The evening world. Newspaper, May 6, 1919, Page 18

orse ‘Is.a C ae t Doctors Disagree on Its Effects History Shows Jt Indispensable It Makes a Woman Look Young And the Decision Is Left in the Hands of a Mere Man Commissioner of Internal Revenue Whether or Not It Shatl Be Taxed as a Luxury. By Marguerite Mooers Marshall ’ LT exe corsets? Why are corsets? The cosmic problem of the corset has just been left on the door step of Daniel C. Roper, Commissioner of Interna! Rev- enue, in Washington, who—poor man—must decide if corsets are or are not underwear. In the former case, they are subject to the the tax. y = luxury tax if they cost more than ‘which means thet every wellcorseted woman must pay Then, wellmade correctly shaped corsets are a luxury? 0 doubt if the well-dressed American woman will concede that. Every dressmaker, every fashion magazine, maintains that the properly fitting corset is the foundation of the successful costume. Personally, 1 should list corsets as a necessity, albeit a painful, a hated necessity— Mave, perhaps, in Greenwich Village. . »male, even a male Revenue Commis- sioner, define or diagnose them? |right on wearing the “instruments | What does he know about them? Has he ever endured their stee! bondage? Not his the secrets of the prison- house. And yet men always are try- img to regulate corsets, or denounce them, or abolish them, Only last summer some giant mas-| euline intellect suggested that Amer- jean women win the war—not with but WITHOUT corsets, ‘The War| Andustries Board announced that all) available steel must: be used for phips, and the corset manufacturers had to enter a sharp protest. ‘The corset won this contest, however. Its position seems as impregnable as its structure. Eve was possibly corsetiess, though there is nothing to show she did not make some stiff, rigid, Corset-like garment out of small tree} branches, in order that her fig-leat skirt might set better, The Venus de| Milo never wore a corset, but what othe use of being a goddess if you can't ft away with a thing or two? It is “certainly fact that the human belles of ancient Greece and Rome wore supports of the corset order, con-| siricting too abundant embonpoint, » Whether appearing above, at or below the wais Excavations in Crete showed that 76,000 years ago women of that island “ewere wearing not only corsets but Shobbie skirts. In the Middle Ages “armor was worn by ladies as well as knights, Some stays were constructed of crossbars of metal securely riveted -to each other and fastened to a strong framework. This is the description of amother corset of those times: “It is made of two sheets of solid metal, ‘With holes punched out to make them Wighter. These metal sheets support the buck and are hinged to a sort of ‘Wulrass made of four bands of metal, running parallel to the ribs, strength- ‘ened at the sides,and in the centre by bands of iron wiich are fastened to _ the framework above and below, while ‘the breasts ure held in by a Case made on the same lines.” is probably right; any woman so at- (ired would have all the linear supp! ness of a figure in Euclid’s ge ; The Italian beaut.es of the Renais- asance were corseted. French women of fashion always have laced tightly; ein fact, Catherine de Medic! ordered that all women of good birth breeding stGuld reduce their waists to the abnormal size of thirteen inches wothe size of a boy's collar, The cor- eset went over to England with the conquering Normans. Almost as ancient as the corset has een the war waged against this gar- ment. had foemen worthy of its steel, The Roman Terence wrote a @iatribe about it such might have been penned by a modern satir- ist on sartorial follies. So ardently +did the health authorities of his time ‘abuse the corset that Charles IX, of France tried to suppress it, and his brother, Henry III. issued an edict Prohibiting the use of it, In those days the corset was called the quine and was made of strong linen reular and as bas- Since corsets are one of the properties of No Ma: |tle method Land, how can any of torture.” Innumerable doctors have con- demned corsets, Dr. Dudley 8. Sar- gent, that they be abolished by the dras- of adopting trousers, “The wearing of trousers,” he says, “would do away with corsets, which alone ought to commend them to thinking women. The evils of the corset are too well known to re- quire comment.” ‘Tight corsets for women are con- stant causes of backache and stomach trouble. according to many physicians, “Half the divorcees in civilized countries are caused by cor- sets," says Dr. Maud L. Dunn. Dr. Mayor a few years ago on an anti- corset plank forbidding womer under thirty to wear corsets in order to do away with race suicide, Some physicians, on the other hand, ray that woman is helped physic- ally by a properly made and fitted corset. “The woman of to-day is vastly better of in corsets than without them,” Dr. R. W, Lovett, instructor in orthopedics at the Har- vard Medical School, has said. Dr. Mary Halton, one of New York's best-known