THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING. JANUARY 26, IKZ
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icians, Modistes and Social
Say of Decollete
v i
'i' : III
HEN it was gravely stated a little
tvhUe azo- during the pro-grip y
'.' period of the winter that a lead.
ing society woman of the ultra New York'
Newport set was suffering from illness, and .
that this misfortune was , attributed to her
predilection for extreme decollete gowns, that
old but ever- new and interesting question,
"How lowt": had a recrudescence. - -
Should women wear low-necked gowns at
all?; If so, how lowt And, after all, is the
decollete of fashion a question to be dealt with
by the doctors, as one of health; by modiste's,
as belonging entirely to the realm of style, or
by women themselves, as oncof ethics?
Says a physician i "Extreme decollete is y
rarely harmful to health." A society leader
asserts: "It ts a question of taste- and the
figure'; and a modiste declares that there is a
.tendency toward wearing evening gowns cut
as low as possible,
' So there you are.
O fair andrtaa. boat 4raaa. It check no rain.
But verr flowlna; limb la plaaaur drowna,
' And baifhUna aaaa with (raea. Tbomaon. . :
R"
It's
ladr
EAIXT, ahs oucht to show better tute.
quite dtemcefuL' So the tall, lean
whispered to the corpulent 'grand dame who
at Juat by. .. ,
. Loo)c, look," the murmured behind her fan, her eyes
fastened on a lovely creature who stood in the middle
of the ballroom, surrounded by numbers of the male
'pedes. ' ' ; - :; '. :- f,
Happily Unorant of crlUdsm, the object of their re
. marks simply radiated flittering- nnlJes, talked In a
voice that rippled like music and set the hearts of her
'devotees fluttering. About the wall stood the wallflowers.
I wouldn't wear such extreme decollete for the
world," muttered a maiden lady, done up respectably to
the top of her neck in brown. "Nor would I, if I were
you," responded the corpulent grand dame graciously. -;
Can't you picture the scene? Haven't you heard the
idlscusslonsi over this ''old but ever new subject, now re
vived because of published accounts of the Illness of a
Wew York leader of fashion ? discussions not so much
as to whether or not a low-necked gown should be worn
as to how tow the gown may properly be made. '
It's an absorbing Question. Ask a doctor, and he'll
discuss It from a medical standpoint; a clergyman will
view the matter, perhaps, from another; modistes have
their own vllews, and so have the women who wear even?
Ing gowns.'
When the question was first asked no one knows defi
nitely. It was some time after the adoption of fig leaves
In Eden and Eve began to tire of natural attire. Never
theless, it has doubtless, traced Its way down through
the ages, as feminine raiment has shown a greater or less
tendency to the decollete since the fig-leaf period.
, VARIOUS POINTS OP VIEW
Of late years the, ''-steady . trend in the downward
course of evening dress has provoked protesting cries. In
the pulpit clergymen have taken up the subject and cau
tioned the ladles to remember the first fall; physicians
have told them of dangers to health, of the possibility
of catching cold as they drifted from the warm ballroom
into the cold night; of pneumonia,- hoarseness of the
voice and other more or less dangerous maladies. '
Expounders of etiquette, in' women's magazines, have
told of the bad taste of the garments -or4 parts of gar-
ments that are never made; while persons with a tasta
for. gossip have made the decollete dress a personal mat
tr and have thrown mental vitriol on the fairs necks
of the ladles In full undress. . , r -
Borne tediea, hearing of grave danger to health, have
been perturbed sertouaTy by the medical issues aroused.
itwa with teara and lamentations, undoubtedly, that v
wmea with Mile. Naalmova necks covered up the swan
. Aiin narl?: brak"f their hearts; For them the
. mums pnysiciaa regarding the even ng
dress will come as glad tidings. - 1
:vh.!eSS2;jsr fl"-r wm
t -There is little danger to the wearer's health, if she
take proper ecautlons outside the ballroom." he re
sponded. , :::i-r;;t ri ... "
Then thl "Stion wss put to several society leaders
la it ba te to wear decollete-extrema decollete T':
And the asensua of their replies they were all
lovely women- reduced, meant just thla: .
. "It la bad tHte for the woman without a flcurn. ' t
all depends on tU figure". -,-r , " , 1
Modistes esspi t that tl decollete garment Is not only
Increasing in popularity,' but Is-eteaaily getting lower and
ji'wit, w 4vw. in j u'l. mil- vims luiiB ia uaea to in v.
making headway among the women of the United States
that is, the women with figures.
Of course, it may be mentioned that various eccen
tricities of dress have become popular lately, one being
modeled on the ancient Egyptian costume, and the other
an adaptation of the Grecian tunic. Whether the future
will see evening dress resolve itself Into a combination
of the low neck and the Grecian tunic, after the fashion
of the dainty, thing Miss Psyche wears in paintings, is
a question. -;
Several' months ago a professor ' at a seminary for
young Women in New Jersey was so grieved and embar
rassed by the appearance of a clergyman's daughter at
dinner table in a low-necked dress that be asked her to
leave the room.
