blues, ; would almost certainly be that no state, ot war existed or that the war had but just begun. For the thought of war is . and must be associated with bcrca v ment, and bereavement to most personsV menu's the wearing of mourning; yet, J J in spite of the longest and heaviest casualty lists that any war has ever seen, mourning is conspicuous by its absence. ab-sence. , . , Those few voting people wdio, from motives of vanity, choose to advertise themselves by a 'peculiarly jaunty and striking style of mourning, simply do .. not count. ' The true dignity of mourn-in" mourn-in" is otherwise, expressed. Instead of having crape veils and all the other t lugubrious nccoutermcnts of eonvon- -tional mourning, ono sees women quietly : dressed in black or in their ordinary ., clothes Voing bravely about their daily tasks as though the shadow of bereavement bereave-ment had not fallen upon their lives. The Women of the Altar society of : the parish of Our Divine Savior will s hold a rummage sale Wednesday at 353 ,; South Main street, Mrs. A. J. Wethy and Mrs. Fred Brcmmg will be in t cllar"e' - j Mrs V T. Howe, chairman of the . Sunshine auxiliary of tho Red Cross, ' requests a full attendance of the mem- bers of the auxiliary for all-day work at Amelia palace Wednesday. A requi- sition for an extra number of gauze dressings is responsible for this urgent - call.