The Dress of Genius.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 140, 18 March 1909, Page 3

The Dress of Genius.

Since quite a remote period it has been a privilege of the masculine genius to render nis person an advertisement of hi 3 peculiar attainments, says a London paper. He has held a liccr.se to garb himself with eccentric di scrimination. and to carry the distinguishing marks of his talents up even to the crowning disorder of his flowing locks. Sinci women have commenced to climb thoie ladders of fame once sacred to the firm tread of man, a question ha < arisen as to whether or no women of genius are entitled to include eccentricity a part of their stock in trade. In the earlier days of feminine attainment in the arts and the sciences, it was a fact that women of geniu.* showed a tendency to follow masculine precedent in the matter of an outward hallmark of mental distinction; but it was found that what society would tolerate and even encourage in man. it would not sanction in the case of a woman who had launched herself upon a distinguished career. Society declined to recognise the fitness of eccentricity in feminine genius The short-haired woman had to resort to any expedient even the friovlity of the "transformation," in order to cover the honourable crop which was the feminine hirsute retort to the " long-haired" genius of tie opposite sex. At the present moment the woman genius finds herself in the unfair position of having to stand judged by her works alone. The lady scientist, the lady doctor, the lady painter, the lady novelist, and the lady dramatist, have been admitted to compete against the maculine ranks of the profession, but not to share in the glamour cast by a carefully-thought-out and memorable treirdness of appearance. That women of genius are able to succeed without what are, after all, meretricious aids to fame may be a feather in their caps, and there can be no doubt that to their less gifted sisters it is a source of satisfaction to feci that "quite an ordinary looking woman " may possess talents of the higher order. But at the same time while men of genius are still very often better known to the world by their dress than their deeds, the merely fashionable exterior which is expected in a woman often amounts to a handicap of genius.