Evening Star Newspaper, November 11, 1923, Page 73

evelopment of New Styles in Skirts f THIS TAILORED SUIT WAS ES- TABLISHED IN THE FIRST LINE OF FASHION BY ITS AP- PEARANCE AT THE GREAT RACE BETWEEN PAPYRUS ' AND ZEV, NEAR NEW YORK. ITS SKIRT IS TWELVE INCHES FROM THE SOLE OF THE FOOT. THE LINE IS SIMPLE AND CLEANLY CUT, THE IM- MENSE COLLAR AND MUFF CUFFS GIVING THE TOUCH OF DECORATION DESIRED ON MOST TAILORED SUITS THIS SEASON, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE EMBELLISHMENT IS OF FUR. n-n THE SUNDAY BY ANNE RITTENHOUSE, O matter what you try to tell & woman about new winter fashions she Interrupts to ask the length of skirts. There's good sound sense In her qu tion, She knows that the length of a hem marks the point where shelosesor acquires grace. No other feature in her frock counts for as much. The designers care little for this fact when they slide the hem up and down as though it were mercury In a barometer. Their business Is to change the appearance of asonal clothes. They pucker thelr brows how todoit. Who are they pleasing? The manufacturers of clothes or the pub- {lic? Possibly both. Probably the: think of their purses. Trade rules the | world, change rules trade, the public !likes change in everythins. | At this hour we are enmecshed in | the selection of skirts, short and long. The conservatives are holding back a bit; the moderns are rushing into clothes that are as short as those in war day. Most of the women out of the stir of the times are regarding the brief bits of cloth hanging from the hips with concern and dismay. There are still whole sections of the country unaware of the return of the short skirt to fashion. As late as the hit the ankles, They looked with as- tonishment and some disapproval at ground. Like it or not, skirts are short. That's the verdict of those who count. The balm in Gilead Is that evening skirts remain ankle length. The fil- lip to trade is that the length of each skirt is guided by the hour when it is worn. This is Interesting. It makes for diversity, also a change in the apparel of women according to the task they are undertaking. It has been a cause for disapproval that war days brought about a long- | continued fashion for wearing the same kind of clothes for all the hours of wakefulness. The chemise gOWD with a bateau neckline and short sleeves was repeated In a varlety of fabrics to serve all occasions. It went to market. It went to parties. It took on somewhat of the universality of the pre-war taflored suit which women refused to omit except for a ball or dinner party. * % X T has been many years since there was a rigid law governing the hem lengths of gowns for differ- ing occasions. It's well that it has come about, even if it Is disregarded by the majority. At present, women are obeying the edict. Skirts are twelve inches short for tallored skirts worn in the morning. ten inches short for skirts worn in the afternoon, four inches short for skirts worn in the evening. The woman who wears an afternoon frock to a formal affair in the evening is risking her reputa- tion for good dressing. That's the way the dressmakers have applied first of November there were hosis of women buying new gowns which, those who suddenly appeared in skirts | that swung twelve inches clear of the'. STAR, WASHINGTON, the screws to make women buy more than one gown. No woman should take this verdict too much to heart. If she goes by It without recourse to judgment her clothes will be fallures. Let her fig- ure and the polse of her body declde what skirt lengths to adopt. It's strange that & woman will rarely re- { £ard the way she carries herself as a determining factor in her clothes. She will put her age and her wWecight in the senles, but never her poise of body. Boiling it down to an essen- tial fact, the woman who moves hea 1ly, whose body does not swing casily and grocefully as she moves, must avoid the too short skirt. Thin legs do not justify short skirts ard positions when they move; do not glide well Into the feet, and if the fecet do not place them selves Into sure and graceful posi- dons. ~It's the carriage that counts, A woman whose age does not jus- tify a ten-Inch skirt, whose should may be a trifle heavy for her hips, van carry it off with approval if she moves swiftly and casily through the world like a yacht through a sea, ap- parently regardless of her feet. The , woman who ecems to be afrald to | take a step up or down, the womun | who propels herseif forward by the hips or