6 



In 1863 life was vastly different from what it is 

 to-day. Seventy-four years ago women wore crinoline 

 (a long petticoat made to project all round by means 

 of wire hoops); they encased themselves in whale- 

 bone stays or corsets, wore thick bodices, woollen 

 stockings, and high-buttoned or elastic-sided boots; 

 their hair was piled over pads on top of their heads, 

 and most of them had never heard of lipstick. 

 Children looked quite "cute" in little pantalettes with 

 lace edges. 



Men shaved their upper lips and chins, wore high- 

 crowned hats, thick flannel underwear, big watches and 

 bigger watch-chains, worked from twelve to fourteen 

 hours a day, and lived to a ripe old age. 



To-day, women wear silk stockings or no stockings, 

 short and narrow skirts, low shoes with high heels, no 

 corsets, and an ounce of underwear. They "bob" their 

 hair and cultivate "perms," paint their lips, their 

 cheeks and their finger and toe nails, powder their 

 noses, drink cocktails, and smoke cigarettes. 



Men, nowadays, have high blood-pressure (un- 

 heard of seventy years ago), in many cases do not wear 

 hats, keep up the instalments on their motor cars, talk 

 about "going round in fifty-seven," 

 "Tumble Nature heels o'er head and, yelling with the 



yelling street, 

 Set the feet above the brain and swear the brain is in 



the feet," 



as Tennyson writes; work as few hours as possible, 

 and die young. 



* 



And the homes of the people have experienced 

 great changes. The modern bungalow, with simple 

 but .comfortably furnished sitting-rooms, and hair 

 mattresses and open windows in the bedrooms, has 

 taken the place of the house of the sixties with the 

 canary's cage and a pot of aspidistras in the parlour 

 window, a photograph album and the children's school 



