PHYSICAL ECONOMICS. 



By E. MARGUERITE LINDLEY. 



Summer is ended. Short skirts 

 have been every woman's bliss 

 whether or not she was a golfist. 

 What is she to do now, when she 

 returns cityward? Adopt the long 

 street skirt again, with its ragged, 

 dirty edge, and weary her arms in 

 her fruitless attempt to hold it 

 above street filth? What is the 

 use of women's clubs If they have 

 no strength when establishing hy- 

 gienic measures for our sex is con- 

 cerned? 



The question of dress for club 

 women has been very strongly dis- 

 cussed of late in regard to elabo- 

 rateness of dress while attending 

 club functions. Should or should 

 not the woman of means wear her 

 elegant gowns in the presence of 

 those who from economy's pressing 

 needs must dress plainly. That, in 

 brief, is the question shorn of all 

 apologies and of all attempts to 

 make an ugly fact appear a grace- 

 ful one. 



The question has been met too 

 radically in the positive or affirma- 

 tive, and by those who give a per- 

 sonal view only, forgetting that 

 there are a great number of points 

 to be considered, all of them 

 equally sensible, and that to meet 

 a question of such import one must 

 put herself in the place of a score 

 of others and give an impartial 

 opinion. 



Club life levels all financial 

 grades. There the woman of 

 means finds herself of no more im- 

 portance than the woman of econ- 



omy, providing their mental status 

 is on an equality. It would be a 

 tooL'sh waste of time to discuss 

 the frivolous woman of wealth, or 

 her whose wealth is too new for it 

 to have become a part of her. In- 

 stead, we will consider the woman 

 of refinement and culture who is 

 blessed with affluence and who dis- 

 plays no air of superiority over her 

 less favored neighbor. The true 

 woman of economy also experiences 

 no feeling of inferiority because of 

 her plain attire. Her paper carries 

 just as much weight in club life as 

 her wealthy neighbor's, providing- 

 it is equally well prepared. 



The wealthy woman is accus- 

 tomed to elegance and would not 

 appear natural in inferior clothing. 

 Her dress is a part of her. Let no 

 one dispute her freedom in taste. 

 When unfavorable criticism is 

 made on her taste and personal ap- 

 pearance, she is probable to retire 

 from the club. No one, however 

 sensitive on the question of econ- 

 omy can desire this. 



The woman who spends her 

 money for expensive fabrics, and 

 employs dressmakers and other 

 trades people, is aiding greatly all 

 enterprises. Sometimes she fur- 

 nishes clerkships for the husbande 

 of the very women who are one 

 sided enough to criticize her elabo- 

 rateness of dress. 



The point first mentioned in re- 

 gard to club women and dress, 

 should concern us all. We have 

 enough in that one topic,, "hygienic 