the kneer, the woman wh stoops in an ungainly fashion though she used her shoulders to push her way through a crowd—for such as these new short skirts are a vex- ing problem. That Is, if she realizes what a factor her carriage is. . While we talk much of the supe- rlority of the American styles in shoes are better with short skirts | we scan the French skies for what- ever is mew. We adopt it shortly after It 18 established there. Accord- ing to this plan we will take up the single pump of pre-war years with a modified Cuban heel. It will replace the Egyptian and other oriental shoes, strapped and perforated, which 1ve made our feet look more fit for gilded barges than dirty pavements. With such moderately low heels as | | i D. these pumps will bring into fashion, the short skirts will not appear ab- surd. With the really low-heeled sandal, there is danger that a twelye- Inch skirt may have its awkward mo- ments, However, either of these shoes are better with short skirts than the French heels of eighteenth century make. It is well that senti- ment has turned against them for street purposes if the dressmakers succeed In reviving quite short skirts for the majority. * ok kK S the beige stocking continues to be the fashion in leg coverings every Inch of bone and musele be- tween instep and skirt hem fs ob- servable. Al light-colored stockings make short skirts appear shorter. This ia another reason for caution by women who are not sure that youth=- fulness Is their best quality. : It is not necessary to wear trans- parent belge stockings, called “nude’ In the shops, to follow fashion. Smoke and taupe, orchid and gray deftly mingled, serve the purpose. Black has no present chance of re- vival. Plain gray remains in outer darkness. Dark brown is not worn. Pale brown is good when reduced to the thinness of a cobweb. The cob- web is the aim of all stockings, no matter what their color. This is not'a shoe and stocking story, but no discussion of the short- ness of skirts can be complete with- out bringing in the prevailing foot and leg coverings. They, count for much, When rumors driftcd over the seas of the incoming circular movement In hems &t a time when skirts reached the ankles there was dismay among women. Naturally. The combination of the two would have meant the same ugliness that prevailed when we accebted it in the elghties. Pos- ibly women looked as lovely and graceful then as we do now, but nothing could make us belleve it. The dressmakers, however, were kinder than we anticipated. They gave us the godets, but abbreviated the hem.. The circular skirt of the HERE ARE THE VARIOUS ACCEPTED SKIRT LENGTHS FOR MORNING, AFTERNOON AND EVENING. THEY VARY OF NECESSITY WITH THE FIGURE OF THE WEARER. STOUT ANKLES AND BROAD HIPS CANNOT PERMIT THE DISPLAY OF TOO MUCH ANKLE. _NOVEMBER_1 11, 1923—PART 5, hour has much grace. It is flat in the back, which alds the silhouette, and its fullness in front is unstiffened the fabric falls against the body without attempt to make an artificial circle. The godet skirt has its perils for the amateurs, There are a dozen varleties of It. ‘The most acceptable kind In America limits the fullness to the front and runs it upward to one hip. The most pleasing way to make ft 1s to add a circular flounce to & shaped apron front. The flounce goes across the knees and onds in a buckle at the left side, where such move- ments, including sashes, have their fAnish this season. The French godet skirt carries its fullness at edch side. It makes one Look a trifle heavy unless its width is well handled and its hem shows the ankles, at least. ' In evening gowns it i scalloped and Has the effect of a Spanish dancer's skirt, It is better moving than resting. It is better for dancing than walking. It is worn | more lightly by youth than age. The model with the flounce in front, going upward, s more ' serviceable, for it suits more people. Its difficult | teature is the flat back, the unbroken jline of which drops plumb from { shoulders to hem. ' Not, every figure jcan stand the severity of that brush stroke. A belt or a girdie might help; but these are omitted from Lowns. and coats this winter. Even a bit of drapery going:acrosé the back weuld help. This is not permitted. | * X X ¥ E genuinely wide skirt of the win. ter is for the evening. Its fullness goes evenly around the hem. There i is mo sharp differedce between the | back and front. Only the ankles show. ' Often the hems of such- skirta are | faced with chiffon or Georgette in an | opposing color, which is an old fash- ion brought into the light. The bodice lis more Spanish than second empire. | It reaches to the hips in a’stralght line and securely holds the gathers of the skirt, ~ g0 or the Winter SeaSOH AT LEFT—GOWN OF GREEN VELVET DECORATED WITH SILVER LACE, WHICH GIVES A GOOD IDEA OF THE LENGTH THE DRESSMAKERS LAY DOWN FOR A FORMAL AFTERNOON GOWN THAT HANGS IN A STRAIGHT LINE FROM SHOULDER TO HEM; THERE IS A REASONABLE REASON FOR SUCH HEMS TO BE A TRIFLE LOWER THAN IN THE SKIRT THAT CARRIES A COAT OR BLOUSE. THIS PARTICULAR FROCK HAS THE ORIENTAL SILHOUETTE WHICH MARKS THIS SEASON. AT RIGHT—A BLACK VELVET SKIRT AS SIMPLE AS ANY PURI- TAN COULD WISH, WHICH CARRIES ABOVE IT A MGST DECO- RATIVE BLOUSE OF WHITE VELVET COVERED WITH A TRAC- ERY OF GOLD EMBROIDERY TAKEN FROM AND OLD PERSIA PRINT. THE LENGTH OF THE BLACK SKIRT IS TEN INCHES AND NOON HOURS. FROM THE SOLE OF THE FOOT, WHICH IS THE ESTABLISHED HEIGHT OF A HEM WHEN THE SKIRT IS FOR THE MORNING Changes in Mighty Alps Observed From Top of the Jungfrau ! BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. Jungfraujoch, Switzerland. ROM the top of the Jungfrau I write of the changes going on in’the Alps. I saw these moun- tains first as a boy when I walked from Italy over the Simplon and climbed on foot to Chaumonix and the famed Mer de Glace. Now one shoots under the Simplon in a tunnel &nd reaches Mont Blanc by raflway. An electric road has plerced the heart of Mount Gotthard and it was by bot- tled lightning that I came here. Years ago I stopped at the monastery where the St. Bernard dogs with brandy kegs strapped to their necks were sent out to rescue tourists lost in the snow. Now the dangerous spots have telephones, with which the tourist can call up central to find just where he is. I saw Mount Pilatus when the cog rallway first ran up her snowy white back, and later was pushed up @ similar road from Lucerne to the top of the Rigl. Now the Alps are lat- ticed with electric laddérs, and the mightiest gifts of the gods in the way of fine scenery have been brought down to man. As 1 write these words I am more than two miles above the sea with the clouds above and below me and | glant peaks of ice all around. Right under my feet is the Aletsch glacier, # dazzling mass of ice and snow a thousand feet deep and more than twenty miles long. Beyond, through & break in the vapor, I can look into a canyon where, far down in the green, lies the little toy town of Interlaken, from which I have come. At my right and left there are huge masses of rocks, cold and snow dusted, and tow- ering above me is the peak of the Jungfrau, lost in the clouds. Jung- fraujoch is only about half a mile from the summit, and the gigantic Monch, whose height is only 200 feet less, is at my back, its snow-gloved hand in the blue. The clouds, the rocks and the snow make the whole seem & mughty valley of desolation, Just now walled in with masses of wvapor, which have rolled to the sky, shutting in for the while this cold, awful, gigantic laboratory of the gods. A few moments later the clouds will break away and I shall have a glimpse of the Alps rolling over one @another away off to the east and west. 1 have seen most of the great moun- tain views of the world, but none wrhose sublimity and grandeur sur- pass that here on the Jungfrau. I have stood on Tiger Hill, near Darjil- ing, and watched the sun gild the top ©of Mount Everest, almost three miles higher than this and the highest gmountain on earth, but that peak is gar distant, and Kanchanjanga, a thousand feet lower, which lies In the foreground, obstructs the view. I have seen Aconcagua, the highest of the Andes, from the bronze statue of Christ, which marks the boundary be- | tween Argentina and Chile. It is al- most two miles higher than where I am now, but, like Mount Everest, it is dwarfed by its surroundings. I know Fujiyama, that well known, snowy symmetrical cone which the Japanese worship, and Rave seen Mount McKin- Jey from the helghts of Alaska. Xach has its own beautles, but naone has surroundings like these and none is so impressive. The Jungfrau is the virgin queen of the Alps, and wheth- er viewed as & whole from the valley or here face 88 face, she has a maj- | year. esty which can be found nowhere else. I\,IY trip up the Jungfrau was made in the cog railway that was be- gun in 1896 and completed In 1912 Mark Twain. was at Interlaken in 1892, There was then a cog rosd up :lhe Rigi and another up Mount Pil- { atus, and