Evening Star Newspaper, September 16, 1923, Page 85

v'* hoop below the waist; 'Lo-ng Sleeves BY ANNE RITTENHOUSE. HAT are we going to wear this sutumn? If we intend to be in the fashion, we will wear many things we @0 not like while we keep a weather ©ye on the shifting winds of fashion, ‘Which are apt to bring in a new &cheme of clothes after the Christ- mas tree has been taken from the Parlor windows. There is too much kinship between Test in peace. The French are not a Whit better in this lack of original- ity than the American clothes mak- ers. Every sallor watches a calm air and-ocean with suspicion. the dress expert. Here are the things that are re- Deated from chiffon into velvet, from Eingham into cloth: The Spanish flounce on frocks and coats; the belt- less sheath gown, the farthingale the tight-fitting bodice above the wide ruffled skirt; borizontal decoration: the flat back or front on skirts; the short jacket; orlental embroidery or printing; the Doat-shaped, neckline; the. ankle- length evening skirt; godets at both side s sleeveless bodices skirt for young glrl: blas tiers across the front of frocks. That's quite a formidable list of repetitions for two continents to So does a make at the beginning of an impor- | tant season. For just this reason the experts are suspiclous. They belleve that some will come later in the year, Possibly before the new year breaks, Here are the things that are re- vived, or reinstated, which gives to the season sufficient motion to keep it from being stagnant; Chinese sleeves, long and wide, brilllantly lined and furred: a most normal walstline; the insistence that 7 skirts should preserve a straight line Tegurdless of fullness; the long, tight sleeve for day bours, the deep square @écolletage for evening; the wrinkled sleeve that extends to the knuckles and the leg o' lamb sleeve; @ revival ©f the Victorfan tulle skirt whoso . ruffles &weep the floor at sides and ®ack; short skirts for day and often for evening: three-quarter fackets. in preference to the jumper kind; the revival of the three-plece frock as a rival to the chemise slip. Here are some important omissiona: The ornate hip girdle, wide and glit- tering; garlands of flowers at the slde; drapery at one or both sides; the elbow sleeve; the sleeveless bod- loe for day; the high decolletage for evening; the long shoulder line that covers the top of arm in formal frocks; the surplice jacket, except in knitted sport clothes; the stitched and printed jacket and short over- dlouse; the plaited skirt, except for sports or porch; the colored kid slip- pers. P N fabrics there’s more to reckon with as novelty, such as the em- ‘®droidered woolens taken from Hindu and ‘Persian documentary designs; the emphasis upon velvet and the in- genuity shown by its weavers. It is embossed, embroidered, striped, ap- Plied in Itallan designs to chiffon or BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. RIGA, Latvia. ©h poor German guest; 1s is no place for thee to.re hat wouldst thou In our wretclied hut% Within it thon canst not remain, The smake will drive thee forth again; Thou canst not stay within the yard, For in the yard are wind and rain— Zisten, T will adviee thee well; Go to the bottommost part of hell, Where the devil makes his fire! There's the place to cool thy ire: For there is neither smoke nor rain! HIS verse Is from an old folk song of the Latvians. It gives the feeling of the new repub- 116 4n regard to the German Balts whose great estates have been confiscated by the government and are now belng divided among the peasants. In a former letter I wrote of this movement in Esthonia, the lit- tle republic that jolns this on the forth. The same conditions prevall here. All of the large properties are ®éing divided, the Baltic barons who , @wned them being left only from 120 to 250 acres out of the thousands each had ig the past. The estates of the Balts represented more than 60 per cent of the whole country. There were hundreds of | them and their average size was more | than 5,000-acres. There were many "ot 10,000 acres, and some which ran up into 100,000 acres and more.. The estate of Dundaga, for instance, con- tained 180,000 acres. These estates have been built up throughout the centuries in which the lands have been in the hands of the Balts. They have brought the lands the new and the old styles to let us’ THE SUNDAY TAR, WASHINGTON, one feels that black and beturbgned #laves should unroll their length on "} marnte ‘floors_for inspection. What. SHORT GREEN VELVET JACKET, EMBRO]bERED IN BLACK AND SILVER, WORN OVER A SEPARATE SKIRT WITH ORNAMENT- AL OVERBLOUSE. THE SLEEVES ARE WIDE AT WRIST, THE NECK IS CHI HIGH AND THE COLLAR IS EDGED WITH MOLE. BY JEANNE LANVIN OF PARIS. crepe. It is in colors that Venlce under cultivation, have scientifically farmed