“From what I have said about clothes, it, no doubt, becomes plain to you that, in a world and age in which people appreciate good health, love liberty, enjoy real comfort and esteem the greatest conveniences, there is no room for an unmanageable hat, tight shoes, tightly laced corsets, a plug hat, stiff shirtfronts and skirts of any kind, whether short or trailing. From historical knowledge you all know that in ‘olden times’ your men wore shirts and other flowing gowns, the same as your ladies still do. But your men, in your highest civilized countries at least, on account of having a little more freedom to act, have long outgrown the skirt and robe, except, perhaps, a few priests; and just so will your women outgrow them as they become a little more independent socially, industrially, financially and sexually. A good sign of the coming change is, that a few of your foremost ladies have already laid aside their skirts. “Our dress, then, as you will infer from my description, is all made of the best and finest fabrics, of endless variety in style, scrupulously clean, handsomely made, perfectly comfortable, highly healthful, remarkably convenient yet extremely simple. “I am well aware that some of your so-called fashionable ladies and your dudish gentlemen, who are not infrequently trying to hide their ill-health partly contracted from their unnatural dress, with paint, would sneer at our plain, tidy, comfortable costume, no matter how clean and healthful it be. But, I am certain, that our clean, plain, convenient dress would not seem so strange and ridiculous to you as your unnatural, pinching and, am sorry to say, too often soiled garments would appear to us. Just think how your ladies, who are forbidden by your one-sided society to solicit the love of their choice, must decorate and ornament themselves in gaudy costumes to attract attention in order to catch a husband, or be left without one in your cruel social and industrial world in which a single woman has but a slim chance of making a comfortable living. So much for dress.” “How about exercise, Mr. Midith?” asked Mrs. Uwins. “Do you consider it very essential to full development and good health, and, if so, how do you teach it?” “We teach that healthful outdoor exercise is absolutely essential for the highest physical and mental development and for the maintenance of good health. We think it is one of the most invigorating forms of food a person can take; and we teach how to take it on the same principle as we teach other things. The adults practice it in the presence of the young, and the child naturally takes to it by imitation and pleasure under our favorable conditions.