DR KING AND THE LADIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 260, 27 October 1908, Page 4

DR KING AND THE LADIES.

FASHIONS WILL I'KEVAIL. Dr. Truby King lias been delivering in Wellington one 01 his characteristic dincourses , of admonition and protest (writes Frank Morton)). He lias been pointing out the absurdities of fashion, and the murderous fully of unwholesome clothing. The ladies present were greatly impressed; but I'll warrant that by the time they next go shopping they will'have forgotten that there is such a person as Dr. 'i'mby King. The doctor is a 'passionate lover of the raci, and one of the sanest and cleanest philanthropists it was ever my pleasure to meet, lie is a keen enthusiast, with far greater faith i u humanity than J. have ever had any reason to feel or In profess. But when he seeks to reason with the modern woman about her clothes, there's no hope lor him. It's no use attempting to reason with the modern woman, anyway. If you can't dominate her through her all'e'ctions, or sway her by appeal to her prejudices, you may as well give her up at once -and ha' done. You may.find your compensation in the reflection -that she is the most changeable creature in the universe—in her dress as in other matte's. She wears to-day things that were con sidered improper fifty years ago, and that will be considered, disreputable again fifty years from now. If you desire her to wear healthful and hygienic clothing, Dr. King, you jiuist first ma-te clothing of that sort fashionable for her. Once make it fashionable, and she will cheerfully 'walk down town in a potato bag. .Make it fashionable, and you shall see her go to church smiling on stilts, liut until you make it fashionable, you shall not persuade her t-i wear even Hie girdle of Aphrodite or llio zaimph 01 Tanit. In short, she will do whatever the fashions reipiire of her, and she will not be driven to do anything without the fashions' .sanction. Adhering to that rule, she is delicious in her minor inconsistencies. They have always detested sumptuary laws and arbitrary rules and class monopolies in dress. They are marvellously obstinate and persistent. In 1-120, Charles VI. of France forbade loose women to wear girdles adorned with gold and embroidery. They resisted the law, although their girdles were literally torn from tlieni. and they themselves iu many cases injured and imprisoned. They could not be brought to reason. At length they fairly tired out. the authorities, and were ieft in possession of their girdles. Thereupon all chaste women discontinued the use of girdles, and there came into existence the proverb, "Uoud name is better fame thin girdle gilt." The ultimate result was quaint. The ladies of no virtue, noting the action of the virtuous dames, tlieni selves abandoned their girdles. So that girdles were no longer worn in either class, and the idiosyncrasy of women brought about the thing that the law and all its force had utterly failed to accomplish. You will find a description of Aphrodite's own girdle in the Iliad, XIV. 21."). I give you Pope's translation, which has been condemned, but will serve:

" In this was evcrv act and every charm Xo win the wisest and the coldest worm; Fond love, the gentle vow, the gay desire, '. The kind deceit, the still-reviving five. ' Persuasive speech and more persuasive sighs, ' Silence that spoke the eloquence of eyes." ! FREAKS OF FASHION. Of the freaks of fashion there is no ' end. Thirty years ago, when f was a r small buy, the ladies were wearing teri ribly disfiguring arrangements lli.'ll known as dress-improvers. To-day, in [ l-iondon, they are wearing Direetoire costumes that carry the kid glove idea |0 ; its perfectly logical conclusion, so to speak. About ISUII, ladies used to wear pads in front, with the queerest oll'eel. At the same period men dropped the old shoe-buckles, and adopted strings. Each sex made desperate fun of the other in consequence. There was a sung of the time with lines running: "i'll sa-v it again and again, That pads female beauty disgrace, And shoe-strings look childish in men.'' The abolition of the .shoe-buckle ha 1 its more serious side, in that it ruined a flourishing trade. The period of the Restoration \r,iimprobably the most slavishly fashionable in English history. There is a note on the subject in Chamberlain. He says, " In the time of Queen Elizabeth sometimes the high Dutch, sometimes the Spanish, and sometimes the Turkish and Mori--™ habils were by the Knglisli worn in England, when Hie women wore doublets Willi pendent pieces on the breast full of lags and culs, moreover galligaseoiis, fardingalcs. ami slocking of divers colours. JJut since the Restoration of the King. Kngland never saw for matter of wearing apparel less prodigality and more modesty in clothe:-, more plainness and comeliness, than amongst her nubility, gentry, and superior clergy. Only the citizens, the country people and the servants appear clothed for the most part above and beyond their quality, estates or eonili- ' lions, and far more gav than that sort ' of people was .wont to be heretofore. > Since our last breach with France, the Knglish men ithough uol (lie winner.) quilled the French' mode and look a , grave wear, much according with I lie ' Oriental nations, but that is M ow left ! and the French mode a«ain taken up."| ' The " (-0111111011 people." in short, were 9 beginning to 1." fashionable, and claim- ] eil Hie privileges of (heir "betters/" " That was (he beginning of modern dem> ' cracy. ;