them, introducing modern ma- ehinery and all modern agricultural methods. In many cases they have built mansions where they have en- tertained and lived like feudal lords, the- peasants cultivating their lands and taking aomewhat the place of the wetainers had in the Middle Ages. Today the barons have given up all hope of holding thelir properties. Some and Bagdad approved, such as Doges red, Adriatic blue, ashes of rose, Pek- ing blue, orchid, topaz yellow, terra cotta, also black, pale brown, beige. ‘There's a host of woolen fabrics under several trade names. The pop- of the estates have already been con- fiscated and 800 of these nabobs of the past are each reduced to about 125 acres. Thirty thousand new farms havo been lald out since the republic was organized, and 30,000 more will be created this year. In all, there will soon be more than 100,000 new landholders 1iving on properties which were held by a few hundred before the war. A tract three-fourths as large as the state of Massachusetts has thus been opened to settlement. Hundreds of surveyors are at work, and the new holdings are being dis- tributed as rapidly as the lines can be drawn. Not only the estates of the barons, but government lands and others are being allotted, and an en- tire new land system is In progress. The desire for real estate in Europe surpasses that of all others and there aré several applicants for every good plece of property. I am told that there are at least 150,000 men who want lands, and that their desires vary with their conditions and eur- roundings and thetr peculiar ambi- tions. The tracts to be allotted are of different sizes, dustrial sites near the towns, and garden patches of five or ten acres, up to the hundred, acres or more to the dirt farmers who expect to live on the land and get all of their sus- tenance from it. 3 Many of the new farms have only thirty-seven acres, and their average size is about fifty-five acres. In each case the land is sold at low prices, with long terms of payment. Some of the mortgages run from thirty to fAifty years, and for the first five years no Interest is charged. The men pay nothing upon taking over the lands, but they must prove their good faith and their prospects of payment. * ok % % I HAVE just returned from a trip with the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture through the country near ranging from in- | ular kind have ribs running through a soft surface, pliable and easy to hang in * the commendable way, which is against the figure. Broad- cloth is:revived.. Satin and satin crepe are again on the shelves of shops. Erocades are so sumptuous AL AT BAAA, Riga. We have motored over some of the estates that are now being subdivided and I have talked with the tarmers. So far the chief allotments |have been in the three provinces of Livonia, Courland and Mitau. Lat- gale, which 1s near Russia and is in- habited largely by Roman Catholics, has. not been much subdivided. The property there resembles that of Rus- sta, the farmers living In the villages and going out to work on the lands, In the first three provinces the cus- toms are more like those of Germany. It is to them that this letter relates. The assistant secretary of agricul- tuxe tells me that some of the land |is being granted on long leases, with a low valuation and a nominal rental in such a way that the man can pay for his property gradually and finally get a fee simple title. The whole country has been subdivided into dis- tricts and each district has its own land organization. Each applicant must prove that Ne has enough help to cultlvate his holding, and horses and cows and sufficient machinery. He must give his experience as a farmer, and furnish also a reputation for thrift and good character. This evidence is brought before the local committes, and, if they approve the application, it is sent to the district committee who passes upon it and forwards it to the state central com- mittee which has the final dectslon. LABOR PROBLEM IS SOLVED BY THE NUMBER OF WOMAN WORKERS. IN MT;I]GAE'S SEES MORE WOMEN THAN MEN, AND IN THE COUNTRY THEY ARE BU! FIELDS FROM DAYBREAK TO DARK. bver the Duchess of Milan thought beautiful, that have we, Whatever Haroun al Ra#chid could get to put Into & girdled tunic we also have. ‘What was consldered fit for royalty in the Ming dynasty the girl on Maln street can buy-if she has the price. There's the rub—the price. But America seems to be able to pay what these fabrics cost. If not, the trade loses a fortune. Metallio tissues of the anclent east are faithfully copled. They slip through a bracelet. Metal laces are abundant; peltry 1s so Javishly shown and worn that one has a sinking feel- ing that everything that went on all fours has been killed to make wom- en's raiment for a winter. Fashlonable furs are mole, kolip~ sky, white rabbit and its luxurious cousin, ermine. Beige-colored sum- mer ermine is in demand, as are combed caracul, curled caracul, astra- khan, Persian lamb, broadtall, mink, beaver, red and smoke fox, leopard, gazelle, antelope. All these are to be had for the asking. When one is able to buy enough of such pelts.to swathe themselves like Russians in an unheated palace, one may feel com- pletely satisfled as to their smart appearance. Street coats are abundantly band- ed, collared and cuffed with fur. Col- lars are not mere strips of decora- tion. They are head high and- can be turned into a turban if ono so wishes. Cuffs may be muffs, or they may be replaced by several strips of fur that extend to the elbow. Soms sleeves holding these fur bands are 850 long they remind one of Chinese conjurers—one looks for a live rabbit to jump out of them, Clreular flounces, the kind we now call Spanish because Seville is caus- ing a ripple of excitement among clothes designers, are of fur on coats, or edged with it. Muffs and hats of tur do not' appear. Victorian cos- tumes may introduce tiny muffs, éspe- clally of ermine with tails. * ¥ ¥ % VENING coats are built of mink, of ermine, or several kinds of imitation ermine, and chinchilla. Black velvet capes, circular at hem and fitted on shoulders, are lined with white ermine or the best quality of rabbit. Short street coats are offered for those who walk. They are of seal and summer ermine, of caracul, of leopard with brown fur, of mink. Long coats are not available for walking. They demand motors, so they are splendldly fashioned with tringes of tail and brocade linings— they are sweeping and enveloping. Chanel of Paris, who has given American women many simple and lovely fashions, continues to make afternoon coats and frocks that match, and she has led women into wearing velvet coats lined with fur, especlally in black llned with white rabbit over a gown of white appliqued wath designs of velvet. This s an I asked as to the central .commit- tee. The agricultural official teplied: t is large and embraces the best classes of our people. One half of its members belong to the parliament, and among the others are epeclal government officlals and a technical stafr. As we drove over the country 1 could see buildings golng up every- where. The old cabins have new roofs, and new cabins are everywhere being constructed. The new houses of the farmers are about like those of our ploneers, when they cut down the logs to make their homes in the days of the colonists. The ordi- nary cabin has two or three rooms, énd nearby are additional cabins for stables and storage. The build- ings are better than those with which our country was started. They have good foundations, and all of the houses have stoves of brick which run from the floor to the ceiling and send warmth throughout the whole house. Once heated, the stove will keep warm all day and all night. There are ovens in many of the stoves, and in one six-room house I visited there was & hall through the center, on each side of which was a stove in the wall, warming both the hall and the room adjoining. This house was unplastered. It haq as yet no furniture, and the people sleep on the floor. Nearly every farm has its potato cellar, a dugout where the potatoes are stored away and coversd with straw to keep them from freezing in winter.. Potatoes are among the chier foods of the people and one of the great erops of Latvia. Every farmer expects to have his own bathhouse, but in the present building conditions one bath serves for several familles, who use the bathhouse in common. I am not sure that all bathe together, as in some parts of Russia, but every such ‘hou: is like tho of Finland in ooals of a stove, fllling the one room with its vapor. The bathers lie naked on shelves running around the wall which cold water is thrown on the and the hot steam sweats the dirt out -of their pores. A bath of this kind fs the only one that makes a man really clean. * ® % % VERYWHERE we went we saw the women working with the men in the flelds, Sometimes thers would be & half dosen girls and 6ne man, who apparently was bossing the job. Thls should be remembered in the re- bullding of Latvia. The labor faoter is doubled by the number of women. They do everything that man does, and they are worked from daylight till dark. Even the children have their share of the labor, and this is especially so in watching the cattle, sheep, and hogs {n the pastures. Most of these new farms have no femces, and an old woman, a young girl, or & boy may spend days, as it were, herding twe Or thres animals. I re- O, attractive: 12ea for s costume. The neutrality of fts topeoat permits many 8 gown to assoclate with it. \ Although.the .three-piece sult is SEPTEMBER 1 1923_PART 5. pr—— A heralded as the best equipment