8 "
Spring Fashions
Give Women Big
Cho ice in Colors
However Milady Need Not
Worry for the Silent Shades
Will Rule This Season as
Predicted,
By
Anne Rittenhouse.
(Copvrifjbt. 131D. t.y th McCImc Newspaper
:rvicn. )
THE women who wore troubled
about the oviT-brilliainy or col
oring demanded for.tlieir clothes,
may be at re.t.
What Kodier h:is named silent
colors have superseded tlie oriental
ones that blazed a striking path
through this planet since the cult of
Poiret and Rakst began.
J-n the hands of great masters like
these,, gorgeous colors were put
through their paces, but in the count
lets hands of amateurs who piled red
upon purple, blue upon green without
knowledge or study, tie result was
enough to make the people of Mars
think we hail gone mad, if their tele
, scopes are strong enough to see us
tunning about the earth like multi
eolored prints.
.Whether or not such weavers and
dyers as Rodier and Illanchlni liked
Clio Indian and Slavic shades they
were compelled, or rather persuaded.
Into making by the wish of the de
signers, no one knows. They cid the
work beautifully, and if their art
could have been repeated in all the
mills that produce, fabrics, all would
have been well: but rarely did their
" copyists get the right shade, end so
confusion was added to ignorance.
A red and a green used in Paris
by a designer wiis h'l.i'ded here as
the latest fashion. 0 unless one
had the opporttmitv my these col
ors from headfiuai t . i s inl'aris, there
was no way of getting them: nat
urally, the masses of women had to
accept what was given them, and they
went about in what was a travesty
of the original fashion.
Even In the smart places in Amer
ica, where one paid absurdly high
prices, there was no guarantee that
the one touch of marvelous color that
Rave a frock distinction could be re
peated when the gown was copied.
Most of the dissatisfaction among
women who have French models
copied by their own dressmakers
arose from that constant deficiency.
Paris Monopolise Shades.
The American dressmaker had her
troubles on this score also. She
bought the gowns in Paris and was
compelled to buy each of the trjaterials
there that went toward the building
of them, for the American markets
do not imitate the French colors any
where near the mark, and, often make
no attempt to do It, or even copy the
weave. France has a monopoly on
these shades at the beginning of each
season, to judge by their exclusive
nesR. Therefore, our dressmakers buy from
the fabric people abroad as much of
each material in Us proper color as
they think will be needed over here.
Judging by their usual trade in gowns.
Sometimes they overbuy: again they
underbuy. In the first instance they
lose money unless they can put this
surplus to some rood use, and in the
other esse they are apt to lose a cus
tomer or gain her dissatisfaction be
cause the wrong shade was used on an
expensive frock that depended on a
certain shading to make it worth its
valuation by the dressmaker.
Maybe you are only an onlooker at
this absorbing money-making and
money-lohing" "game of buying clothes.
If so, you must have wondered why It
was that bo many women wore such
hideous colors, and. of course, you put
It down to French influence. "You ex
claimed in horror and patriotism over
this yielding of our women to the art
of such colorists as the modern French
i school had produced. and wandered
when such perversion of good3 Amer
ican taste would stop.
V Had you been privileged to see the
original offering as the French de-
signer put It out you might have won
dered why the average American
woman who bought cheap clothes was
Tot versed in the simplest rules of
color schemes. The copy was no more
like the original than the daubs of the
student In the Louvre are like preat
; masters. When one knows the secrets
' of rare Color combinations then, in
deed, does one mount high in the
realm of art.
Of course, the first trouble started
in the trying to copy rare colors in
cheap work. And the second trouble
was In attempting to make bricks
"without straw. In other words, to
create a French frock without the aid
of a. French dye pot.
Silent Color Will Kale.
Jt needs no color card to convince
one that the tones that do not shriek
will ., be .the ones insisted upon this
spring and summer. Rodier's state
ment that all his colors would be si-
lent: ones brought the public atten
tion, through the felicMxof a phrase,
.to the -knowledge that this was not
-the time for noisy colors.
i One of the leading American houses
had announced early In the year that
It would feature soft tones that bad
8 WHAT WELL
my
7
This bonnet is made of brown
straw, trimmed with tiny pink
flowers and flowered ribbon
ends.
been manufactured here, each of
which bore American names, such as
Palm Reach sand, Gettysburg gray,
Oregon green, etc. These names
would attract interest, but not pur
chasers, if the tones had not merit in
themselves, which, however, they
have.