women physicians, once explained to me that the average woman of to-day, particularly after she has borne a child, needs the support an elastic corset gives hei and is likely to require surgics tention if she goes uncorseted, “Women never wil) give up cor sets,” a corset specialist assured me recently, “because the modern, 1919 corset. makes @ woman look YOUNG. It is cut low at the top, it eiminates the hips, it laces up the front and is a comfortable, necessary support.” To the question, “Why are cor- sets?” a French costumer has re- plied: “Take away the corsets and everything else would fall to pieces.” Sure enough, that scandalous Mi September Morn was uncorseted. So in the name of the late Anthony Comstock, Jet us at once and forever put corsets in the necessity class! They are necessary to preserve de- cency, or at least, Iusions, maze labyrinth is the puzzle in the world byrinth is a eoliection of wailed paths, paths edged by thick hed so high that it is impos sible to see over them, that run in @ ciroular direction, To solve the puazle it im only ne ury to get to the centre of the circle, But this is not as easy as it sounds, for many of the paths are nothing but “blind alleys,’ while others take wrong turnings which lead back to the entrance in- stead of the direction in which one wants to go. Phere was a famous maze built in Egypt near Lake Moris, probably as long ago as 2300 13, ©. Ac cording to Herodotus, the reek traveller, tt had half of them above ground and bal below, It was destroyed by order o the Caesars when Rome was mistress of the world eighteen centuries age and only fragm HE oldest Now or very nts remain Another even more famous laby rint! a Luxury or a Necessity?. of Harvard, has even urged Moses Stern of Philadelphia ran for | famous 8,000 rooms sinee, has any ore so youthful reached Four Brigadier Generals Under Forty MAJ. JN. HODGES Gormar Brigadier General, kang he had been promoted to Colonel They were called back to the Ameri can Army on June 12, attached to the 3d Division of the 1st Army. He returned to the United States | on Sept, 4 to assist in training an infantry division at Camp Devens, which he would have taken to France had not the Boche quit meantime. Bver since Civil War days there has been more or less discussion as to who was the youngest General of that conflict. The War Department has never attempted to settle the matter by any official statement, but all available information indicates that Gen, Nelson A. Miles, who at- tained the rank of Brigadier General | on May 12, 1864, at the age of twenty- | four, was the youngest General officer. Probably not before, and certainly not \a ¢ this grade. she next younger man of the pres ent war to become a ral officer for the emergency was Brig. Gen. Lesley J. McNair, who was born on May 265, 1883, and is therefore less than nine months older than Gen, Hodges. MeNair went to France as a Major in the Ist Division in June, 1917, and has been there ever since. He became Brigadier General on October 1, 1918. He graduated from West Point in Oupyright, 1919, by The Prew Pattiehing Ov, (The New Tork Rveniog Workd.) FEW days ago there arrived ye on the Aquitania Britain's youn; Brigadier General ~A. C, Critchley, who Is only twenty- eight years old, who won his distinc- tion in the Alr Service, America’s youngest Brigadier Gen- eral in the World War, and the first American to receive the British Dis- tinguished Service Order, is John N. Hodges, who was thirty-four years of age when Gen. Pershing promoted him to the rank of Brigadier General, Hodges—Major Hodges then—was one of the “Fighting Engineers,” as- signed temporarily to the Fifth Brit- ish Army, who stopped building bridges and railroads for the moment, threw down their picks and shovels, seized guns and rushed to the aid of the British in holding the Boche Amiens in the dark days of March, 1918, It ts now Major Hodges again, for he has returned to his permanent rank, having finished the job he was specially “loaned out” to do. He js now down on the Mississippi River| at Memphis, looking after construc- tion work since bis command was mustered out. Hodges was born in Balttnore, Feb. 18, 1884, His promotion to the Briga dier Generalship was made June 1918, a few days after be had rejoined the American forces in France fol- lowing his gallant exploit with the British. +o He was graduated from the Mili- ltary Academy as No, 13 in a class of 114 in 1905. His high grade on grad- uation caused him to be selected for \the Engineering Corps. When the war broke out he was a Captain of the 6th Engineers and Jocated at Washington Barracks. {He waa promoted to Major shortly thereafter and went to France Dec, 5, 1917, with that rank. On Feb, 11 his organization was transferred to the British, Army, and he was given command as Lieutenant Colonel Hedges and three companies of tho 6th Engineers were building bridges back of the British front when the storm broke om March 21, 1918, as the Germans began their “March to Paris.” How