Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1842-01-29
THE CHANGES OF FASHION.

Changes OF Fashion are oppressive 10 the
poor. DR.. Franklin once remarked that sit
is the eyes of other people that rum U.s.
If all were blind but me, | should neither
want fine houses, fine furniture, nor fine
clothes"
The desire to appear well in the eyes of
others, is rarely measured by the depth Of
the purse. The waiting girl will not I'M
frequently spend two months wages for a
new bonnet, only because her old one is out
Of fashion. This is oppression. Is it ex-
pected that her nature is so much superior
to that in higher life that she can consent
to single herself out from the world by be-
ing old fashioned?
The superintendent Of the House Of Ref
uga IN Boston has said, that the love Of
fashionable dress was the most efficient
cause of the degradation and misery of the
young females of that city. On this fact
MISS Sedgwick very justly remarks, SIT
this be so, should not the reformation begin
among the educated and rejecting? How
can lady whose presses are teemng with
French laces, enjoin simplicity and econo.
my on her domesticsN
New fashions are oppressive to the fani-
lies in The common walks of life.
In large family it is felt to an alarming
and ruinous degree. Often would the pen
uyess widow and orphans have been left
with a comfortable maintenance, had not
the changes of Fashion swept all before
| them.
The influence Of fashion is not only made
to subserve the vanity of the gay-but SO
enslavng is it in its operations, that even a
visit from the king Of terrorS cannot be re-
| celved, without consulting the annals OF
! Fashion to find IN what dress we should re.
ceive him. The tears Of the widow are for
a while dried away, although no words OF
consolation can assu0ge her grief, when she
COnsults with her dress-niaker on the fash,
,On for her mourning garments; and often
when the amount left by the frugal care Of
a beloved husband for the support OF his
widow and children has been scanty, has d
large proportion of that pittance, in obedi
ence to the mandates Of Fashion, been de-
voted to the purchase OF unnecessary clothes
which under better regulation of the
public sentiment might have been dispensed
with, and her children supplied with bread
To abstain from the sable garments on the
death o: a relative, is thought by many tC
show a want of respect for the departed
This, however, is only the effect of an ar
btrary fashion. There is nothing in bacE
real mournlul more than any other color
The beau in his black suit has not SO mourn
ful an appearance as the Quaker in ms drab
Some writer has remark ed that in China
the mourning is white; in Turkey, blue ol
violet; in Egypt, yellow; in Ethiopia
brown; each people pretend to have
their reasons for the particular color o.
their mourning, white is supposed to denote
purity; yellow death is the end of human
hopes-ior the leaves when they fall, and
the flowers when they fade, turn yellow
brown denotes the earth, whittier the dead
return; blue expresses the happiness which
it is hoped the deceased ones enjoy; and
purple or violet, sorrow on one side, and
hope on the other, as being mixture OF
black and blue"
In dress devoid of vanity. the dead can
be as much respected in one color as anoth.
er.
That servility to foreign Fashion and use.
less expenditure in dress, were repugnant
to the principles of those who were the fra.