forl: the street, there Iy a prodigious show- ing of sturdy coats of protective fab- rics that can serve no other purpor frocks must be reckoned with as a factor of importance. So that reason- Ing brings to a head the belief that & woman can choose between a frock with a-topcoat, a three-plece suit, a tailored suit of American severity. Topcoats are thrown in the market by all who have.clothes to offer. They are cheap and costly; they are plenti« fully adorned with fur. English fab- rics and American pile fabrics go into their making. An Eskimo would se- riously consider them as being in- tended for use in his land of oil and fish-hooks. Let us hope the &olar eclipse will bring us a dry, cold win- ter; otherwise what will we do with our cloth frocks, tweed suits, velvet evening gowns and heavy topcoats? Such coats have a flare at the hem; again they are cut as slim as a pencil ‘They have high collars and long sleeves, though the height at neck may be given by voluminous revers that reach to the back of head. The high stovepipe collar, however, has its place In the sun these days. It appears on many kinds of garments, including the separate overblouse, which, by the way, is a most impor- tant adjunct to our costumery in it- self. * ok ok % T is well to begin on blouses by say- ing that ‘the one-plece cloth frock is so much in fashion that one wonders where there is to be found a place for the blouse, but the moment the prodi- gality of separate skirts is thrust in one’s face the place becomes apparent. They are not to be kept for the occa- sional taflored suit, flot to be relegated to sports; they are to have a place un- der the electric light. They are rather gorgeous for so seemingly §imple a gar- ment to the woman who thinks of them in comnection with active morning hours, as something akin to a wash short walst. But the woman who remem- bers the blouse as it was.a quarter of a century ago finds herself in familiar company when she wanders into an as- sortment of these splendid and decora- tive pleces of costumery. Once upon & time’ women wore them to dinner in the evening, to a card party in the after- noon, to the theater. They were lux- uries then, as they promise to become now. Fancy a blouse of gold lace over transparent cloth of gold ‘cut like a girdle, the sleeves of double caps in the Lanvin manner, the neckline round at back angd front, the hip belt of gold lace incrusted with jade and orchid crystals. That's not a blouse for shopping or for the desk. It means gayety, it stands for pleasure. There are others, equally or- nate and costly. They extend far over the skirt in the manner of an orfental tunic. Some of them are genuine coples of Persian tunics, t! member one young woman whom I saw watching two cows eating the grass of a meadow, with nothing in sight for a mile. I asked what she was doing, and the agricultural of- olal said she was & cow-maid, which is perhaps a good name for her job. It seems a great waste of labor. I saw many women spading and hoelng potatoes, and in some of the new fleids they followed the plow- man to throw the manure into the furrows. They all looked overworked and, with thelr short skirts and clumsy shoes, almost unsexed. Many of the women wear men's boots and some have dirty coats of sheepskin ‘with the wool on the Inslde. Thelr faces are tanned and their halr some- times bleached by the sun. Most of them wear unattractive shawl ‘wrapped around their heads, and one can see how the Balt, raised in lux- ury, came to look upon the peasants as a different order of beings with practically no rights that he was bound to respect. The women do much of the work of the cities. I see them in Riga push- ing carts and carrying great loads of wood in bags on their backs There are more women than men In the markets, and such stalls as sell the products of home Industry are usually managed by women, who carry thelr ‘wares for miles into town and, when the market is over, take baock home what they have left. The first sight that met my eyes as the train came into the oapital of Latvia was a dozen flat-bed cars backed up agatnst a sandbank and a score of women, thir- ty, forty, and fifty vears of age, with short skirts and blg shoes, and hand- kerchiefs wrapped around their heads, loading the sand into the cars with long handled shovels. I could see them bending over and forcing the scoops into the sand with their feet, and with & toss that showed their bare | arms throwing it into the cars. They ‘were bronsed-faced and rough look- ing, an@ each bore the marks of & decade of toll. The sun was.then rising and I vantured their lador con- tinued til dark. A common sight in Riga is & wom- an walking over the cob! with two threa-gallon cans of milk fastened to the end of A long pole that rests on her shoulders. She is on her way to the