Kansas University Weekly.
109
removing the dirt that has collected during the day, and Miss Girl with the rainy dress, trips by these bedraggled ones, feeling very complacent, both as to her feet and as to her mind. She really does not mind being looked at, for she is sure that the glances are envious ones, and she goes on her way rejoicing. H. B. S.
$$
$$
The question of a suitable dress for women in rainy weather has been discussed for years. Attempts have been made to turn theory into practice. In some cities a time has now and again been fixed upon for the simultaneous appearance of the women in the rainy-weather dress. But courage failed, all attempts proved abortive; and still the progress along the muddy streets, of women in skirts that swept the ground, was a spectacle to rouse pity in gods and men.
The first and indispensable element of beauty, is fitness; and surely there is no fitness in the ordinary costume for such a state of the streets as has prevailed with us this winter. Every one who considers comfort or cleanliness, must have approved of the skirt to the shoe-tops and the gaiters adopted this winter under the stress of circumstances, almost as if by common consent, by many of the young women of the University. Thus time and circustances have solved the problem, for us at least; and we have a real and important reform brought about, as it were, with the quiet inevitableness of a process of nature.
HANNAH OLIVER.
The most noticbale remark heard, when the "rainy-day dress" and its wearer appears in public, is: "That's sensible, anyhow." The remark implies a compensation; i. e., that the sensible features of the garb recompense for the other features not so desirable. Whether this attitude is due entirely to man's disinclination to give up the old, and his disposition to look with disfavor upon the new and unusual, or whether the dress in itself possess qualities which detract from its merit as a dress, is a question of fact. There can be no doubt concerning the convenience and healthfulness of the dress. But does it violate the laws of the artistic sense? In order to avoid a discussion concerning art, it might be asked: "Is the rainy-day dress displeasing to the popular eye?" Without doubt, if put to a vote, the question would be answered in the affirmative. This may be due entirely to the authority of custom. If so, an increase in the number of rainy-days, will so educate the taste of the public that it will say with Ruskin: "Adaptability or utility is the first law of beauty in costume." B.B.BREESE.
*
"Oh, dear me! goodness, gracious sakes alive! another dress to clean! I am sick and tired of it! That makes the fifth time, lately, that I have had to take a precious hour to clean my skirt. "They" say that if one is careful, one need have no mud on one's gown. I don't believe it! I have tried my level best, and can't. I have watched the people who make such statements, and they can't, and I have watched every girl in the University, and there is not one who hasn't a rim of mud on her dress this winter. I think it the most untidy thing I ever saw."
A few days later. "I have had the most dreadful cold! a grave-yard cough and general misery! and my long dress is to blame! It all came from getting my dress wet one morning, and then staying on the hill, with it clinging damp and disagreeable about my ankles. After being simply desperate for several days, I decided it didn't pay, so I have a rainy-day dress, and am happy. It's not very short, and with gaiters and heavy shoes, I think, if I do say so, why not? that I look pretty well, at least as well as I ever do; and I am certain I look much neater than before, and I am so happy! I feel like a different girl! I don't dread to climb up the hill these bad days, but rather enjoy it, and feel pity and even the least bit of contempt for my poor sisters draggling through mud and rain."
I am so glad to see that so many girls are having rainy-day dresses made, and I hope the good work will go on, and that the other girls