they discarded their tools for rifles and helped our Allies stave off disaster is a matter of his- tory. The American Engineers and |thelr young commander were actu- jally in line March 23 to April 3, When the first German onrush was halted Hodges and his engineers were again found working on bridges to be ready for the next attack, Meantime 1904, as No. 11 in his,class and was re- cently awarded the, Distinguished Service Medal for his remarkable work in training the artillerymen of the Ex- The Oldest Puzzle in the World TAKE A PENCIL AND SEE IF YOU CAN SOLVE IT if 4 hi DIAGRAM OF THE ANCIENT PENCIL AND SEE IF YOU CAN GET TO THE CENTRE OF IT. CRETAN LABYRINTH, TAKE A b raise your rent? grand BRIG. GEN. A.C, CRITCHLEY Film Service Sin. n, jarge infantry. Gen, ditionary Forces. We have it from Pershing that Gen. McNair “was responsible for impressing "p- on the American Army sound prin- ciples for the use of artillery and for improving methods for the support of Pershing knew McNair back Led American Armies in World War B Hodges, 34, MacNair, 35, Johnson, 36, MacArthur, 38, Establish New Record in U. S. Army History the 47th Field Artillery and was at Vera Cruz in 1913. He went across the border with Pershing in 1916 ia the chase after Villa, He has served 4s instructor in the School of Fire at Fort Sill. He was one of the highly trained officers sent abroad in tho early days of the war to lay the groundwork for the great army that was to follow. Gen. McNair !s married and lives in Minneapolis. He became a Second Lieutenant of Artillery on June 5, 1904, and a Captain on July 1, 1905. He went abroad as a Major and received a Coloneley June 26, 1918. The next youngest Brigadier Gen- eral was Hugh S. Johnson, a Regular Army man, who recently resigned from the service after serving con- spicuously as Assistant to Gen. Crowder in working out the draft system and later as assistant to Gen. Goethals in the organization of the Purchase, Storage and ‘Trafic Division, which co-ordinated the huge work involved in the purchase and ipment of supplies to the jarmy, as well as handled the troop movements, Gen. Johnson was born | Aug. 6, 1881, and -he was thirty-six | years old when he attained his sank |in the summer of 1918. Another young Brigadier General was Douglas MacArthur, only thirty-eight) when he received the Distinguished Service Cross for who was| By Florence El ILL DERD, nickle! Theyre awful down sergical dressings but I hoped the doctors would put on more than that whén they operated, but they dont dress themselves in them, they put em on the fello that the Boche has cut up. I knowd my hands was clean cause it being Monday Id been washin all morning but I washed em an didnt argue or explain. Then they told me to go over in the corner an stretch. I went over an started stretchin my arms an they all commenced to laff. I didnt know what at. I thought the stretchin was good idea cause you had to set still so long foldin the rags. But it wasnt myself that I was supposed to stretch, it was the cloth to make the things to dress you fellos in when the Germans leave you on the battle field bleedin to death. Why didnt they tell me to stretch the cloth? How Is anybody goin to tell? Thats the way it wemt with every- thing—nothin made plain. They say the Red Cross is a sign of mercy. They showed me mighty little. Didnt explain nothin—then laffed when Id |done somethin wrong. All the women talk about is babies an Hoover cornbred. Mrs. Joe Backner was braggin about how hers never What it the You can raise it right back! Just pretend it's poker. Keep a calm countenance and pre- The New York Evenieg World.) OU never know how much rent you can pay until you try. landlord does vent a murderous glare from show ing in your eyes. He is having stored up against him the wrath of a pillaged populace, All you are losing is money. Follow my lead: Two years ago I rented a fiverroom apartment for $50 a month The lease expires next October Ist The rooms were not when they were empty large even In fact, it was debated whether the I solved the difficulty by draping | my things over a chair. to send We had in the five days. some one visit you and become sick abed. With a doctor's certificate you can stay in the apartment as long as the invalid does.” “What'll it cost me?