market to sell these six gallons of milk, or she may be dellvering it to customers, ladling it out on the doorsteps. I seo such sights every morning from the windows of my ho- tel, a bullding which ecost perhaps $300,000, looking out en an epera house, which cost half a miltion. As the milk-women go by they have to move this way and that to avold the mang.of other women 'who, clad in homespun and with thelr heads wrapped In rags, are sweeping the -z of the city. aleo, many women pushing Aud pulling carts and shoving wheel- barrows. The human horse traffic here {5 as coramon ss in Germany and France. The women hend over as BLACK VELVET COAT FOR FORMAL OCCASIONS, WORN OVER A WHITE GEORGETTE FROCK APPLIED WITH CUT-OUT DE- SIGNS OF BLACK VELVET. THE COAT LAPS OVER TO ONE SIDE AND IS LAVISHLY HEAPED WITH WHITE RABBIT AND ALSO LINED WITH IT. were relegated to glass cases in mu- seums. Others are East Indian. These blouses are subdued when they are attached to the three-plece suit for the street, but they do not altogether kind one thought | forego their ornamental character nor |eame.color as the skis ‘*fiflfi%%%fi%%%%*‘fi%i? ’f!‘fl-fi%“‘”“*‘”“fl%“%a'fi*'”'fl%—‘*““‘”flflfl%%%fl%fl**%%fi*flfifihafi%ni Queer Features of Life and Customs Among the Letts Are Described—the Baltic Barons and the Peasants—the Pioneers and Their Log Cabins—Women Who Act as Cowmaids—the Latvians Versus Our Colonials—A Country of Schools—200,000 Folk Songs Recently Pubhahed .-\fle&»zta—%%eb R E—&%t%&fl—‘%-&‘*‘%‘EE—\E’W‘W‘M‘U{‘&‘&fir&k—%é‘l’é‘&%\t‘&%&&e%sfi‘>.-<\_ they force their way through the streets. The wind is strong and it blows their hair back. It is cold in the early morning and they now and then stop and slap their arms, or, if walking without loads, tuck their hands into their sleeves as they push onward, half double, facing the wind. . “ DAY, at the beginning of their independence, the Latvians are in much the same condidtion as our forefathers were when: they estab- lished the republic. The United States was then largely a forest. We had to cut our homes out of the woods, and we lived in log cabins. We made our own clothes from the wool of the sheep and from the cottpn lint which we picked by hand from the seeds. Nearly everything we ate came from the farmsd, and we were practlcally independent of stores and factories. The same is true of the Latvian peas- ant, except that Me has no land to clear, and the farm he Is getting is practically ready for crops. The Balts were students of agriculture, and their estates were so large that they could profitably use modern ma- chinery. Many of them had tractors, gang plows and mowers, reapers and threshers. It cost our ploneers in labor more than $100 per acre to fell the trees and get out the stumps. ‘They had to bulld up everything from the ground. The Latvian pioneers have their farms ready made. They have cities and villages, good roads and railways. They have excellent sink to the level of a spoft blouse. They may be joined to the skirt to give ease in adfustment and put the weight on the shoulders, where most women like it. They may be in another shade of the or they may be schools, and even now they are better educated, by and large, than the United States. There are fewer people here who cannot read and write in proportion to the populaition than In what we call our Intelligent land of the free. It is only among the Russians who have come in that much illiteracy is found. In 1810 only thres out of every hundred of the recruits for the army could not read or write, and these were mostly Slavs. There are practically no illiterates among the adult Letts. The University or Riga wasg formerly a technical school with one thousand pupils. The new gov- ernment has made it a university, adding several colleges and bringing in new professors. When the new in- stitution opened it had gbout twelve hundred students. It has now more than six thousand, and they are of both sexes. The higher educational standing of the republic s shown by its second- ary schools. The country has more in number than Norway, Switzerland, Portugal or Rumania. It has now 107, with an average of 171 students each. It has agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and the min- istry of education Mas fecently es- tablished a normal school for the teaching of English. This school is an evidence of how fast the English-language is making its way over Europe.. It is spoken quite generally in Germany, and here in Latavia is the only forelgn lan- guage that is compulsory in all of the schools, French and German be- ing optional. The normal school has 300 students of all age many - of them old school teachers and others who expect to teach. There are also govérnment clerks who wish to ac- quire a working knowledge of Eng- lish, and some who would fit them- selves