ROYALTY AND HOBBLE SKIRT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1123, 10 May 1911, Page 9

ROYALTY AND HOBBLE SKIRT.

Earl Spencer's notification to leading London dressmakers that wearers of hobble .skirts will not be admitted to the Eoyal pre.-enc; may help to hasten tho doom of that much criticised garment, says the "Daily Telegraph." Possibly the edict has been issued iu order thac ladies may not canto consternation at Court by tumbling over backwards in an endeavour to curtsey to Royalty while closely hobbled. Several accidents have been recorded recently as having been caused by the tied-in skirt, which gives tho wearer no room to move. But whatever the cause of tho authoritative announcement, the effect will bo a serious menace to Hie fashionable stability of the hobble. Yet tho discriminating philosopher may pause amid the rush of more momentous happenings to reflect that as there is a soul of good in all things evil, so even the hobble, skirt was not without one redeeming point. It necessitated skirts being worn short enough to clear the ground. The wearer of the hobble skirt as she joggles her way deftly along the street does not, at any rate; sweep up the orange peel and the empty cigaretteboxes, the tram tickets and the . cigar stumps, that her cider sister who wore the long-trained skirt was accustomed to gather as she walked. And, therefore, the hobble undoubtedly brought far fewer diseasc-microbes into the homes of the people than did its predecessor: If skirts can still be worn short enough to escape sweeping the pavement the hobble, though now discredited, will not have existed iu vain.