Show sue SHE or i r she says I 1 have just come in from the street and I 1 lam iam am exasperated furious savage in short I 1 am in a passion and if I 1 could have my way but what is it all about you ask well just look at the bottom of my dress skirt does it look as if it belonged to a decent woman or a tramp all dragged dragg led and splashed a and n drip dripping n over my nice kid boots I 1 C can n you faney fancy anything more abominable 11 the morning ive been in a simmer about it for or ive been in the lower part of the town where there are black pools of the nastiest dirt at all the crossings and where the middle of broadway looks like a miniature lethe it mud this horrible mixture that clings to me that wont brush off my shoes and that attaches itself so to the fabric of my dress that it is well nigh ingrained in it no this is a paste composed of the filthiest filth of the city and I 1 have appreciated the fact every time I 1 have stepped at a crossing this morning to gather up my drapery bunglingly with one hand the other being devoted to my a bundle and felt that I 1 was not half doing it and knew as I 1 waded out into the slush that ty my skirt was sopping up all these abominations and carrying the them M to my clean white stockings then I 1 thought some bitter things I 1 can tell you 1 my street dress is ig not a demi train I 1 am not quite so much of an idiot as that amounts to it is made just as short as the present style will allow but it is altogether too long for the street for it just touches the dirt whereas it ought to clear it entirely then I 1 be bothered with thinking of my dress on the street this comparative felicity fashion granted to every woman about aye a year arago ago but it has as been her will to withdraw it from her humble slaves and now if in defiance of custom I 1 should have my dress made as short abort as 1 I wore it three years ago 1191 1 I should probably subject myself to unpleasant apprehensions hen in public I 1 have to choose between that and comfort and cleanliness and this is why I 1 am so angry why will the women be so foell foolish sh I 1 should like to know as to let their dressmakers I 1 instead of their OW own n common sense decide in such matters you say I 1 am one of them and that I 1 ought to set the ecamp example le As if it would do the least good I 1 might go about with my dress shortened to my ankles to my hearts content and get laughed at and stared at and jerred j erred at and perhaps worse w irso treated for my pains but as long as so ealie called frene french ini ink dressmakers and women of wealth shall decide that dresses must sop up all the tile nastiness of new york streets I 1 should have no followers and if I 1 have to elect between a soiled dress and being allowed to go quietly without notice on my way through the streets I 1 shall hall sh choose the former but I 1 dont like it all the same I 1 want to know if there therl L is any woman who does especially those who have to clean their own dress skirts oil oh how many times timea have 1 I over this nasty work vowed I 1 would never again go on th the street estreet with my dress touching the pave pavement menti and then how I 1 grew cowardly the very next time I 1 went out and Lt stealing ealing into a corner stealthily took out the pins pius which held it out of the dirt hoping that I 1 should find clean spots to walk in only to be deceived as usual and just so long as I 1 have to endure this mortification of spirit it is useless to talk to me about giving women anymore privileges or any more ri rights lits they already have the right to iress grebs dress themselves as they choose and they abuse it shamefully they have the right to dress themselves indecent in decent not over costly garment ina lna in a sensible manner do they do IV it let me see them making a proper use of what rights they already have before you talk of giving th m any more and I 1 never will believe they are fit to have anything to do with business or politics as ion lon long as they haunt sense enough to lift geir leir their skirts out of the dust and the mud I 1 should like to see a man submitting to that sort of thing the idea of sweeping into wall street on a muddy morning in a train a quarter of a yard long thene there that will do I 1 am too angry to say any more and I 1 must go and clean the mud from the bottom of my dress ugh an after thought which comes to lier her while she is grumbling and brushing with all her might and holding her head on one side with her nose very much turned up to avoid the cloud of dust which arises from the desecrated garment it is the hight bight of stupidity to have any dress which is intended to be worn on the street made so long that you must pin it up any time the pins tear the diels or slip out why not have a long skirt for the house and a short one for the street if you are so much of a peacock eacock that you cant rest unless you flave auve something dragging 0 along after you when I 1 come to think seriously seriously y about it a short dress for the street la is more modest than a long one it rua rna may y be shortened to the ani ant ankles des but st still 11 it is the more modest of the two for there ere is no occasion for lifting it how is a woman to calculate just how high to lift her dress when s she lle lie is in a hurry in nine cases out of ten she either lifts it too high or she lift it high enough on one side she shows more boot top ton and white stocking than she has a mind to and may provoke a passing leer but on the other side the drapery fi flops op down own into the mud or gr the dust and thus she is a dingi disgusting asting object all around oh fie I 1 haunt any more patiance pat lance lanee howard GLYNDON |