™ [ asked eag- erly. “My fee would be ten dol'ars; the doctor's twenty. You see, he runs some risk!" “And the sick person would eat about forty dollars’ worth of gro- ceries a month!" { murmured. “I'm not that much embittered against this particular blackguard of a land- lord.” I hurried home to permit my wife my wife's gowns | twin beds should be set up | clothes closet and and my suit hung on the cha back a ndelier, perfectly | good bird dog that we brought with us from our home town of Eddyville- on-the-Fort-Wayne-Road He was broken to quail, grouse and snipe, but a chronic tail-wagger. We ‘could not stand to have him foot square, son. purposes, say greed Th he announced. I , busk of wood or| Was on the Island of Crete, Ac ord Beet a0 thet It at ¢ oo as|ing to Greek legend this was n] here are several of these labyrinths being that the one who got out first | tightly as possible,» Needless to say, |for Minos, King of Crete, on the mode, | szinienge to-day, notably, one wt |showld be free to woo the maiden the royal edicts were smilingly dis-| of the earlier Egyptian maze, bat| sampton Court the old palace not |vithout interference from the other regarded’by the beauties of the day, | was much smaller, In it was kept tho| A" from London, England, Tien there) The race began curly in the morning, | , Minotaur, a repulsive looking waimat|{# 2n¢ at Versailles and another at|but it wos not until late afternoon mneeee: Deve, heen nO’ more Aue: | F d Scheveningen in Holland. that the younger brother staggered behstutin ‘conducting an anti-corset| that somewhat resembled w bull. The) mie maze at Hampton Court wax {out thoroughly exhausted iat at campaign. {n the happy duys of | story goow that every year svenlauit py King William IIL, in the|lowed In t:n minutes by the elder. He | 1910, wien royalty could take life] Youths and seven maidens whom) oventeenth century, It in formed of |Was 80 overcome by fatigue and th much lens seriously, Queen Elizabeth| Minos compelled the Athenians 10| very nigh, close-clipped hedges, and|knowledge that he had Ion aliens | bot Reumania joined Queen Alexandra| send him as a tribute were driven! :, yin kept up and open to the public, {test that he fainted away. When the | of England in a crusade aguinat| into this labyrinth to feed tie mon-|\ no derive mich amusement from it.|poor fellow recovered the two went | corsets. They refused to wear|#ter, And this went until Theseus, one] any romantic stories are told about /home together, and determined that \eorsets themselves and urged| of the youths sent in with the last jit, one of the best of which is the tule after all, as the race was so APA | their subjects to follow suit,| party, discovered the clue to ths! o¢ two brothers who were both in|they would not abide by the rewult | {But the uncrowned queen Dame| labyrinth and killed the minotaur, The |jove with the same girl, In order to but both would try thoir hardest to Fashion, even in those years| labyrinth actually existed, but the tale| decide which sould have the lady{win the girl's love. But, sad to aay when crowns were crowns, had the| of the minotaur is of course only 4|they took part in a novel race. ‘They she settled the question by refusing Phmnest utie io feminine alivgianve, | nd, diesram of th a laby- \Wore binatolded ond led to the centre them hoth Amd English, Italian and Roumanian| rinth accompanies this article, Takelof the labyrinth, Here the bandages! The clue to most labyrinths is sim: | like their sisters in othe: ot He civilized world, kept a the centre, @ pencil and see if you can get to were removed and the two at once #et off to find the entrance, the idea iply to turn to the right the moment a choice of any two turnings is offered. | “Not f what warinly, 1 me went cronies in a tirade a lieved to be The first one I met was a lawyer friend, “Don't pay the thief a cent!” he a pr Th That amount would rent the | hall of Eddyville for moving picture | sixty @ vitly 1 assured him, down-town to interest ainst w ering brushing the silverware from the din- ing room side table on to the baby piano in the drawing room every time one of us said, Sport!” But our reward came in vacation time when we re-visited the old folks |and I illustrated with two motions of my hands the shape of a box a and said: size of our rooms in the city ‘ifty dollars a month!" and father exclaimed in horrified uni- ‘Nice old hat's the my mother | town My wife glowed with pride as if to | “Well, if that’s the best, go ahead! magnanimously nt will be month!" some my hat I be iandiord. to share this new indignation of mine, “By the time that bloodsucker gets a new tenant,” 1 declared, randly, “he'll wish he'd listened to reason,” | "The real question,” she assured ne, bitterly, “is how to get a new landlord!” “T'll run out after dinner and dig up a dozen!" I boasted, three days, I made the remarkable discovery that there were no new (he latter was on the border with|stock, and was born Jan. 26, 1880 [human than she was Id have told ‘‘Landing on the Landlord’’ 4 * This Tenant Had Plenty of Seconds in His Carner, and His Footwork Was Clever, but the Landlord Had the Wallop and an Iron Jaw and Kept Coming Back for More : dvised, feelingly. “You'll get a dis-|landlords on the market. By Will Mack eeeey notice from him, operative ‘n| I hastened back to my old one. Copyright, 1919, by The Prew Publigting Co, In the mean time have| “I'll take the apartment at sixty a month!" was my humble decision. “Sorry!” he remarked, happily; “I rented it ten minutes after you left the other day, I thougbt you didn’t want it” “Fla! I fooled you!” I said, gloat- ingly. “Yep; you did!” he acknowledged; “but there'll be a vacancy on the floor above you Oct. 1; same number and size of rooms.” “Sixty?” I inquired, cautiously. “Seventy-five!” he answered. “You think I'll pay that?” I oe manded savagely. “Nope!” he replied. “Lye fooled you again!” 