What Grandmother Wore.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 22 May 1914, Page 2

What Grandmother Wore.

They are saying mean things to our faces Of the trim little hats that we k ? wear, The close-fitting toques and the turbans That keep all the dust from the hair. But do they remember the bonnets,: | The coal-scuttle bonnets of yore, All loaded with feathers and flowers, The bonnets our grandmother wore? The funny cartoonists are flaying The ehort, narrow skirt of to-day, Escaping the germs on the pavemeni In wait to be carried away. Just think of the flounces and scallops, The gathers behind and before, Th« yards that went sweeping the gutters, In the dresses our grandmothers wore. Their delicate shoulders uncovered, And boards in the fronts of their stays, Were some of the tortures that custom Decreed in our grandmothers' days. A waist that waß squeezed like a lemon, Pantalets coming down to the floor, And hoops, were a few of the fashions Our foolish young grandmothers wore. Do you doubt that the world is progressing, And scoff at our latter-day clothe* ? Then go up to the trunks in the gKT« ret Where the garments discarded r»> pose, Put on all the finery faded, The petticoats, too, by the score, And walk—if you can —in the bundles Of dry goods our grandmothers wore.