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Show WOMEN'SjSENSE OF BEAUTY. This It Chief Cause of Their Extravagance Extrava-gance In Dress. "Modern women are oxtravagant," says Mrs. Ellen II. Richards, "but It Is the conditions of our modern life, with Its loss of personal lndopendenco, which are to blame for this extravagance." extrava-gance." Mrs. nichards teaches In tbo Institute Insti-tute of Technology and Is deoply Interested In-terested In educational questions, particularly par-ticularly thoso which rolato to economic econom-ic and. Industrial training, but beforo over) thing clso Mrs. Richards is a gracIoiiB, charming lady who moves among the glass flasks and Ilunscu burners of her chomlcal laboratory with tho samo polso and dignity which her mother probably showed In tho linen lin-en room 50 years agb. Bays tho Boston Bos-ton Herald. So ono Isn't surprised to find that whllo tho tech teacher realizes perfectly all tho temptations which tho modern woman Is heir to, her plea Is not tho overcoming of these temptations by mannish disregard of all pretty things, but rather a return to tho old, beautiful Ideals of, living, which recognized primarily that things were not really "pretty" unless they were also "good." She compared the women of to-day and of 50 years ago as regards ths quantity and the quality of their dresses. "Did you never hear of the Judge's wife In one of our Massachusetts towns," she asked, "who had only three gowns?" Her gray eyes smiled quietly ! she watched the astonishment cf her twentieth century listener, nnu sue continued In calm onjoyment: "Yes. she had her morning gown. In which she did her housework llnsey woolsey, I suppose It was, spun by herselfand her-selfand she had the gown which she wore for calls and at church, and then she had her beautiful brocad heavy and rich and splendid why. It would stand alone! And It cost a great deal, because it was such a lovet thing; but she woro It and woro It nnd handed hand-ed It down to her daughter and oven now it's tho most precious dress of tho daughter's daughter. "But compare with that Inventory tho gowns of a woman of to day. Sho must havo her morning dress, which she can nover woar In tho afternoon; sho must have gowns for street wear, for dinners, for receptions, for dances, for lectures. And yet she hasn't ono really nice dress out of the lot--how can she, wbon she must have so many? "It's this deslro for the show of things and not for the real goodness underneath that Is the greatest extravagance extrav-agance of modern women," declared Mrs. Richards with Increasing fervor. "Instead of getting one nice gown which will last for years and years, we get these slazy stuffs which pulll to pieces beforo the season la over. And tho reason is that our sense of beauty is defective." |