All the gamut of glowing browns
without ugliness are especially fea
tured in this output, and as beige,
twine and their sisters are already
popular, this drifting toward u deeper
shade is within the general color
scheme for the incoming season. The
new tone of brown is altogether
lovely, and resembles the London
smoke shades that were far more
appreciated in fabrics than in reality.
Gray will take on a new lease of
life. ft is in silver, cloud, gunmetal,
pearl, fog arid in a tone called moon
light when the medium is sequins.
The recrudescence of this shade
brings cut steel back into fashion,
and it is apt to go hand in hand with
cut Jet throughout the season, and
to tbe latter there is. apparently, no
l.mif put this year.
As opposed to the fashion for dead
colors, s-ui-h as gray anil brown (no
matter how living they appear by
r ason of the wonderful dves 1 1 : t
have been found for them), there is
also to be a strong fashion of flow
ered fabrics. So look in the trunk
upstairs and see if you or your im
mediate ancestors have saved floral
silks and muslins from the gayeties of
other days.
Striped materials also are to be
prominent. Muslin, lawn, linen, voile
with thick or thin stripes in colors
are to be made into blouses and
frocks for morning and afternoon
wear. Striped ginghams are coming
back for everyday frocks for summer
days. The smartest blouses are of
white and blue, and white and pink
lawn, made without tucks or pleats,
with a square yoke and a front or
side fastening.
Frocks are to be built in these col
orings with bands of plain blue which
act as5 a frame, always a good idea
when stripes are employed. One
wants a frock to have a sharp sil
houette, not drift away into vague
ness, leaving the onlooker in doubt
as to its designer's purpose. Gowns,
like persons, must have some strong
quality to give them character, to give
them a certain solidity that you can
get hold of.
Grandmothers' Gowns Again.
It is not easy to reason out whv
we are apt to term all the quaint
clothes of indefinite periods a grand
mothers gowns, but women "and dress
makers have a way of doing this
When invitations come out for an
old-fashioned party, one immediately
seeks out some kind of ruffled flow
ered frock with ribbons. And this is
what the designers are giving us now
to serve as modern costumes. The
idea has been creeping in since No
vember and possibly Mrs. Castle in
her Lucille frock for dancing an 'old
fashioned polka, gave added impetus
to the project of modernizing what
has passed for fancy dress clothes.
We hae become so familiar with
the appearance of all kinds of women
at all kinds of occasions wearing
what seemed to be fancy dress cos
tumes, especially those "taken from
the tales of the Arabian Nights, that
anything bo demure as a flowered
silk gown, beribboned, which is asso
ciated with the polka, looks as quiet
and home-made as a patchwork quilt.
It is a leap from what is and what
has been, to these flounced frocks
but women probably will enjoy the
Jump very much. It pleases their
sense of contrast. They know that
these frocks will take twice as much
material as the gowns of yesterday,
and this may give them cause to
pause, but it Is such a distinct vic
tory for the workers who profit by
the sales of double the quantity for
a frock, that they should apply the
doctrine of higher economics to the
purchase and not be disturbed by the
lower ethics of personal economy
that is what the social thinkers tell
us and they rule public opinion In
these socialistic days.
The mill people, were wont to put
the lack of work' and profit on the
foolishness and vanity of women who
wanted to be clothed scantilv; now,
we are threatened with more material
on our bodies than our diligently
kept slenderness can stand, so let us
hope that someone will profit. Surely,
it is the reverse of the wheel of fash
ion for which the weavers sighed, and
it should remedy a part of the work
ers conditions if not the whole.
These grandmothers' gowns are
made of flowered or striped silks,
with flounces that extend from the
waist to ankles. They are full, r
scant, as one wishes. Each la edged
THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING,
Smart coat of white corduroy w orn
with a band of satin or velvet ribbpn
of moderate width. The bodice is cut
off the shoulders, or it is square in
the fashion of Janice Meredith's day,
and built high at the back by a plain
ly drawn scarf of tulle or chiffon.
The waistline is normal, and, if one
wishes to be quite in the picture of
other days, then the bodice is pointed
in the middle front and boned to stay
in its place.
Assembling Various Periods.
Possibly we shall continue to look as
though we were at a fancy dress party
if we are assembled in Empire frocks,
Colonial ones, those of 1880 and 1850,
with a dash of Russian and Algerian,
which it may be impossible to keep
out. It is safe to assert that
if 60 women were foregath
ered each wearing a gown per
fectly adapted to the new spring fash
ions, the appearance would be that
they had responded to an invitation to
a costume ball representing a half
dozen periods.
