The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1857-11-05
The Ladies Defended by an AttOr-
new General, .-

At the recent Triennlal Festival OF the
Charitable Mechanics Association, held
in Faneull Hall, Boston, the late United
States Attorney General, Mr.. Cushing,
thus alluded to the subject of female ex-
trayagance in connection with hard times /:
at is quite common to assail the la
dies, and to ridicule and reproach their
taste of dress, personal ornament, and
custom of life, as one of the responsible
causes of the present commercial crisis.
| utterly deny this. ] would like to break
a lance with any gentleman in that quar-.
rel. / will 90 further, and run the risk
of paradox in saying that in my judg-
ment the prevailing female costume is not
only graceful, but, relatively to other
fashions which have preceded it, conve-
nient, and, therefore, justified by consid-
erations of utility as well as beauty
Apart from that, | confess have been
amused 10 observe how much of undue
importance, in the great sum of our
wealth, industry and commerce, has been
attributed to the extra hounces and furbe
lows of the ladies. II is, in truth, mat
ter which enters for a mere bagatelle in
to the complex question of imports and
exports, and that is all. Did the silks
worn by the ladies produce the failure of
the Ohio Life and Trust Companyl Did
their superhuous laces and muslins break
down the Illinois Central Railroad2 Did
their voluminous skirts stop the wheels Of
the Erie Railroad? Was it fancy of
theirs for cakes and sweetmeats, which
raised up or pulled down the speculative
prices of sugar and flour in the United
Statesl Was it their kid gloves and Ill
liputian bonnets and slippers, which oc-
casioned the embarrassment Of the great
dry goods commission houses of Boston,
and the suspension of the banks of Phil
adephia and New York? Absurd
II confess it shames me, as man, to
hear so much said of the profusoness of
the ladies, in view of our own way of life.
Most assmedIy, Mr.. Fitz Frivol, with his
champagne, his cigars his fast horses, his
yachts, and his other fancy paStimes, has
no right to complain of the fine robes, the
broidered kerchiefs and the bij0uferie of
Miss Flora McFlmsey She will discov-
er that she is in want of nothing to wear
quite as soon as he will find anything use
iul to do; for even she has warm wo-
l'aan's heart beneath all the point lace and
MORE aljque in whose mysterious vol
nme her l''i arm is drapsd; and if he did
DuV' know now - reach that heart. he
would see her as promp, 70 please bv fru-
| galty as by luxury, and pfo1I 70 make
any sacrifice of fashion at the voioo Of du.
ty and oflove.
"But all the folles Of all the Fitz Friv.
OILS and Flora McFlimseys in the lard are
as nothing, in effect, on the financial con
dition Of the United States, compared,
will not say, with a war in tho Orimea or
in India, for that we do not and cannot
have, but as compared with few cents
per pound or yard of rise and fall in the
price of the cotton of Carolina, the corn
and wheat of Illinois, or the freights and
manufactures of Massachusetts,; and their
follies have had no appreciable influence
in producing the actual break down OF
the credit system fthe United States"
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