Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1851-06-27

effects in eugendcting disease. Not only com
fort but health, and consequently beauty, the
lecturer deemed, demanded an immediate re-
form, for, where can there be beauty without
health and who ever heard of sickly Venus,
or consumptice Juno ? Woman is at present
a creature of the sunshine : she must consult
the fashion, and abjure comfort for outward
adornments. AS schoolgirl, the sound of the
north wind, the rain and the sunshine, and The
glad face of nature, filled her soul with eXulta'
ton, and her toll was rewarded with health,
and oceans of life and freshness. why must
she be compelled to recede from the elasticity
and hopeiulness OF the earlier days? why may
not the rain and sunshine Of her early years be
also the rain and sunshine Of her maturer lie
woman should not fear the air or water;
she grows fresh and beautiful from both. 1t
becomes, then, philosoph cal consideration, in
her choice of dress, that she should adopt the
best substitute for the purposes OF locomotlon
in all kinds of weather. 1t matters little what
shall be her in>door garments she needs
costume for the street, which must be alike
convenient and inexpensive. DO this icon
tinued the lecturer.) for the sake OF health,
comfort and beauty. In country like ours, II
anywhere, woman should be absoved from TO-
reign influences in the ordering OF her dress. II
her habliments please those OF her household,
what matters it if her course be approved or
disapproved by press or two, or II It encoun>
ter the sneers of a superficial foreign traveller
She should spurn the subordinate and ape
like submission to foreign usage, and that style
be adopted which BELTS the manners of a Re-
public. 1t is idle to talk of Equal Rights on
the one hand, and then ask, upon the other,
what we shall put on. Mrs. Smith continued
have said that health. comfort and beauty de-
mand this reform. We VIII see what cohsO-
tutes that reform. Woman does not, though
she is charged with it, covet the coat ana pan
yaloons of the other sex. God forbid! No
gentlemen: she pties you, quite as much as
herself, for your Unbecoming costume. She
can do better In the first place, she is. in
most costumes, shorter than Nan, possesses
more rounded lust more delicate organlza-
ton A woman likes tu be known as a woman, |
and the occasional adoption of male costume,
practice punishable by law, Though the lectu-
rer did not believe that either man or woman |
was made better by the enactment,) was but
an exception to this eue. The lecturer conSd-
cred new declaration of human rights to be |
greatly needed. She rebuked the tyranny OF
FASHIONS whims, and made a moving appea
in behalf of the toag and degraded classes,
whose incessant labors furnished the rich trap
pings and fncal adornments Of luxury. She
knew no high and no low: no Upper Ten nor
dover Ten. The time has come when genius
can command the ouy patent of nobility. The
change sne advocated was not for the wealthy
only, but for the peer a0d the laboring thou
sands. She believed it would enhance their
comforts, improve their vigor and healthlVIness,
and produce substantial benefit.
Mrs. Smith advocates, accordingly, the
ad ,ption of the Turkish trousers, with Il tunic,
and an outer garment fitting closely to the
bust, with long sleeves buttoning at the wrists,
and furnished with deep pockets, leaving the
arms free and the frame uneucumbered. The
new style was coalm 'nded in very graceful
and winning manner, and the sufferings OF the
sex were very feengIy depicted by the fair lee
,urer. The effect may be a blaze OK novelty
along Broadway"