As far as one can Judge from the
meager information that the experts
give, there will be as much laxity in
choice of fashionable apparel from now
until June as there has been since last
June. If this condition is continued it
might result in the elimination of that
feish "the leading fashion" and give
EMBROIDERED GOWN
Spring costume of embroidered
bine satin and pleated moussel
ine trimmed with1 bands of fur.
This is a 'Paris creation.
DRESSED
"with black and white check skirt.
women and dressmakers a far better
chance to display initiative.
There are styles, however, that are
not in the running any longer, wide as
the choice remains. The skirt -that is
narrow across the back at the knees,
and pulled up and forward to the front
with a sash from hem to knees, is
among the things that are reckoned as
dead.
The long coat is another fashion
with a taboo, unless it serves as an
overcoat, and the wide elbow sleeves
with a lowered armhole should be
abandoned by those who still cling
to it.
Long skirts for any occasion are not
reckoned in the spring styles, for even
when there is train, it is not part of a
hem that sweeps the floor all around,
but a separate attachment.
Coats that fasten below the waist
line are abandoned for those whose
buttons, always prominent, end above
the waist, or merge into a girdle.
The long waistline on jackets is meet
ing with strong opposition, but no one
can safely predict that its day Is done.
The same leniency may be claimed
for the high collar. True, it is the
leading collar, but no one can deny
that the. wide, rolling, low one has
many adherents; the new white
blouses that were offered this week
have collars in this shape, and do not
even compromise with the fashion that
calls for a high buttoned stock.
Over in Paris the women practically
have abandoned the collar that closes
up the front, but they show that they,
bend to the demand for the high one
by allowing the bones to keep it up in
the back and at the sides, and, after
going that far. the material is simply
cut away from under the chin. This
trick keeps down any semblance of a
double roll of flesh at the spot where
a woman detests it. The collar that
buttons in a straight line around the
neck always adds to a woman's age,
therefore, why accept it? There are
so many ways of getting around it.
There is a tendency on all sides to
lower the collar on coats also; "it is
not reasonable to suppose that the
coachman's collar of fur, which has
been such a happy note in street cos
tumes, will be repeated in cloth. It
wouldn't go with the mild weather.
Cheruit is making a bid for the re
turn of the shawl revers, and Bernard
and Drecoll are giving sorhe attention
to the plain revers and collar of other
days. These are not especially grace
ful, and it is to be hoped that we shall
get hold of something more enlivening
to the coat when the new fashions
come out in March.
Duchess Must Pay
Large War Tax
Daughter of Cincinnati Capitalist Will
Contribute Annually o to Great
Britain's Army and Wavy Sxpenses.
Cincinnati, Feb. 20. As long as the-
war lasts the British government -will
force from the Duchess of Manchester
$150,000 a year as Income war tax.
After the war her tax on Income will
be about $75,000.
This is based on the valuation of
the estate of her father, the late Eu
gene Zimmerman, at $10,000,000. Her
Income will be about $600,000 a year.
The British law has carefully pro
vided for all contingencies, so even
If the duchess' income Is from Amer
ica it will make no difference. Being
the wife of an Englishman, she must
pay.
A Horse Ijangh.
Springfield Republican.
Motorist (blocked byload of hay)
"I say, there, pull out and let me by."
Farmer "'Oh, I dunno ei I'm In any
hurry."
Motorist (angrily "You seemed in
a hurry to let that other fellow's
carriage get past."
Farmer "That's cause his horse was
eatin' my hay. There hain't no dan
ger o' yew eatin' it, I reckon."
WOMEN
7' dBF : I
r " .' i it i , .i : i - - - w mjw vi s rr ri i hi sa"i sT a tmUIsT
On the left is a summer frock of
TSreathe all the fresh air you can
get, night and day. That's what
fresh air Is for. The fearsome legend
about the baleful influences of "night
air" is only another of the carefully
nursed insanitary bequests from our
ancestors, according to Senior Sur
geon Banks, of the United States pub
lic health service.
