Evening Star Newspaper, November 18, 1923, Page 79

TH"‘ SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., NOVEMBER 18, 1923—PART LD 70 Season Shows Wide Contrast Between Day and Evening Costumes SEA.GREEN GEORGETTE CREPE, WITH ROUND NECK. : THE SCARF BAND IS OF SOFT GRAY FUR, AND THERE ARE NO SLEEVES. BY ANNE RITTENHOUSE. ARE-BACKED we go Into even- ing life this winter. Into the streets we go forth so pur- posely concealed that we re- | semble arctic explorers. to tell friend from foe. In days when knights went aborad | in armor it was the custom to lift the visor of the metal helmet when meeting a friend. Such was the 1t is not easy entered the presence of these who are not reckoned foes. Is is a reversale In our n-lnds as in clothes to the mediaevil that makes us determined to hide all | clues to our identity during the day |hours? Not content with the con- cealment glven by the visored cloche, |we ada a scart veil or possibly & {1ace masque across the eyes. In ad- dition we wear the hide of every anl- backs. Thers is no effort at con- cealment there. In day hours our clothes hang clogely and limply against our bodies rom neck to hem. =Beltless, wrinkle- less, without shred of ornamenta- tign we turn our backs to the world. Some are §00d to look upon. Others need -concealment. No one eares how many curves cavort in front, but not one must show in the back. What nature has left undone, cut- ters and corsets must doy -From arctic explorers and visored knights we turn into Orientls when the sun goes down.- So sharp Is the change one would think we had heard the walling call from the muezzin towers and turned our faces toward Mecca. Not even a headdress con- ceals the shape of the shingled head Gowns are lowered to show shoul- ders and a goodly portion of the spinal column. Arms are bare, ex- cept for slave bracelets, which con- tinue In fashion, especlally when worn above the elbow. There is little or no drapery to disguise the lines of the body. The Orlental slip is the Ideal frock for evening gayety. Orlental flesh is, happily, mot our ideal. The restaurant men {nsist that the madness for thinness is the cause of .thelr diminishing receipts. * K ok Kk ESIRE for exceptional slimness has brought into fashion the pinafore underslip of our grand- mothers. Those who once traded well In petticoats and later deplored their disappearance have reason to rejolce. The French adopted this form of undergarment when they discarded corsets, but their example plus the persuasion of the fashion writers made no Impression upon the trades- people who supply our necessitl The radual aceeptance of the camisole skirt came along with the eager acceptance of the pinafore un- derallp. Now we delight In both garments, putting the latter beneath our slender chemise evening frocks and over the slightly boned girdle corsets that leave the dlaphragm as free as any Orlental dancer could desire. No matter what the shape of the evening frock, it is cut low in the back. In front it may rise to the collarbone, which s an exceptional shaping, not wise for the majority. We have released ourselves from the thrall of the high evening gown. \ The harness of colored crystals |once worn by the audaciously low | {frock is not revived. Whatever the | depth of the decolletage it leaves the | back unadorned. Not even the sun- | burn powder of last season serves| as a covering. The whiter we are the better. The shape of the fashionable back decolletage 18 V or U. It still goes to the alphabet for inspiration. The edge of the frock Is left to itself Galloon scratches. Blas facings of tulle are quickly disorderly. The | edge of the faoric is turned in, then origin of lfting the hat on the street | mal that goes to the traps or once |blind-stitched or pasted and left to 1o an acquaintance. have to go back to these knightly days. It would save .much annoy- ance and curiosity if we should lift | the visor of the cloche a bit as we Women may |went to the public garbage heap. |rest against the flesh. |Anfl we use fur in such profusion' that distinguishing marks, such as | eves, nose, chin and hands are guite | | concealed. One must know us h)? our This Is the artistic way to arange a decolletage. | Anything added detracts from its grace. |” There 1s no objection to aisplaying | AT LEFT: BLACK SATIN GOWN FOR AFTERNOON, WITH OLD-FASHIONED OPENING IN FRONT. THE SCARF 1S OF ERMINE. AT RIGHT: BLACK VELVET GOWN FOR AFTERNOON. THE CHINESE BAND COLLAR IS DROPPED TO THE ARM-TOPS AND TIED WITH A CRAVAT. a modesty plece of the kind Invented for the front decolletage. It is not attached to the frock. It is part of an ornamental camisole that holds In the upper part of the body. Pos- sibly It is the upper part of the un- dersllp. The majority of evening gowns are bullt without lining. They depend on the undersiip to give what- ever concealment is needed. Metalllc tissue, georgette crep chiffon, even exquisitely fine muslin and lace are chosen for this orna- mental camisole. They show through all the openings of the bodice. They make possible the simplest evening gowns which open under the arms and are held together at the shoul- der seams. There 1s a revival of lace for such camisoles. Black, white, colored