Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



175 



THE BUSINESS GIRL'S DRESS. 



In the first numbt-r of the Busiiuss GIri, the official 

 organ of the Institution of Women Shorthand Typists, 

 monthly id., an employer's message suggests, as a 

 matter of interest for discussion, the question of 

 dress : — 



As an emp'oyer I think it would be a capital idea to decide 

 upon a standard of business dress. Of course I may be wrong, 

 and I realise I am getting a little out of my depth, but 1 just 

 give the hint. Most girls dress suitably for oftice work, but 

 some do not, and I do not see what objection there could be to 

 a uniform dress of suitable character just as nurses and others 

 have found desirable. 



Another writer on clothes for office wear says : — *" 



Clothes well cut on simple lines and of good material look 

 well to the last. Perhaps the shirt blouse and plain skirt is the 

 most workmanlike style, but to some girls the cashmere Quaker 

 dress is very becoming, and if the muslin yoke and under sleeves 

 are kept very fresh there is nothing to be said against it. 



The avcr.ige bu-iness girl is well dressed, i.e., her coat, skirt, 

 blouse, and hat are generally neat and suitable. But the con- 

 dition of hair, finger-nails, neck, waist-wear, and shoes often 

 leaves niuih to be desircil, and it is in the amount of car; they 

 bestow on these details that girls differ so much. Often a repu- 

 tation for being " well dressed " is gained by careful attention 

 to details of the toilet. 



It is not permissible to wear any chains, bangles, or trinkets 

 of any kind, except a watch, and, if necessary for fastening 

 purposes, a brooch, durini,' working hours. 



A third writer tells of an eccentric employer who 

 could not bear green, and therefore gave a girl the 

 money to buy another dress, any colour but green. 



"BLOOD ON YOUR DRESS!" __ 



In a fantasy by .\rchibald Sullivan in London the 

 Modern Woman is ^hown by Fa.shion the massacre of 

 innocent birds and other animals which had gone tu 

 furnish her wardrobe : — 



Then through the shadow of the Room women anil girls 

 began to pass. A white-faced child with blood -pricked fingers 

 wept over an embroidery-frame. The Passionflower she 

 embroidered was spott' d minutely in scarlet drops. She passed 

 the Modern Wonian with a cry. Half crucified over her 

 machine a seamstress pcilalleil furiously, and the clicking of it 

 came like the soufi'l of cnslancts. .She, too, went by, but 

 weeping softly — weeping carefully away from the fineness of her 

 work, .shopgirls in black, colourless as dead things, passed on, 

 only pausing to stare into the .McKlcrn Woman's eyes. Still 

 ihey cime. All the ■.no who had crooked their backs, blinded 

 ihcir eyes, stabl)e<l ih'ir fingers for her in garrets and cellars — 

 in places even worse tli-in Intth. Kach carried a dress of hers or 

 a fragment of endiroi'Ury. Her white cripc with the silver 

 wheat lay like a sick child in the arms of a dying woman. The 

 grey linen, stitched and rcstitched beyond all counting, slashed 

 hci across the face as it went by. All this in the half-light. She 

 turned to Fashion, ami her voice was like some strange, wilil 

 thing. 



" It's all your work ! It's all by your orders!" ijic crie<l 

 hoarsely. " I thought that in saving the animals I saved every- 

 body suflcring. Wiiy didn't you tell mo 7 How could I l>e 

 expected to know t" 



Then the shade of Kve enters, and says : — 



" It all began in I'.den," she 5«id softly, " when we were given 

 coals of skin»." 



*' But it must »lop I It's got to end I " cried the Molern 

 Woman. 



WOMAN AS TEACHER. 



"The Monopolising Woman Teacher'' is the 

 title of a racy article by Mr. C. W. Bardeen in the 

 January (.American) Educational Rci'kw. The writer 

 quotes the following statement : — 



The number of men teachers decreased between 1882 and 

 1895, '" America, from 72*6 per cent, to 68'5 per cent. ; in 

 France, between 1886 and 1896, from 54*5 per cent, to 424 

 per cent. ; between 18S1 and 1901, in Italy, from 412 per 

 cent, to 35"4 per cent. ; and in Great Britain, from 29'6 per cent. 

 to 268 per cent. 



k WOMAN WITH THE I..\RGEST S.4L.\RV. 



In the several States in America the percentage of 

 women has risen from ninety to nearly ninety-six. The 

 writer says : — 



To-day the largest salary paid in the world to a public 

 school teacher is paid to a wonian. The action for equal 

 salaries for men and women is universal. The immediate 

 working in New York is to make the salary of tho;e entering 

 the system, which had been 600 dollars for women and 900 

 dollars for men, 720 dollars for both. But at 900 dollars it 

 h.id already become impossible to secure satisfactory men ; 

 how inany are likely to present themselves at 720 dollars ? 

 Where men and women get the same salary and are equally 

 eligible the men will vanish. 



\vom.\n's defect. 



The writer finds the most serious difficulty of all 

 that a woman does not grasp what a man means by 

 sense of honour. To women principles count for 

 little when persons are involved. Did you ever 

 hear of a woman who would not rather consign law 

 and justice and the entire structure of society to the 

 demnition bow-wows than that her son should be 

 hanged ? 



Man sees an idea in its relation to the rest of the world, in 

 perspective. Woman sees only the one idea, whether a person 

 or a cause. Some of the noblest women I know are suffragists, 

 y.nd there is not one of them who, when her o|itnion of a public 

 man is asked, will not stale first his attitude on that subject and 

 base the rest of her judgment on that fact. The modern 

 English suffragette, for instance, thinks that the one end she has 

 in view justifies the means, though it involve the destruction of 

 every law and principle of society and the conversion of women 

 into a nuisance that every man loathes. 



A STONE LIBRARY. 



The idea of the tcrra-rotta library has been made 

 familiar to us by the explorations of the Assyriologist, 

 l)ut the stone library of China referred to in the 

 Oriental Rci'iew for January is perhaps not so well 

 known : - 



There is one public library in Peking. It is the library of 

 the Kuo Tie Chicn, or "School of the Sons of the K.mpirc," 

 an ancient university that existed a ihousami years Iwfore the 

 Christian era. This library is of stone. On 182 tablets of 

 stone composing it are carveil all of the " Thirteen Classics," 

 the summary and essence of all Chinese culture. 



In the Imperial lecture hall of this Kuo Tie Chien the 

 I'.mpcror would go once a year to hear a discourse on the 

 resp'insibilitics and duties of his office and would receive reproof 

 and rxhortation from the Ucails of the institution. 



The stone library in Peking is only a copy of that in Shi .\n 

 1 II, in Shcn-si, which w.as the capital of the empire. 