The young lady Is 18, pretty, graceful, charming and
modest. She had worn the dress before, and no one naa
taken offense But the professor Is said to be a very
modetit man, and when he first saw the young woman
bis cheeks actually flamed, ha dropped his eyes, and is
said to have muttered that he wished the floor had
opened and swallowed him. So painful was the situation
that he asked the young woman to retire
Of course, there was considerable comment; -her dress,
the young ladles said, was not so low at that Be
that as It may, his action raised a discussion of the Ques
tion in many seminaries for girls.
But as the question la one which needed an expert's
opinion, an Interview was sought with Dr. J, Madison
Taylor.'an eminent practitioner.
"From a hygienic standpoint there ia no danger to
health whatever-in the decollete dress." declared Dr.
Taylor. "I have never come across a case where a
woman contracted an Illness by wearing a low-necked
dress.
QUESTION OF MORALS
"In fact, from a hygienic standpoint. It is better to
wear too little clothing than too much. The question is
not one of hygiene It is a moral question."
'Then, from a hygienlo standpoint, you mean there
is no limit to the lowneas of women's dress."
. .. This was making a pun. But Dr. Taylor was serioue
"Decidedly," he said. "For one reason, a woman can
'stand more exposure than a man. Her circulatory sys
tem Is more elastic and capable of modification than a
, man's. Besides, the upper part of the body is the least
susceptible It la rather dangerous to expose the ab
domen and lower part of the back; In tropical' countries -
even the savages cover these parts. The Turk and Arab
always have something about the waists .'
"So far as the decollete dress is concerned, unless a
woman is ill or there is a lowered resistance there ts
no danger to her health.' Prom the standpoint of health
she may wear the waist as low as decency permits. I
should say the proper depth would be to the fourth or
fifth dorsal vertebra In the back and to the curve of
the breast in front" -
This seems to be the general opinion of physician e '
- Of course, it's quite safe to ask this question of a
doctor. But it's awkward to ask a lady "how low", she
would wear her evening dresa ,
"Well, (his Is a delicate matter," murmured a society
leader who was approached on the subject. "But from
my standpoint the question is one of taste A woman
whose skin Is ugly and shriveled would certainly show
bad taste to wear a low-necked gown. But a woman
with a pretty figure and beautiful skln,i I should say,
could wear the dress as low as she wishes."
"How low might a woman wear her evening dress?
It's entirely a personal question." declared another so
ciety leader. "Any suggestion of impropriety is absurd.
A' woman who reallsea that the human figure is beauti
ful and who displays her charms artistically is to be
admired there are comparatively few who de I look
with delight to the time when a beautiful woman will
not have to hesitate about the cut of her dresses for fear
of unpleasant remarks. The minds of the people who
comment are debased. They are vulgar."
Another well-known woman, unmarried and not beau
tiful, said tersely: "A woman can wear her dresses low
in accordance with the lowneas of her morale"
'Be this spiteful or not. It 'represents the opinion 'of
many conservative ladles the ladles, usually, who read
William Dean Howells and frown upon "Three Weeks"
&-'.?. 01II? of the earth. "Eppur si muove." the
evening dress is moving onward and downward,
iu uo a movement toward wearinar
LLS
ENTLEMEN .of the: jury, $he evidence
having made it clear that the detena
ant was tinder the control of the
drninn Tklial -when lie killed, the lady
with the icepick, you will return a verdict of in
voluntary maiislaughter."
There is a possible form of the future ruling
of a criminal court judge in an ordinary murder
case, if the demands of the most advanced Amer
ican investigators of psychic phenomena should
ever be complied with. " ,
Tor belief in demons, universal at the begin-
ning of the Christian era, laughed at in the
century past; is again winning adherents.
EVERT little while some fresh evidence is pre
sented that demons have hot altogether been
driven from the world. While one great and
living church still insists upon the possession
by every human being of a guardian angel quite as
emphatically as it was wont formerly to insist upon
the terrestrial activity of a wide variety of devils,
many other churches join with it in averring the ex-
lstence and the unflagging energy of the devil of that
ancient and once universally recognised enemy Of God
and man Satan. ..-.' ,
Between the two orders of faith, and at an equal
distance from those calm, assured souls who are sure
' the devil is dead, and that it there is to be any here
after, it's bound to be a happy onr, modern science
stands still very dubious.