Mark predicted that the day i would come when every mountain In | Switzerland would have a railroad up its back like a pair of suspenders. That prophecy 1s almost fulfilled. There are something like a a hundred cog roads in the Alps, and when the | times are good in Europe they must pay very large dividends. My trip from Interlaken here cost $14. In £00d years the visitors to that resort | between lakes Thun and Brienz num- ber morg than 100,000, and if half of them gc up the Jungfrau the gross receipts are more than $700,000 & The road cost less than $2,600,- 000 to build, and within three years it should have paid for itself. The Jungfrau railway is remark- able in that a great part of it is a tunnel, running through the rock un- der glaciers and snow many feet déep. It goes for some miles on the outside of the mountains, and then cuts right into the heart of the Jungfrau and the Monch, and crawls upward through a great worm-hole that has {been excavated In the dry rock of limestone and gneiss. The power is electric, and the current is trans- mitted by a trolley and an electric locomotive of 300 horsepower. The force is generated by falls in turbines which will develop more than 12,000 horsepower. The" current has 7,000 volts, ‘and this {s run through' trans- formers, reducing it to 600 volts. The gauge is 39 inches, The rack and pinion system “used Ay a new one which is said to be absolutely safe. My ride to the Jungfraujoch was delightful. We had three cars, and they were all full. The party con- sisted of tourists, mostly Americans and English, and among the Ameri- cans was a boy of ten, whose char- acteristic Yankee remarks delighted my soul. My first knowledge that he was simon-pure American was as we stood outside the Hotel Victoria, in Interlaken, watching the wonderful Alpine glow that comes just at sun- set over the face of the Jungfrau. From this point the Virgin, as she is called, is set in & framework of rocks dnd forests, and she rises snow-white and pure, her head in the clouds. For five minutes, perhaps, durfng the sun- set, her spotless silver turns almost to gold and she looks more majestic than ever. It was at this moment the bby came up and exclaimed as he looked: “Gee, what a hill!" The tribute reminded ma of the Montana cowboy, who, coming into Switzerland at night, awoke at Lu- jcerne in full view of the Rigl. He ,Bazed and gazed With tears In his {eves, and at last threw up his hands nd in stentorlan’ tones cried out, “Hurrzh for God The Alps have a beauty of their own which in many respects sur- passes thit of the Rockies, the Andes or the Himalayas, although these other ranges are more stupendous in thelr grandeéur. It is only the peaks of the Alps that are bleak and bar The valleys and foothills are coverea with verdur Foreats of stately pines climb the sides of precipitous A | * x ok % i \ 1 | i “THE 700 SQUARE MILES OF GLACIERS IN THE SWISS ALPS ARE SUFFICIENT TO ENED MOU: GLACIERS, HOWEVER, THEY cliffts which may be & thousand feet high. Here all iy green and there all Is bare rock. In:Tidding up the Jung- frau via Lauterbrunnen to the Little Scheldegg, which-is more than a mile above the: sea, one goes through a panorama of magnificent with the Jungfrdu in sight almos: a!l the way. A part of the journey is through mighty canyons, the walls of waterfalls, which drop almost sheer to the bottem.. Now you are climbing ilittle log huts with great overhang- ing roofs held down with rocks, now pavsing through forests where, as you rise, the trees grow. smaller ana smaller, stunted bushes which cfawl over the ground. There are many wild flowers, daisies, dandelions and buttercups, and farther up violets as blue as the sky. scenery | which seem fortificgtions & thousana ' feet high, and out of which ‘svrlngi | over mountain pastures, spotted with untll at the top they are| FURNISH THRILLS FOR THE MOST HARD- INTAIN CLIMBER. COMPARED ‘WITH OUR ALASKAN LOSE THEIR MAGNITUDE.”