for service abroad. ‘When I visited the school I found one of the classes studying Shake- speare, reading the play of ‘“Julius Caesar” in turn, and discussing the } traight-Line Skir s Near-Normal Waists Favored flambo, antly opposed to it. Whatever the {magindtion euggests as decorative to & costume can be Incoeporated in the overblouse. Thefein’ lles the danger. Censors are needed. (Copyright, 1923.) Your Home and You 8Y PELEN KENDALL. ) Ironing Sitting ‘Down. “I don’t mind doing the ironing one bit; I love ‘to iron, especially the baby's dalnty things and my table linen, but, oh, my feet get so tired,” was the plaint.of a young house- keeper who was trylng to do all of her own work, especially since she got the electric clothes washer. “Well, deéar child! sit down to your ironing,” exclalmed the bady's grand- mother. “You don’t have to stand up at that ironing board hour after hour. The ironing of small pleces can be done just as well sitting down as standing up. In fact. only the really large things, 'ltke ‘sheets, dresses and o on ‘haws t& dawve W high, free board under thofy “Now sit .down in this armless, cushioned chalr, lower your ironing board to the level of your lap, put your basket of sprinkled pleces be- side you, and begin. Lay this piece of oilcloth over your lap to keep the dampness from coming through, and start all the large things;.such as towels, dinner napkins and shirts, by ironing first the side farthest away from you. :As you-iron it, let it slip over the edge of the board and hang down the other side. This keeps the ironed garment from becoming mussed on your lap, “If you have a good many things to iron you'll find it a rest to stand up now and then and relieve the strain on your arms and shoulders. Then when you begih to tire of stand- ing, sit down again. And don’t try to do your ironing all up at onoe, my child. Dampen down a few things at a time—the things you need most— and iron those, leaving others until the next day. ' It s these long ses- sions at any kind of work. that tire us so much. Take it a little at a time, and sit down to it, and you'll find you do not mind it at all.” ——— Crab Salad. Pick over half a pint of crab meat very carefully, as there are 5o many small flake-like pleces.of tendon i it Marinate it with French dressing.and let it stand aside for an hour or two before serving, so as to absorb the dressing. Cut two cupfuls of gelery into dice, and one dozen stuffed olives into slices. Mix the celery with the crab meéat ,turn onto a dish or into a salad bowl lined with lettuce, and pour mayonnalsé over all. Garnish with ollves and capers or chopped sweet pickle | Many Estates Divided in War-Born Republic of Latvia on Baltic construction and the motives. of the speakers, just, as it is.done- in. owr high schools and colleges. Another class was reciting Engiish grammar, and many of the questions they an- swered were puzzling to me. During the present year a mumber .of new courses ‘have been formed; including comparative . philology,” methods " bf teaching, elocution ‘and ‘the history of English literature ‘4id tanguage. * ok K E I AM surprised at tha’cul{urs of the better classes of,.Letts, and even of the peasants. _The Latvjan tongue 1§ one of the oldest in. Europe, and,it is S0 closely allled tp-the Sanskrit that a noted philologist who was re- cently here said he found So many Sanskrit words .In the mpwspapers that he could - almost. read -Lettish without having studled the language: They say the Latvian is more akin to the English than is French, and that the people learn it more easily. The Letts are proud of their litara- ture and of thair music and.artistio culture. They have' recently publish- ed a huge . collection of folk songs containing mors than 'two hundred thousand original”ones by unknown authors of centuries ago. This work is In elght volumes of°1,000 pages each, and It is consitéred an invalu- able storehouse of Aryan culture for the ethnographer and phildlogist. The language of these people h been in print for hundreds of years. The first Lettish book was published long before thers was a settlement of any kind on the North American continent, and the first Lettish news- paper appeared more than one hun- dred years ago. When the world war opened there were fifty-nine periodi- cals belng published in Lettish, and of these twenty-seven were newss papers. There were twice as many newspapers in Latvia in proportion to the number of inhabitants as in Russia, and today Riga has ten. Let: tish dailies, with an average circula- tion each of fifty to one hundred thou- sand copies. (Copyrght, 1928, by Carpenter's World Travels.) LN LATVIA B;‘IIGTI.Y ENFORCES ITS LAWS REQUIRING ALL CHILDREN T0“6@-TO SCHOOL.- HE’ ENCGLISH IS COMPULSORY AND THE PEIlCmAGE OF !LLITERACY lS IJOWER THAN IN THE UNITED STATES. ; :