BUTTONED UP THE BACK.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 34, 4 November 1907, Page 3

BUTTONED UP THE BACK.

■:Thestory is told of a'popular;baritone who iias visited Wellington more than once, that a lady walking along Lambton Quay one morning heard behind her the most mellow of voices saying: "Pardon me,- madam, but your blouse is unbuttoned; may I'do it.up?" and , thei startled but grateful lady-stood still, while the singer deftly fastened the forgotten buttons. Mi-.ny a'time have I thought of - that story, ant , wished I'had the courage of the kindly visitor, but.ibis-one thing to regret that the buttons of the. lady in front are not all done lip, and quite another thing"to offer to remedy the omission. What would ■ ihe do if one offered ? Would she. be grateful or haughty? -While one , hesitates the opportunity is passed, and the buttons remain undone: It; is comforting to know that these problems confront oiir sisters in other lands, arid that iii America' the .question of the buttons at the back has. attracted the attention of so famous a paper as the Springfield "Republican.?, The greatest boon that has befallen women in a century, it declares, was the invention of the shirtwaist, until the enemy of souls, perceiving the immense advance it meant for her, decided to destroy all this by buttoning: it up behind. The blessed little slip, enabling ■ every woman to be fresh and spotless;and deliciously cool in summer, while with a coloured uriderslip to veil whatever winter extras her constitution required, she could still be lawn and lace-waisted all the year round—this little garment bringing Buch simplification to her/general attire that even a walking toilet became only a matter of coat and skirt. ■ _ But no; the whole army of .shirtwaist signers, with all their factories, were ;prdered to withdraw, every vestige of taste or style from the' front-buttoned waist "and lavish ever-fresh novelties of prettiness on the backbuttoned, until at last oveu simple fineness of materials cannot now he had iii the former kind, save'in some stupid lines'of so-called tailor-made waists, not so becoming to most women as the softer'things;' ; ■. A recent search through the entire shirtwaist market ofa certajn city showed not a single front-buttoned waist above 6s. 6d.,'and even' these were inferior to the back-buttoned article sold at'the same figure. ■ ; So that the most informal garment that woman wears, beloved because of its comfort nncL convenience, has been transformed into' a thing she-can neither get into nor out of , ' without another pair of hands than her own, •ir such -torturing twists of her own arms and fingers as-only women of constructed. anatomy can endure, and-few" there,be, even of, these few, who can operate the .middle buttons. , . Where now, in forum or in market place may you not be saluted by some female stranger with- "Excuse me, but if you would kindly help and she presents her back, piteonsly agape as to its middle buttons. Ina i-ural district I know, I heard a woman sny: Mercy, if I didn't have to get the butcher the other,, day to button me up behind! .Children all /gone to school, got to catch ihe, next trolley or lose a wholo hour, and 1- got-so hot and flustratcd trying to < button myself over my head and missing the right; holes and having to begin all over > again, and I couldn't go to tho city hanging by only two or three buttons, or the police ■ would take me up for disorderly, and seeing the butcher's waggon,' I grabbed a towel, dipped one end in water and ran. out, and says I.:' 'As a family man, j'ou must know how it'is,' and says he: 'Lord, if 1 don't know them hindsideaforo things, with all the times I've buttoned my wife into them, and she always run at me just that way, holdin , out a towel, with a wet end and a dry.' And no got his hands cleaned and dried in a jiffy, and buttoned me up .as tidy, and I threw the towel on the porch, and run for my car, putting on my bolt after I got aboard. My oldest girl, Rosy, you know, lias to catch tho early trolley to get to her work in the-cityi-and if my hands happen to be in tho doujrh the last minute, so's I can't do her middle buttons, she justs whips her jacket on right.over 'em till she gets to the store, where the out-of-town girls—there's a lot of 'cm—look over each other's backs before the rush of business begins." Now there , are women who, though they have never been hurried off to work by early morning, cars, yet refuse to submit to this shirtwaist slavery, and their only resource nt jwi-sent, to have all shirtwaists made by their dressmaker, is both troublesome and too costly. What these women ask is that tho shirtwaist'of commerce would cater a little to them. If the designers, would even get up some exclusive lines in the button fronts, touched with the most delicate 'broiderios that can consist with the button-front, and Bee if they would not sell—make it a .little fashionable not to be a fool 1 .

This homily refers, not to gala costumes. Wo say only that woman's everyday back, in the .nost universal everyday garment woman has over worn, needs readjustment, with some reference to her being able to serve herself in a world where to bo served by a professional lady's maid is the privilege of so very few. If the shirtwaist trust will produce to the market a rational, runabout waist in any shape less mean to the eye than the pressnt button-front, we believe rational womankind will hasten to buy it