Next to food, clothing is of importance, or at least so considered by civilized races.

That this idea of clothing has been carried to an extreme can not be questioned by serious-minded people - in fact, it has been carried to an absurdity.

The savage wears a stick in his nose (and you may notice I said his deliberately) or a feather in his hair; other things are considered secondary in importance, if worn at all. The first idea of clothing was undoubtedly for ornament, and the idea has been a sticker for even unto this day the main idea of clothing centers around this word "ornament," though goodness knows that some of the duds people wear are far from ornamental.

As the necessity for enlarged territory urged the people from the warmer regions, the idea of clothing as protection obtained, but the idea of ornament also remained, and today the two are practically inseparable. Inasmuch, however, as ornament is not necessary to the life of the body, and protection in the severe climates is essential, logically, protection is of more importance.

In clothing the body the first thing to be considered is that every limb and muscle be left to act freely and without restraint. The next thing of importance is, that the clothing be evenly distributed, not thick in one place and thin in another. The nearest approach to the natural covering of the skin itself is logically the sensible idea of the matter, and in accord with nature's plan. It is likewise desirable that the covering be as light as possible, just adding to nature enough to counterbalance the climatic needs. Having complied with the above requirements the matter of beauty or ornament may be properly considered - and not before.

And another matter must also be considered, clothing must be ventilated to be healthful. The body needs air, and the more of it that is exposed and hardened to the elements the better, in spite of the dictates of Fashion and modern customs to the contrary.

Now let me ask you, dear reader, if the clothing you and your fellows wear will pass the test?

Has the clothing of the human race, up to this time, been constructed with a definite purpose of aiding nature by added protection to perpetuate the life of the body? Or has it simply come from an elaboration of the idea of ornamentation? No doubt, sheer necessity has required covering of some kind, whether ornamental or not, but the simple answer is that very little attention has been given to constructing garments that are properly adapted to protect the body, and still allow it perfect freedom.

One thing that today mitigates against this more than any other is the dictates of Fashion, whose other name is Mammon, for the real purpose of the constantly changing styles is grossly commercial, though few of the walking clothes-racks know it.

Fashion does not change the styles in accordance with any rational law of adaptation of beauty. Her creations are more often hideous and harmful than they are beautiful and comfortable.

Just how this old hag, Fashion, has held her sway over the world for so long a period is a story for the psychologist to tell, and in the telling will be unravelled the cunning designs of Greed, in partnership with Death.

Had this she-wolf, Fashion, been content with merely changing the garb that mortals wear, our censure would not be so severe, but she has had the audacity to attempt to change the physical form that the Great Creator himself has designed.

Not contented with putting the human foot in a tightly enclosed and unventilated leather box, she has insisted that the foot should be made to conform to the box, and not the box to the foot. And still not content - she has made the body conform to the box, by placing from a half to two inches under the heel of the foot, and thus throwing the entire body out of poise and necessitating that every muscle be strained to re-adapt itself to the unnatural position.

Not content with torturing the poor feet of her modern devotees, she has gripped the very vitals of the mothers of the race and condemned her victims to lives of barrenness, pain, and disease. To know the enormity of this crime, it has been estimated that over $300,000,000 are spent annually for corsets, and this is but the beginning of the expenditure that results in untold misery to the living, and an outrage to the unborn who must enter this life handicapped at the outset, with a weakened, if not a deformed, physical organism.

The power of this she-devil, Fashion, can not be underestimated. She rules supreme; from the highest to the lowest we all bow before her blood-stained throne, though some of us unwillingly. Let one of us dare to disobey her slightest command, and the rest of us at once make life so miserable for the daring one that he or she is soon forced back into line. And just why we do this is another story for the psychologists to unravel.

Do you doubt it? If you are a man (I often write the word with a feeling that it does not yet apply properly to any of us), just let your hair grow beyond the usual "fashionable" length for men, and see what will happen. I will guarantee that some one will soon notice it and volunteer to loan you a quarter to have it trimmed. This will be done at first in a joking way; but should you persist, your friends will take the matter seriously, and you will shortly be accosted with the remark, "For goodness' sakes, Jones, why don't you get your hair cut?" If you still have courage, the boys will follow you around and "kid" you openly on the streets; and finally, if you refuse to come under, the police will take to keeping an eye on you - and eventually you may land in the "bug house."

Is it anybody's business how you wear your hair? Are you hurting anybody by wearing it long? Is it hurting you? Shouldn't you be permitted to wear your hair as you please.? But are you?

Suppose your aching feet cry out for freedom, and you think of the time when you were a boy, and how when the warm spring sun commenced to melt the snow you counted the days that would elapse before you could go barefooted. And, oh, the joy of it, to unlimber the toes and feel the earth beneath your feet? And you think it over - you will at once conclude, no matter how much you wish to do so, that it won't do for you to go barefooted. You perhaps don't know just why you reach that conclusion, - this old she-devil, Fashion, however, is at the back of it. But you decide at least to compromise with yourself, and you buy a pair of sandals. You may be "permitted" to wear them around the house without serious consequences, but dare to be caught out on the public highway with them on and you will soon be whipped back into line, and conclude that it is easier to suffer the pains of corns and bunions than to run the gauntlet of ridicule.

Just wear a long-tailed coat when a short-tailed coat is "proper," and you will "get yours," full measure, packed down and running over.

And, Mr. "He-animal," will you kindly note that most of the above remarks apply to your sex, for you are as much in the net of this demon of Fashion as are the so-called weaker sex, though perhaps you do not go to quite the extremes they do in showing it? Aside from the corset and the extreme high heels, the female attire is not so very much worse than the male. It's a hot day, thermometer hovering around one hundred degrees in the sun. I look out of my cell window (no, I'm not in jail, just confined to an office), and see a lot of women daintily dressed in white gauzy material, light of weight and suggesting some evidence of their actually being "rational," in spite of their poor deformed feet and "hobbling" walk, and their stiff, unbending, ungraceful, pinched, and tortured waists. I see a lot of men dressed largely in dark material, nearly every one of them wearing a coat and most of them a vest, all topped off with a heavy "sky-piece" that is surrounded by a leather band and absolutely shuts off all ventilation from the top of the head - 'which may be the cause for the hot air that so frequently gets inside this peculiar enlargement on the top end of our spinal columns.

I guess the average woman, in spite of her frills and folderals, is about as comfortable as the average man, for she generally takes it pretty easy around the house in her loose flowing kimono and sloppy slippers.

But the fact is, that we are neither one of us really comfortable or well dressed, in spite of the pride we take in some of our duds. And the further fact is that as long as the race is ruled by commercialism, we will all of us conform more or less strictly to the dictates of this old hag, Fashion, and our poor bodies will suffer in the degree that we obey.

To be truly free, to live as we please, to dress as we please, to eat as we please, and to please to live and dress and eat in harmony with the fundamental laws of our physical being, - this is but the dream of an extremist today, but the possibility of its realization is coming tomorrow - that is, the writer hopes it will.

In the meantime please reread the fundamental principles governing the proper clothing of the body, as here before stated, and try to comply with them to the best of your knowledge, and your moral and mental courage, for they have to do with the lengthening of your years.