A BISHOP ON MILLINERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 146, 17 July 1909, Page 3

A BISHOP ON MILLINERY.

Bishop Moore, .president of the Methodist Episcopal Conference that recently met at Cincinnati, does not approve of feminine millinery (writes a lady in the Argonaut); and this fact will no doubt i cause a. wave of consternation in thy j line of fashion-seekers. The bishop i soye: "For a woman of moderate means l to pay £7 or £O, or just £4 for the plain hat without trimmings, is ahso-, lute wickedness. Why, one Easter hat; could buy an entire clerical outfit." "Well. what of it, MiopT asks the writer. We do not know precisely of what a clerical outlit consists, and' the bishop might have -been more explicit upon this point. At a time when the subject of vestments was much to the front in England the latie Sidney Smith protested his indifference to the whole quarrel on the ground, that it seemed immaterial whether a clergyman wore his shirt inside or outside of his coat. If a "clerical outlit" means no more than a transfer of this humble and obscure garmcut from inner darkness to the light of day, then it must be admitted that the average spring hat could furnish forth a "whole college of bishops . and leave something over for hymn books.

But the worthy man should have been sure of his facts. The "plain hat without trimmings" docs mot cost anything like the sums he mentions. You can get them from 4s upwards, while £1 is .quite a good price to pay. In this respect the hats are much like clergymen; everything depends upon the trimmings. You can get a plain clergyman, what may be called a clerical "shape," for a very small amount, as low as JK3 a week, but when it eomes to the trimmings—why, a bishop may run as high as £2O. In view of mich salaries as wc hear of'sometimes, a woman might exclaim indignantly that she could buy half-a-dozen hats, fully trimmed, for the amount taht a bishop gets every week. So much depends upon the point of view, dearly beloved.