- It doesn't believe In demons, yet it is far from feel
ing certain that ."dual personality" is untrue It
rather Inclines to believe now that dual personality is
-most uncomfortably true. r - 4. - - -
cutrrostion ai
in Ene-lapd
frf 'is with s -c
front cuts slurry
of 'rnie kind of clothing.
fashion baa been to wear evening
SCIENCE AT SEA 4 ;
: Then, who shall say that another personality is
merely a fragment of the original personality, spilt
upT Science, which has also learned its fractione
likes to think: that; but science cannot say, with any
assurance whatever, that the other personality Is any- :
thing less than something demoniacal, or anything
more than' something divine, which has taken pos- .
session of the subject who shows evidence of having!
two separate natures. ' V"..;-
Is It not worth while, since so many churches yet
hold to the faith in the existence, of demons, which
was set forth plainly In the writings of the New Tea- .
tament and since scoffing science dare not wear its
habitual, cynical sneer, to ask one's self, at times,
which demon possesses, him? v. i i '.- '
i la It Belial, the demon, who 'turns . away love's
fiances and makes sin of the passion which' is the ;
oundatlon of the loftiest vlrtuef ' Or ts it Lucifer, or
wee ne duo, or Apollyon, or some other one or the
hierarchy of hell who rage, each with his especial in-
1mm. f
Her own children some of them, while others Were
bound to her by marriage ties, they obeyed the behest
of their fanatlo religious leader and, while, he .yelled
incantations of exorcism, wrenched and contorted the
helpless Invalid's limbs until, amid her shrieks of an.
gulsh, they left her a corpse upon her bed of pain.
The whole nation shuddered when the horrible tela
cams to lighf. and the whole nation demanded, "What
demon .inspired the Parhamltea?" -
Now comes Dr. James H. Hyslop, expert on psychic
phenomena and head of the - American Society for
Psychical Research, who -avers that persons accused of
various crimes should be turned over , to the expert
Of the society for examination as to their condition, in
order to determine whether the real criminal is the
normal self, or some Other self who converts the In
dividual into a demon and then vanishes, to let ths
normal person pay the fearful penalty; He declares:
.. "Many persons are punished unjustly for crimes
committed by another personality which gets control
of their bodies and makes them irresponsible for their
acts. . . . .. ;. , .... .
"Dual personality has been known to science for
years, and people afflicted with It have been known to
do all manner of queer things. Some of them have
committed murder;, others have become thieves, and
umm 1 v bwji umera in amereni ways. ' 4
- HYPNOSIS IN COURT?
"The government ought to' let our society take 'hold
of cases where there is the slightest suspicion that a
crime has been committed by a man while under the
influence of a second self. We would go into the
courts, and by hypnosis Induce the subject to tell of
his acts at the time the Crime was committed.
'That such reaulta fan tut itnirM tv 1iiit,.i, -
evident from the case of Ansel Bourne, a Connecticut
decollete dresses as low as they can be worn." said
modiste, an authority.' "Of late the French fashions
becoming popular, and the extreme style in vogue In
England is becoming apparent You can see this at anjj
production of grand opera. The new style Is cut Vl
shaped in the back and square In front When the cul
is extreme white tulle or. veiling is worn to protect the:
skin.
x "There is absolutely no falling off In the demand fod
decollete dresses; my experience and that of other mo I
dlstes, proves that more women are wearing them, and
the cut has. become lower." . :
And, hyglenlcally, physicians say, women can go at
far as they like; rn fact from the point of health. It li
true that the less clothing worn the healthier one. bel
comes. If it Is a question of taste, to be determined b
the beauty of the lady as many ladies aver "How LOW I
becomes a personal question. The poet says;
Lorallneea
Needs not the foreign eld ef ornament,
Bat la, when unadorned, adorned the most
Filipino Women Are Very
"Advanced''
( rr HE only strong-minded women In Manila," said
I a recent visitor to the Philippines, "are the npl
A per class Filipino women. They have clubs, an
talk of women's rights as glibly -as the women of thl
country. They are strong advocates of women's suffrage
and to listen to the speeches of some of the Flllpln
women one could almost imagine herself at a woman'
suffrage meeting In New York. -?
"The American women, however, do not bother wltlf
the political and economical problems of the day. Thei
have no time for serious things. There is not a slngl
club of American women in Manila, although there are
. bridge whist parties aplenty. The American women ar
so busy having a good time that they cannot bothe
with politics.
"Bridge whist is the favorite pastime among the olde
women, while the younger set prefers dancing. . Manila I
a paradise for young women. The town is gay and giddy!
Every one there soon becomes possessed of the natlvi
spirit of Irresponsibility, and there is nothing to live fo
except enjoyment. Those who think that going to ManlR
la going into exile make a great mistake. Manila is
pleasure gnound, pure and simple. 1
"Dances and other lively parties are the order almos
every night They have an army set. a navy set
official set and various other sets composed of forelg
government representatives end persgns whose bueinee
brings them to Manila.
