Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-10-24

CALEB CUSHING IN DEFENCE OF CRINoLINE.
Mr.. Cushing, who has so many titles in
so many departments of public honor, that we
omit them all and call him simply Caleb, in
a speech before the Massachusetts Mechahio
Association, came to the defence of the ladies
in the following gallant style, as reported in
the Boston Transcript:
''For example, it is quite common to assail
the ladies, and to ridieule and reproach their
taste for dress, personal ornament, custom of
life, as one of the responsible causes for the
present commercial crisis. l utterly deny it.
would like to break lance with any gen.
tlemen in that quarrel will 90 further and
run the risk of paradox, in saying, that, in
my judgment, the prevailing female costume
is not only graceful, but, relatively, to other
fashions which have preceded it, convenient,
and therefore justified by considerations Of
utility as we'll as beauty. Apart from that,
confess have been amused to observe how
much of undue Importance, in the great sum
| of our wealth, industry, and commerce, has
been attributed to the extra hounces and fur
bellows of the ladies. 1t is, in truth, a matter
which enters for a mere bBgatelle into the
complex questions of imports and exports,
and that is all. Did the silks worn by the
ladies produce the failure of the Ohio Life
and Trust Companys Did their superfuous
laces and muslins break down the Hin oisCen-
trail Railroads Did their voluminous skirts stop
the wheels of the Erie road? Was it fancy
of theirs for cakes and sweetmeats which
raised up or pulled down the speculative
prices of sugar and -four in the United
States! Was it their kid gloves, and Lillipu-
tan bonnets, and slippers, which occasioned
the embarrassment OF the great dry goods COM
mission houses OF Boston, and the suspension
of the banks of Philadelphia and New York
Absurd
l confess it shames me, as a man, to hear so
much of the profusion of ladies', in view of our
own way of life. Most assuredly, Mr.. Fitz
Fivol, 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 kerehiefs, and the 5ijou-
terie Of Miss Flora McFlimsey. She will dis.
cover that she is in want of nothing to wear
quite as soon as he will fad anything useful
to do for even she has warm woman's
heart beneath all the point lace and MORE
antique, in whose mysterious volume her
fair form is draped and if he did but know
how to reach that heart, he would see her as
prompt to please by frugality as by luxury,
and proud to make any sacrifice Of fashion at
the voice of duty and of love,
But all the follies OF all the Fitz Fivols and
Flora Mcthmseys IN the land, are as nothing,
in effect, on the financial condition of the
United States; compared, will not say, with
war in the Crimea 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 of the United States"