1, fairly shouted; “I'll take it!” When I told the Missus what I'd done, her e shone like stars, “Oh-heh-h! she exclaimed, joy ously, “that saves fifty dollars’ mov- After spending al! the spare time of | ing expense, A couple of men for a | day or two to carry up the piano and so forth won't cost more than twenty | five, will it dearest?” “I pope not!” 1, said yearningly “And just think e added in awe and admiration, “we'll be paying fif- teen dollars a room! WO laborers were quarrelling head—an electro-magnet | pounds of iron. One of the pinch bar. operator approached the machine electric current, conspicuous lacks, Tremendous powers come packed leak. Copyright, 1919, by the Press Publishing Co. Not Proportions But Potentialities Count that could The other held a heavy shovel Bigness too often precludes greatness TWO MINUTES OF OPTIMISM By Herman J. Stich * (The New York Evening World). as beneath a large lifting magnet over- lift thirty tons—60,000 laborers: held in his hands a short As the electro-magnet both laborers raised their tools to- ward each other menacingly. Instantly the operator switched on the The two men stood as if transfixed, clutching, d perately at their weapons, which were held aloft as by some invisible hand—it was not a giant's hand—1t was the product of a dwarf's idea Just because a man is big doesn’t mean that he will supply the The prize is not won by dint of sheer size ‘Also Caesar, Alexander and Hastings. see what a rich man I've made of| weight of the argument your struggling son? Ten dollars a rcomi™ | Napoleon was a dwarf, Minn akUat Aico Aiillant haa meanel Single microbes have wrought more devastation than billions of approached the owner of our build bullets. The typhoid bacillus has incapacitated more armies than ing with a proposal that he renew| bave cannon, my lease for another two years, | The mouse i's far more destructive than the mammoth, while grubs “We are making only one year have ruined far more crops than have cyclones. leases,” he explained, gently | Apparently trifling failings have foundered more futures than have Witness Russia and China, small and concentrated. You oan pulverize a mountain with pittances of dynamelin and paroxyline The most colossal bucket is emptied by the most inconsequential Insignificant infections daily overpower towering Hercules. Ti that esfully and gnaw. e vee <a: iH aunt battles with blasts sneeambs to saw Not proportions but POTENTIALITIEZS count. MABLE’S LOVE LETTERS TO HER ROOKE Illustrations by Natalie Fontaine Stokes, I been to Red Cross Working today. Speakin of somethii please to wash my hands before I fooled with the bandages. izabeth Summers there. When I got there thej They “ID BEEN WASHIN ALL ING.” her it waX because she nev at home to hear it They doors from us. The kid wi have to go West as long as it keeps up its lu tice I went in the parlor last a played “A Maidens Pray made me awful blue. That, ways your favorite song. Thanks for the swagge Hope you didn’t take my ri for a hint. Maggie Sams g those cross gun pins toda; knittin on some sox for you, Yours till Niagara falls M. A. st Tl | for const | 4; | (Copsright, 1919. by Frederioe Tie complete series of DERE wbliahed in book form. A Little Gil Is a Fashiona Thing This To Be in Style Mila Must Invest in By Ma rgaret OU just must invest y for your new coat sul a total waste withou! coat. , A little gilet is a dazalil particularly when it is m jone of those gorgeous met caded ribbon lengths. Blazin jand silver hectic dyes, |the modern maid present front to the world, even t and deepest of indigo serge around her. Indeed, every well regu up-to-date coat suit opens # the such endless ies and different gilets that it’ It the feminine world gilet mad. gilet and opens up der Now that Sister Susie sewing shirts for soldiet feverishly busy making gilets for herself out of odd in the family scrap bag. fascinating little vestees such charm and piquane severest suit are positive out of anything and ever; Wool and silk jersey, broidered in vivid yarns; stitched in. silk, @ bold design; linen and pig or even 8 culinely butto plain with pearl, sheer, frilly, fer fairs of hand tucked ruffle inserted organdie but the fifty-seven varieties. quaint little changeable ta coats that present a double show a dainty of ive batiste, lavishly r are tucked, lace trimmed, like a much, shirt front of the long ago a Still others are quilted spare room bedspread and have eruptions of colored be tricate designs, Braiding, t its decorative touch and oft of hand painting vies with ilar treatment of the gilet It is perfectly the proud possessor o doesn't at all suffice. ‘The smart woman owns a whole @ tion, one for each day in the nits all vei s and blouses too are being do simulated gilets, Capes hat fronts and, yes, they have vaded the realm of the und face ab obvious th, of Our