lace will do. The extremists do not line it. Conservatives do. Thin chiffon or tulle is best. * ok k% ‘HE simplicity of most of our clothes would suggest that the boat-shaped neckline borrowed from Itallan Rennalssance days be contin- ued. Not so. Every one is weary of it, especially those who design fash- fons. It has several rivals, which appear on frocks that are not for formal evening wear, one of which, the round neck, is a revival from the fashions of the early nineteenth century. It has been painted by the great artists, who left colorful rec- ords of English Iadles of that period. It is used on overblouses as on brocade night frocks, and s well liked for the cloth gown that dis- place tailored suits as actual winter weather comes in. The square neck opening, a tradl- tional fashion for centurles, exag- geratedly popular with the Edward- lan ladles, as was the extra deep V- shaped opening in the back, 1s used in several kinds of afternoon frocks. | The passion for white ermine with black cloth or velvet gives the dress- makers a chance to put an edge of it between the fabric and skin. Half the women of both continents seem to be wearing this black and white combination. One of the novel meth- ods of arranging it combines a slight handkerchief scarf of ermine at the edge of a deep U-shaped front open- ing which 1s high at back. The scarf ends in two short streamers. In the opening is a modesty plece of white lace. Even black tallored suits show this etraight-across modesty plece of lace instead of a blouse. snug jacket, short and slim, buttoned at the walst, needs it and carrles it. Leonora Hughes, the well dressed dancer, dresses thus, adding a white gardenia to the lapel. ‘This neat and old-fashioned sil- houette {n a tailored suit, by the way, must be regarded with interest. It 1s bound to be a ruling fashion next spring. It is prevalent in France Only a| today, The new coats over there are fashioned on the model of a French- man's short .coat. This winter we will continue to wear the loose sack coat of the Englishman, but beware of a change after Easter. The tight flattening brassiers 1o avolded by the French, who choose the rounded bust line under the lace modesty plece. That fashion, . too, will win out here when the fashions are even more directoire than at present. Lanvin's three belts on evening gowns, one under the bust, are significant. Watch straws, there- fore. Gat the best use of the clothes you possess. * X % % ‘WO years ago some one Invented' 8 most beguiling neck line on an evening frock which now appears as a movelty, and a good one at that It resembles a wheel with the base of the neck as the hub. The spokes that run up to this hub are crystal bands, metal brald, embroldery on tulle, or curious designs done in rhine- stones on velvet. Beneath these spokes the bare neck gleams. The rim of the wheel is far below the hub. It 1s & compromise between exceeding decollete and a high neck. It has sufficlent coquetry to please the young. Another curfous and pleasing neck opening for an afternoon frock com- bines a loose Chinese band collar with cravat and a deep delta, such as was once worn by the Duchess of Vendome and Victorian ladles. The cravat tles across the delta, which extends to the bust. Beneath the| cravat goes a string of pearls, rock | crystals, jade, or amber, whatever one chooses to wear in these most bejeweled days. (Copyright, 1923.) — Rice and Jam in Cups. Sweeten & pint of milk and flavor with cinnamon or lemon rind. Mix two tablespoonfuls of ground rice EVENING GOWN, WITH DEEP V- SHAPED DECOLLETAGE BACK AND FRONT. THE CHEST IS COVERED WITH FLESH-COL- ORED CHIFFON, WHICH ENDS IN A METALLIC ORNAMENT ‘WITH A DEEP FRINGE. smoothly with a little cold milk, add the well beaten whites of three eggs and mix in the bolling milk. Stir the preparation over the fire until it is thick and smooth, then pour Into cups which have been wet in cold water. Turn the rice out of these when cold and pour round the little shapes & custard made with the yolks of the eggs. Put a spoonful of jam or jelly on each mold. If eaten cold, any kind of frult sirup may be used instead of the jam or jelly. Streams of Alps' Will Soon Furnish All the Power Switzerland Needs BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. ZURICH, Switzerland. LUCK a hair from the head of your baby. under a microscope and split | it lengthwise into 500 strips. Now measure the thickness of each strip and if your work Is correct you may see the exactness of the tools of a Geneva watch factory. It was al- most under the shadow of the pal- ace of the league of natlons that I| vent through an establishment which has been making watches for 150 vears. The same firm owns it today, and it was Mr. Constantin, a descend- znt of the original founder, who took me from room to room and showed me how the Swiss make the finest of 1imepleces. Our American watches are made al- together by machinery. For ages the finest Swiss watches have been made Ly hand and the chronometers of tos day are produced by a combination of handwork and small machines run by electricity. These machines are wonders of construction. They work to the one elghteen-thousandth of an inch, and every man at the bench has a micrometer which he applies from time to time to see that the parts are just right. These micrometers meas- ure a halr as you might measure a log with a pair of callpers. In or- der to .test this, I pulled out one of the sandy gray hairs still left on the roof of my cranium and the watch- gnaker tested its size. It was five hiundredths of & millimeter thick, and the jeweler flattered me by saying, “It is as fine as the hair of a woman.” Some of the screws made are more tiny than the head of a pin, and cog- weels are cut which are not as big as the finest grain of sand on the sea- shore. 