* OU s00n reach the snow line and always you are in sight of the glaciers, which nestle In the!laps of the mountains. In some places the | Blaciers move out over ‘cliffs and there break, forming walls of lce, which, as it were, build yp the walls | of stone, making them many feet | higher. The giaclers run this way- | and that. They wind about through | the valleys of the.giants above you, not have a snow slide and & terribl avalinche come down on the train. was cut through ah avalanche which had rolled down this spring: It con- sisted of a hundred acres of snow and | fce many feet thick, which could be seen above and be ow on both sides’'of | the road. On the cleared track the | snow walls reached high over our cars. As we came out I saw a broken | telegraph pole which had 'been| crushed by the slide. - and you wonder whether you may ! During our trip one part of our way . Scenes in Present Year Different From Those Which Were Observed in Earlier Tourist Days—The Jungfrau Railway and How It Was Built—Queer Things About Mountain Sick- ness—Guinea Pigs As Human Heart Testers—The Glaciers of the Alps Versus Alaska—How the Scenery Affected a Cowboy—Peddling Sublimity at So Much Per View. “THE GREATER PART OF THE RAILWAY UP THE JUNGFRAU IS NEL CUT FROM SOLID ROCK, AND PASSING THROUGH A TU UNDER TONS OF GLACIAL IC] ROAD IS NOW 2,000 FEET FROM THE SUMMIT.” value of an experiment which was made to test the effect of the alti- ‘tude upon tourists, The origihal idea was to run the raiiroad clear to the top of the Jungfrau, a height of 13,510 feet. It goes up by stages and has now reached Jungfraujoch, which Is 11,840 feet above the sea. - It will probably be extended clear to the summtt, when an electric searchlight piaced there will be visible from sihe Cathedral of Strasbourg’on the north side of the Alps to the Cathedral of Milah on the south. : . At the time the railroad’ was pros Jected the government held up the'en- terprise on the ground that Invalids and people of weak constitutions would be injured If suddenly liftéd into that ajtitude of rarified.alr.. No such height had been reached by a cog road, and the projectors had to | prove that the trip could safely be made. They employed Dr. Regnard, an expert, to make the upon two | continued, however, when taken quickly to a considerable of Juneau, with a face higher than height above thé sea if he is quiet jand remains there for only a short time. It is different if he takes ex- ercise, and if he overworks he is a!- most sure to get the soroche, as the mountain sickness is called. In coming up the Jungfrau I had no trouble until T made my way up the steps from Jungfraujoch out Into the open. I tricd to run up the snowy path leading a distance of perhaps 2,000 feet to the view, when my heart straijghtway beat like a triphammer and I fell flat on the ground. After a little while I rose to my feet and sat down on a chunk of ice by the side of the way. My heart was soon quieter and I was able to walk a few steps. I took the rest of the climb by relays of about three steps and a halt, and finally reached the top. Heretofore I have been more than three miles above the sea with no bad effects as long as I took no severe exercise. In going up the Andes I once reached a height of 15,865 feet, but I noticed that as I rose my feet seemed to grow heavy and the air was so thin that I hesitated to talk on account of the effort that speak- ing entailed. At three miles above the sea we had a snowball fight, but it lasted only five minutes before all were exhausted. * X ¥ ¥ N CLIMBING the tunnel inside the I mountains we found stations here lana there where the cars stopped to allow us to walk out through crdss-tunnels for the view. At some of these holes through the rock we were right over glaciers which rolled on and on under our eyes. At the Eismeer station, almost two miles above the sea, we were just above a great sea of snow of such dazzling whiteness under the sun that it was impossible to look at it without glasses. The sea wound its way far down In and out under the peaks of the Jungfrau and Monch, until it was lost In a bend In the mountains. As I looked two' black' figures on skifs jumped from the station and flet like swallows down the icy surface. One of them tripped and rolled over and over, but he jumped to his feet and followed his fellow, who was already a black speck in the distance. During the trip we' saw many glaclers. I counted six on one moun- tain side at one time, and from here on top of the Jungfrau glaclers are to be seen everywheré.’ The princi- pal ones of the Alps are to be found here and in the group around Mont Blane, although smaller ones exist In other parts of Switzerland. The total number In the Alps is 1,200, about evenly” divided between Switzerland and Austria. The glaclers of Switzer- w2 i e E. THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE the pigs under a glass globe and then slowly lowered the atmospheric pres- sure Inside. One of the guinea pigs was put inside a wheel so that it.had to run and climb the treadmill to ikeep from falling. The otlier was left squatting outside the bottom of the globe. Itogether At an atmospheric depression cor- ]z:: ::';:r’"a:':g,:" ::‘ e 7od responding to an altitude of two miles | gguare miles, while the total area of [ both animals seemed to be in their{snow and Ice in the Alps is only \normal condition. As the pressure|1,600 square miles. the one inside| This seems a great deal to Europe, P but it is nothing in comparison with the wheel fell forward and was roled | Jono ' onor glacial 'parts of the carth, round and round, apparently dead.|we have one glacier in Alaska, the At the height of Mont Blanc the other [ Mulr, which Is about half as large | pig was still fn his normal condition, |as all the glaciers of Switzerland put and he continued 50 until the pressure | together and it has twenty feeders | reached thit of the top of Mount |which are’ greater than the Mer de | Everest, when he also rolled over.|Glace on the side of Mont Blanc. We | The two pigs wete then taken out|have two glaciers near Cordova, | and both recovered in ‘the fresh air.|Alaska, which dwarf anything In | The pig that had done the work was | Switzerland and' they are within easy il for three days. The result of the |access by & standard gauge rallway. 1 had a visible evidence here of the | guinea pigs. The learned doctor put: experiment showed that one can live'There i8 a glacler within nine miles | any in the Swiss Alps, to which you can ride in an automobile and climb to the top. and the Taku glacler, which Is about half as high as the Washington Monument, flows right down to the sea, and the steamers from Seattle to Skagway call there and walt while the fcebergs, with a noise like thunder, drop down and lose themselves in the water. There are mighty glaciers in the Hima- layas; there are wonderful ones in New Zealand, and as for Greenland, the whole country Is surrounded by glaclers of ice and snow a mile or more deep, bedded ‘on rock. To hear these Europeans talk one would think the Alps were the only pebbles on the beach of the ragsed face of old Mother Earth. I am wil- ling to concede all that they claim as to thelr beauty, but when it comes to such expressions as the “biggest, highest and most stupendous God ever created,” I must voice my ob- jection. It is true these mountains are the backbone of Europe, but that lady has only a wishbone compared to the backbone of Asfa. If you coulll take up the' Alps and drop them into some of the largest valleys of the Himalayas it would not change the face of nature and they would be lost in their surroundings. Mont Blanc is the highest of the Alps and the Jungfrau is about 2,000 feet lower. The altitude of Mont Blanc is 15,780 feet. There is a steam road that goes higher than that in the Andes just back of Lima, Peru. I have twice slid from the top of that road in a handear from an altitude of 15,860 feet straight down to the sea. Kilimanjaro, which I saw in German East Africa, Is 4,500 feet higher than Mont Blanc, and the top of Ararat, where in the seventh month and on the seventeenth day of the month, Noah stepped out of the ark, Is a full half mile above where I am now. You could put the Alleghenies on top of Mont Blanc and they would not reach the helght of Mount McKinley, and you might put Mount Olympus on Sinal and the Jungfrau on that, and the highest peak would suil be under that of Kanchanjanga, which Is overtopped by Mount Everest. There is one thing that is refresh- ing In the Rockies, the Himalayas, and especially in Alaska, in compari- son with-the mountains of Switzer~ land. In any ome of the first three you can climb up a hill or stub your toe on a glacier without being asked to pay for the view or having each cuble foot of ozome you breathe charged up to you at 80 much per minute. Here In the Alps there seems nothing but peddled sublimity. There is not a beautiful view that is not marred by a hotel. Goiug up the Rigl from Lucerne a few vears ago, I found a big.tavern right on the peak, and they are now preparing to build another within a stone’s throw from where I am writing. Here on the top of the Jungfrau and at every mounialn station all over the country you will find women seliing picture post cards, alpen- stocks and smoked glasses, and at every stop imeet & Swiss malden in a white walst, black velvet vest laced with white strings, a red short skirt ‘and a snowy white cap, who has pressed flowers, edelweiss and carvings for sale. , (Copyright, 1928, Carpenter's World Travels,)