"There are representatives of almost every natlo
there, and consequently the cliques are many. But
lines are drawn.,, Every one knows every one else anil
all absorb the spirit of gaiety. There is no reason wh
any girl who goes to Manila should not have a glortou
time " :-,
"The tipper class Filipinos mix with the foreigner
to some extent But those Filipinos are dreadfully for
ma). They never give nor do they attend informal
falre In fact, they would not know what to do at theml
The upper class Filipino is in custom and tradition
SDanlard, and a Spaniard is the most formal person 1
the world.
- "The women In Manila dress exceedingly weu.
anvthinev their costumes are more say than' those
the women In New Tork or other, large American cities
They wear a great deal of the native stuffs in thei
frowns, although most of the time the women are dressec
n white became of the intense heat The clothes, how
ever, are or lasmonaoie cut, zor me iaiesi iasniona spreai
to Manna auer meir aaopuvn iu American ciuea.
"t believe that one of the reasons Manila has
clubs Is that there is no servant problem ou
there. The Chinese make excellent servants, and one cad
get as many of them as he or she wants. There Is neve
nv need to worry about servants, but then, worry I
not in the atmosphere out there Tomorrow in Manil
always IS oetver tnan luuay. . .
Sit"ifi "Rnntri lnf Rhvaltv .
preacher, who lost his identity and lived for months '' v . . ... i, '.
as another Individual. ' ' T n .' mBK emperor of Austria' saves his valuable time b
I having a book of cuttings preparea ror mm everi
a moraine by his secretary. These cuttings represen
Whether it is yourself, or a part of yourself, or a
part of the legion of fiends that, originally attached
themselves to the generations of the sens of men, tie
pends largely on the way we look at it
But that some demons, or some other personalities,
demoniacal or human, take possession of -the helpless
brain and body and will is being averred, as a defense,
with greater and greater frequency-, by' - offenders .
against the recognised law, from the Pittsburg tramp
arrested some weeks ago, who alleged he was trying
to escape a demon of gluttony that manifested its
devllishness by compelling him to drink liquor, to the
latest woman who has killed her babies because some
devil prompted her to do It
; The most notorious case of belief in demons oc
curred in the fall, when. In Illinois, a group of Par
hamitea, offshoots of Dowie's Zlon, believed that aged .
Letltla Oreenhaulgh, twfsted and bent with thirty
years of rheumatism,! was Jn the cruel clutches, of a
devil. . . . rri;;:;-,;:;?;',;:;;'"' -: . :"
"He could remember nothlna? nt him lif a
and when his normal self returned he did not know
, anything about the period in Which he was possessed
by another personality which made him do all man
ner of strange things. '
- "When his normal self was restored. Professor
William James, of Harvard, and I hypnotised him, and
he told freely of everything he did while under the
control of his second personality. "
"Maw T .nnt.n ,Ka4 .UnM. . - M A w -I J1 . ,M
stances in everyday life. Normal, sane men-become
afflicted with dual personality and are changed to
nil the nrlnclnal news of the day, and the emperor 1
' thus able to acquaint himself with all the most Importan
news without wading -tnrougn page aiier page oi in
newspapere 1
i It la the duty of his majesty's secretary to slip th
columns of the cuttings into a .dalntlly-bound leathe
case, and the emperor peruses this, little volume at hi
breakfast table l,-'- --.'i .v' .-';'-'-"s
In the event or any or tne articles oeing very ions
demons. When in this state the demon that controls ; however, the secretary has to condense mem and presen
. v. . i , i . . . , . t. . . . . v. . . a. hu m Mtv ,m furt.nrnrT.n Trtrrrt . . '
iiiviii cnumuii auni iirrioie crime ana inert ainas into " J i . v -i
ihiivinn ti it th real n.rnn,n,v Hiinrf iini, , The . Princess of Wales oossesses - a uniaui sera
reap the reward of punishment- ( .... , "v.album. in which all sorts of cuttings; from the soetetjj
"Dual pereonalitT may -be "caused by manr thlnrs' ; papers" relating to herself and ,her royal , relatives arJ
A blow on he head r a sunstroke may set free a devU '' preserved. The title of this book s suggestive, for he
Inside a man that may do all manner of damaare before i witty-royal highness has labeled if: "Words We Neve
It loses control of the moto . centers," -'- Bpok,Things -.we .ijevw uia.
Shall we, because of the demons that are likely to
possess us, revise our courts of law and be careful
to let an expert in psychic science sit in Judgment
.upon all crimesT v-,t- .'-- -; - i-.fi --'V-
The majority -of Euronean rulers subscribe to Dresa
. cutting agencies, and aoNf reat is their desire for Infor
mation that tney insist on reaatieg,.everytning whjch 1
r written about them, whether favorable or otherwise.
in tfcd hV anA wjiu rust, eca wim no wbccibi tw ,
.... vv-;i.v4'' V -'i
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