1Indeed, you have to use a microscope to see the teeth forming the cogs. Nevertheless a wheel of that size has to have just as many cogs as the cylinder as big around as a tumbler which forms a similar part in a glant chronometer. The factory makes some watches not as large as vour thumbnatl and others twice the diameter of the palm of your hand. Every watch has 170 parts and the only difference in the large and the small 18 the size of the parts. The owner of this factory told me ‘some Interesting things about watches. He says no watch keeps perfect time, but they are able to make chronometers here so exact that they vary only & second in twenty- four hours or just about six minutes a year. If you will open your watch and look at the balance wheel which fites back and forth, you may have some idea of what such figures mean, That balance wheel is making about 18,000 revolutions an hour, and as it swings back and forth. it travels thousands of miles every year. AsI remember it, the man sald it goes eighteen miles every day; neverthe- Jess, in & distance as far as from New York to Detroit, its variation is only five feot. And then the oll it takes to keep these Jjewels in continual motion. You know how your motor car eats ofl and that should the oll fail the ar would stop; you have to replenish it nearly every day. A good watch needs ofl only every two years, and the finest need only a drop one-tenth |1 28 large as the head of a pin to keep thelr works meving that time withe Sput friction. WITZERLAND has 1,200 watch fac- torfes, many of which are stand- | ardized, turning out watches by rtha- Stand it on end chinery much as our cheap motor | cars are made in the factorles of De- | troit, where a ton of steel goes in at one end and comes out at the other |as an automobile. every year millions of this kind of | wateh. But the fine watches, such s | are made in the factory I visited, axe | @ifferent. The workmen there are nét industrial cogs. They use their brains {and skill and keenness of eyesigh’. Their fathers have been makini watches before them and they have & | hereditary skill which has come dow through the generations. The making of a watch begins with great sheets of brass, nickel and stee! which are cut into strips an inch or, so wide with machines, much like cardboard. Little dies cut out blanks for the varlous parts, and tiny ma- chines run by electricity make the cogwheels, the screws and other in- finitesimal parts of thee small watches, As I went from table to table equipped with machines of this kind, I talked with the watchmakers. They are both men and women, and not a few are gray-haired. 1 saw a man of sixty-five with a microscope cup- ped in his eye and I was told that the fine work does not impair the eye- sight. Indeed, the manager tells me one of his men, now eighty-five, worked fifty odd years before he was retired on a pension. He 1s proud of his work and still comes down every day to spend several hours at the bench to keep his hand in. The wages are low for skilled labor. The women get from $1.50 to $2 & day and the most expert men recelve $140 a month. They work forty- eight hours a week. I asked my gulde as to the jewels of a watch. He says the number has little to do with the perfection of the workmanship. Jewels are used because the rubies and sapphires are harder than any metal, and the holes thrébugh them do not wear as much as steel, nickel or brass. This factory makes its own Jewels and finds synthetic rublies the best. Switserland has been making watches for three or four hundred years. The industry was started here by a Frenchman, the year after Sir Francls Drake destroyed the Spanish Armada. It began in the Jura moun- tains and thence spread throughout western Switzerland. For generations all of the watches were made in the homes of the workers, only one or two parts belng made at each hous Later, factories were established and, after the cheap American watch made by machinery began to capture the trade, the Swiss adopted similar methods and made watches by thou- sands where they were formerly made by the dosen. Many of the fine watch parts used in America are imported from Switzerland, and this iz also true of the synthetic jewels of which we take hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth in a year. The United States has always been one of the chief buyers of Swiss watches, but we import mostly the finished move- ments, making the cases ourselves. Today Switserland is producing in the eighborhood of 20,000,000 watches a year, but the world war disorganized the Industry and it is now subsidized by the government. ‘ The Swiss syli | those that paper stores use to cut Agriculture. H ! ¥ i People of Country Make Lace, Embroidery and Cheese in the Heart of the Mountains. Some Wonders of a Geneva Watch Factory—Grinding Out Chronometers by Hand—Cantons Which Make Toys and Raise Snails—The Tourist and Hotel Industry —High Charges for Americans—Electrifying the Railroads—Three-Fourths of Total Area of Country Suitable for MOST OF THE FAMOUS ALPS RAILWAYS ARE NOW RUN BY ELECTRIC POWER. This country makes fine clocks al’ employing in the neighborhood of The stores sell clocks so small | that you can carry one in your vest pocket, and there are others so large that they are fit only for a church steeple. Nelither watches nor clocks| are cheap, and I doubt whether the average timeplece of Switzerland is any better or even as good as our owd, * % X * N eastern Switzerland, where I am now, the skill of the people turns from metal to textiles. This s the great weaving and embroidery center, just as western Switzerland is the great watch-making dlstrict. ‘This town of Zurich does a Lig busi- ness in silk. Its factorles. compare with those of Lyons in France, and it makes quantities of silks which are shipped to America. Basel, at the head of navigation of the Rhine, on the border of Germany, is the chief place for the manufacture of ribbons. 12,000 workers. It makes the most expensive ;and the finer qualities of such goods, sending the greater part to England and Scandinavia and but little to the United States. 'Not far from Lucerne they are making = great deal of artificlal silk, and St Gall sends overseas hundreds of thou- sands of yards of embrolderies to trim the garments of the fair sex of our country. They make also quan- tities of fine linen and silk lace, and there are cantons such as Appenzell, where tHey have been making hand 1ace for centuries. Every woman and girl knows how to make lace and the most beautiful specimens often come from women with hands like hams, coarsened by their hard work in the field. Few people have much idea of the great part that industry holds In the life of the Swiss. They look upon the country solely as a great mountain with a population devoted largely to | making cheese and sweet chocolate. The truth is, two-thirds of the busi- ness of Switzerland is in the produc- tion of luxury goods to be sold to ! other parts of the world. Nearly every town or city is a beehive of work, and almost every home makes something to export. There is one tcwn of 30,000 people which produces 300,000 watches & year, and there are towns In the Jura mountains which make clocks and wooden toys. I spent some time last week on Lake Brlenz, on the borders of which is & village of wood carvers, who make toys and other artlcles, which are sold all over the.country.. They have a wood-carving sghool, where . the boys - are taught the ‘art of 'their fathers. In some families all the men have ‘been wood carvers for hundreds of yeats. Theére are” watch-making sohools in Geneva and other cantons, and weaving schools here at Zurich. It has something like 10,000 looms, resort, filled with tourists and hotels, ' On the south side of the Alps the “SWISS RAILROADS ARE BEING FL El"‘l'RrFlED 50 RAPIDLY THAT IN A FEW YEARS STEAM LINES MAY GO OUT OF USE ENTIRELY. I.w-ll. Itallan Swiss are breeding sllk worms, and there is one district that raises snails for the stomachs of Parls. There are villages where the boys learn special trades and go to other countries to practice them. one town sending out masons and glazlers and another graduating fine pastry cooks. The walters of the hotels all over Europe and many of the best chefs and managers have been trained here in Switzerland. FE HE tourist and hotel business of Switzerland is an important ele- ment in the life of the nation. Trere are thousands of hotels and they represent an investment of about $500,000,000. They spend for provi- sions and help something like $20,- 000,000 a year, and before the war they paid a big profit in good sea- sons.” If the summer Is sunny the re- ceipts are large; If it rains, they fall off. The world war, which for a time lmpoverllged Germany, Austria, Italy number of people coming to Switzer- land, while the high exchange has made it Impossible for the Italians, Austrians and Germans to spend their money here. Formerly the Germans were the best patrons. three or four times a year and spent freely. Now most of the money comes from Americans, but they are spend- ing less per head than they did before our prohibition law was enacted. They do not drink as much, saying: ‘“What {s the use of spoiling our stomachs when we will soon be back In a dry country? Many of the Americans do not drink at all, but those who do get drunk very qulckly, and the more they drink the worse they get. Americans take the best rooms and as a rule they pay the best prices. Sometimes, I think, they are charged more. Here at the Bellevue Palace in Berne, where I have stayed a week, I made a rate of about $12 a day for myself and secretary, but when the bill came in it was for $15 and the landlord took an extra percentage on the amount of the $120 bill to give to the servants. Tips are demanded at nearly every hotel and one pays at