Whence this superstition arose may
only be surmised. Perhaps it is a
survival of the primeval cult of sun
worship, which led the ancients to
classify anything outside the sphere
of solar influence. Our forebears
were wont to caution their offspring
to "be careful about the night air," or
children were ordered to "come in out
of the night air." It is perhaps for
tunate for the children living in the
Arctic circle, where the nights are
six months long, that the Eskimo
mothers do not entertain this , crude
notion about night air, else their
progeny would spend half the year in
doors. This idea is generally prevalent and
even one of our well-known flowers
is loaded down with the horrible name
of "Deadly Nightshade," as a sort of
verbal relic of thisf old notion. The
low-lying mist or fog that sometimes
gathers about the surface of the earth
under certain atmospheric conditions,
after sunset, was held, is held, to be
"miasmatic" and pregnant with lethal
possibilities. This is worthy of all
the respect that should be put to any
hoary superstition, , but its place Is in
the specimen Jars of an archaeologi
cal museum, not in the show room
of modern, intelligent life.
Wight Air Wo Different.
The night air, minus the sun, isno
different from the atmosphere' of a
sunless day. The atmospheric en
velope ofthe earth does not change
from benign to malign in the twink
ling of an eye after sundown. It is
still composed of oxygen, nitrogen,
argon and carbon dioxide in the nor
mal proportions, for the given local
ity. The open air treatment of tuber
culosis and its kindred allies had first
to combat this venerable Jargon about
the deadliness of night air, and only
the remarkable ,results of this hygien
ic aid to its cure brought the super
stitious to a realization of the silli
ness of their ingrained noctophobia.
This generation has witnessed the
emancipation of human beings in re
spect to. the value of fresh air, wheth
er In bulk or In smaller "drafts."
From being a people immersed in her
metically sealed rooms at night,
breathing our own bodily exhalations
over and over again, a constantly in
creasing number of persons are sleep
ing In the open, or at least with pen
windows, summer and winter, to their
great benefit. In the morning they
are refreshed with the pure oxygen of
Breathe Fresh Air
Night and Day
Superstition Dispelled.
FEBRUARY 21, 1915.
WILLWEmBH
white batiste, with a little jacket pf blue silk and a pink vest. On
-with pink and blue bead trimming.
the air breathed during sleep, not
"stewed" nor "seedy" after eight hours
spent In respiring and re-resplring-second
hand and shop worn air in a
closed bedroom.
A story from the trenches In France
is that a soldier wrote borne to his
wife to open her windows at night as
he had found that the night air "didn't
hurt one bit." That is the experience
of all the advocates of this sensible
custom once tried the old custom of
sealing one's self In an airtight bed
room is never renewed. Diseases
which involve the lungs can usually
be traced to their beginning in poorly
ventilated sleeping apartments, inside
rooms that do not have a share of
the atmosphere Nothing can live well
or long without oxygen in the air, and
it was given to us for breathing, night
and day. not to be taken in sparingly,
as if it were a dangerous potion. Some
people are actually afraid of ordinary,
common air.
Those emancipated persons who open
their windows at night will tell you,
unanimously, that they cannot breathe
in a chamber unless the window Is
raised. Their sense of comfort and
vigor demands the life giving Quali
ties of fresh air. No greater prophy
lactic advice can be promulgated than
to breathe all the fresh atmospheric
air you can get, nigbt and day.
RICE DESSERTS
Rice is one of the most nutritious
desserts and can be offered in a vari
ety of combinations, in addition to the
more commonly known pudding. To
boil the rice and secure large separate
.'grains, use the following directions:
Wash a cupful of rice in - several
waters, and in the meantime have not
less than a quart of water boiling
briskly on the stove. Sprinkle the
rice in so slowly that it will not stop
the boiling, and, without covering the
pot, boll rapidly for 30 minutes. Turn
tbe rice Into a colander and pour over
it a quart fo cold water. Carry the
colander on a plate to tbe oven door
and toss the rice lightly with a fork
while the heat passes through, it, being
careful not -to break the grains. If
the rice is to be served in molds,
tetter results will be secured by cook
ing one cupful of rice In a double
boiler 'with a quart of sweet milk and
a dash of salt. This will require an
hour more and the rice, when finished,
should look like a thick blanc mange,
the kernels having lost their shape
entirely.
To make a nutritious and tasteful
dessert from rice cooked in this fash-'
ion, pour the rice while hot into a
deep mold which has been dipped into
cold water. When chilled, turn the
rice on a plate, fill the hollow with
fresh fruit thickjy powdered with pul
verized sugar, and let tbe fruit' rise
above the rice mold in pyramid form.
Serve with whipped cream. The hol
low may also be filled with a simple
boiled custard, rather stiff and cov
ered with a meringue baked to a deli
cate golden brown.
Eugenics and the
War Brides
By Rev. Mabel Irwin.
