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Show H MOURNING IN TIME OF WAR. B The suggestion is made by the Dry Goods Economist, M that during war time women discard the habit of wearing H bliiek for lost friends. This is urged on the ground of H scarcity of clothing materials, and the depressing influ- H enee of black in a time of national sorrow. B If many women must by next year face the loss of their H fcoys, a large part of them would no doubt like to put on H black. In times of grief women feel a certain reserve BBB about mingling with gay life. The black dress is a sug- H gestion that they are in sorrow and should not be pressed H into scenes of merriment. m The wearing of black does tend to set a person apart B a little, and it often makes women morbid. They seek H solitude and avoid their friends too much. They get in m a habit of brooding and often become very abnormal. It B would have been much better if at the start they could B Jiave plucked up their courage and gone with their friends M Yet there is a question if, not merely in war time, but m always, this attitude is not unwholesome and sometime m selfish. It does create an atmosphere of gloom. Many m men, feeling this depressing influence, tell their wives H never to put on black for them. They hate to leave behind B tliis perpetual suggestion of funerals. H Few men wear black for bereavement, though the cus- m torn of wearing a black band on the arm is common. Men K. leel sorrow as much as women, yet are forced by the p'res- B sure of work to leave it all behind them, and go on day M by day as before. It is better for them and better for m women to do so, and of doubtful values to keep reminding B . others that their hearts are grieving. It would not be tho j wish of the soldier boys whom we shall leave in France, H that their bright home country should emphasize the sor- m row it feels in any external way. |