least 10 per cent extra for service. It costs more now to run the hotels than it did In the past, and charges have gone up accordingly. The aver- age rate per day at the best 1s per- haps $8 dollars, Including room and meals, but there are many good sec- ond-class hotels where one can be accommodated for $4 or $5 and pen- slons where the price is still less. ‘The food everywhere is good and the living better and cheaper than In the United States. The hotel employes are pald more than In the pi bu many of the hotels evade this added expense by asking the guests to give service fees. Salaries of all kinds |are perhaps three times as high as | before the war. Food is almost dou- bled in price and taxes have been greatly increased. The Income tax rate for well-to-do men of the citles is at least 10 per cent T am surprised to find what an Im- portant part agriculture has fn this land of the mountains. One would think nothing could be raised in a country which s all hills and hol- lows, but the truth is three-fourths of the total area of Switzerland Is productive. There are several hun- dred thousand farms and it is esti- mated that there are a quarter of a million acres in farms of less than fitteen acres in size. Every patch which is not covered with rocks or ! snow 1s either cultivated or used for pasture or forest. About 30 per cent of the land is wooded and almost 40 per cent is given up to raising grass. High up in the mountains you will find fat patches of green as big s a bed quilt, separated by stone plles and with cows feeding between. ‘The cows are started Into the moun- tains as soon as the grass sprouts and are driven higher and higher as summer comes on. The people watch these patches and manure them every year. When the | automobiles began coming over the mountains they feared that the dust raised would hurt the grass and I am told they offen threw buckets of filth at the cars to show their displeasure. But this i{s not so today. Nearly every farmer knows how to make cheese and something like 2,000 and France, has greatly affected the ! They came | factories are devoted to the Industry. Fifteen million dollars’ worth of cheese is exported and the factorles annually use something like 150,000,- 000 gallons of milk. The butter made 18 consumed in this country and some is {mported from Denmark. The cream is excellent, but as a rule one gets only hot milk for his coffee at the ho- tels. The Swiss also make a great deal of condensed milk and milk chocolate. Milllons of dollars are In- vested In the chocolate industry and during the world war the home con- sumption of this candy food greatly Increased and large quantities were also exported. LI 'WITZERLAND labors at great dis- advantage from an industrial standpoint through her lack of raw materials of any kind and especlally coal. She has no minerals of value and she has to import all the fuel she uses to make steam or electricity. As an offset to this she has begun to de- velop her water power and In time the “white coal” of the mountalns will make her independent of the “black dlamonds” which now come in at exorbitant prices from Germany, France or Great Britaln. The charges are 80 high as to be almost prohibi- tive and wood is practically the only fuel. An American woman who lives here tells me she had to pay 375 a ton last winter for coal. As a result, every stick of fuel Is saved. The woodplles are kept under cover and if left out or doors & roof 1s put up ¢+ keep off the rain. The great hope of the country s |\ waterfalls of the Alps. The force o these has been measured and it 1s es- timated that there is avallable about 4,000,000 horse-power, or what some say is equal to 40,000,000 tons of coal every year. The United States is now using about elx hundred miillon tons of coal per annum, or about six tons per person. If the above estimate is correct the “white coal” of Switzerland would be equal to ten tons per head. It would run all the Swiss factorles and rallways, and light and heat every home in this mountalnous land. The world war siowed the Swiss how important it is that they should be in- dependent in the production of power, and the government is harnessing the streams as rapldly as it possibly can. It has already electrifled more than |three hundred miles of the railwaya, | and within a very few years every tratn in the country will be electrically driven. They are already taken through { the St. Gothard tunnel that way, and !the electrification of the lnes from Goldau to Zoug and Immensee to Rot- kreuz has been completed. The line | from Lucerne to Zurich has also been electrifitd and the Swiss engineers are speeding the work all over the country. The entire system of rail- ways would reach from here across the Atlantic to New York and be- yond. In 1920 lines having a total |mileage as grest as tne distance from Detroit to New Orleans were electrically operated, including the Simplon line and the Simplon tunnel, and the remarkable cogwheel rall- way which I took in my trip up the Jungfrau, The Rhine, the Aare and the Rhone are all to be more or less harnessed, | and even the smaller waterfalls of the Alps wil produce an abundance of juice. (Copyright, 1923, Carpenter's World Travels.)