The heart of many a woman, work
ing for the uplift of her sex, is filled
with bitterness when she reads of the
encouragement given to soldiers by
the prelates of England and Germany
to hastily marry before going to war.
They cry out that the European war
has set back the woman's cause two
thousand years; that the world of
men is again regarding woman simply
as a "breeder of food for cannon;"
and on the face of It, it does look like
a turning back of the clock for wo
man's advancement.
But for woman to win out In this
battle for her- rights her faith must
be so strong that nothing not even
war, with all its horrors can shake
it. The woman's hour is here not to
be turned back and she should begirt
to see that as mother the destiny of
nations lies primarily In her hands,
not in man's; that since it is she that
bears and brings to birth all the war
riors that shall ever be it lies with
her to say whether these sons of hers
shall go forth to battle with other
sons in a fratricidal war or wheth
er they shall - learn at the mother's
knee that "He that ruleth his spirit
is better than he that taketh a city."
The War Brides.
And again: Whatever may be the
purpose of the prelates who thus en
courage marriag- under such circum
stances, the probability is thato the
lovers themselves, the soldier lad and
his lassie, this encouragement comes
as a'Vspecial boon. If so, it may not
result in so dire a thing as prophe
sied. .
Should little children be born to
these girl-wives left behind, would
they not rather nave it so, rather than
to separate with no bond between
them to comfort them in thetr wait
ing and possible bereavement?
Dreadful a Is war in its effect
upon future generations, and from a
eugenic point cf view, because of th
unfit left behind to propagate the
race is it not possible that the chil
dren born from these hasty unions
may be of a particularly fine order?
Not yet had the cruelty and lust
of war. which is incited by carnage,
taken possession of the soldier lal.
onlyhe spirit of patriotism and the
willingness to sacrifice his ".
need be. to his country s call. the
quick pulsing of his blood as in Im
agination he marches on to victory.
While in the heart of the woman
who loves him. and would gladly have
married him under any circumstan
ces, there is a pride in being s spl
dier's bride. There is a welllng-up
of tenderness toward him who . now
goes to battle for home and native
land. j ;'
These conditions of mind and -heart
-. - K . v : -
the right
Is a soft pink taffeta
would be conducive to the begetting
and beaiing of not a generation of
warriors eager to get at each other's
throats, but a generation of lovers, ,
strong and tender a race of men and
women who, working together in free- . i
dom, might Inaugurate Instead of f u- :
ture wars- h reign of peace that
should be without end. -
And Ih, this instance if thee has
tily arranged marriages should prove
to be hut the craft of warlike men,
may we not believe that the craft, like .
"The wrath of man," nhallbe made
to- praise Him? :
Says a Good Cook
Can Make Fortune
Chicago Education Urges Womea to
Turn to the Kitchen and Become "a
Pearl Without Price."
' Chicago. Feb. 20. "The woman who
can cook better than other women can
make her fortune these days."
Miss Dora Wells, principal of the
Lucy Flower Technical school, paused
Impressively as she voiced this opinion
before 20-1 or more well gowned fern- ,
Inine representatives of the education-,
al world in the Hotel LaHalle. Thejr
were attending the first annual con- .
vention of the Vocational Education ,
association of the middle went, and i -
Miss Wellr was discussing "Tbe NeeJa
of Women."
"The woman who can cook, and eopk
well, is a pearl alove priee," lss con
tinued. "She need not worry about her
Job. Her services always will be"h
demand.
"I am looking forward to the day
when household work will be so highly
ternrded that a woman can take a po
sition in a kitchen with no more loss of .
dignity thsn if she were a nurse or
dressmaker.
"The trouble . with domestic service j
Is that It is not utanaarnuea. House
wives think they are buying a girl's
time. What they are buying is her-J-bor.
Ttshould be .possible for the maid
to keep as regular hours as the steno
rapher. Housewives say this cannot be
done. It can be done. .- ,
"Women must learn to specialists In
housework as men learn to specialise
in law or in medicine. The sooner they
do tnt" tne oonr will they be recog
nized as ccpartners with men on a foot,
ing of perfect equality: the sooner they
do this the sooner will divorce and oth
er grave social problems be solved.
The question of organizing the home
efficiently is one of the biggest ques
tions of the day.'
Another Atrocity. -Punch.
Shopkeeper Candles are up ; In
price today, y'know, Jdrs. O'FJynn
on account of the war. . .
Mrs. O'Klynn Och! Bad cemm to
them Germans! Why can't they ba
fighting by daylight? !