Arkansas true Democrat., 1857-11-24
NO. z.
Crinolines and Hard Times.

In Faneuil Hall, on the 4th instant, ex-At- torney General Gushing delivered and address before the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association, in reference to the sentiment: "Our Country for its science, glori- ous for its art, and still more glorious for it's public men" In the course of his speech, MT. Cushing said:
 doubt at any rate in the breadth of its ordi- nary statement the truth of the current doctrine oi assumed profusion of living as the evil of the tlmes or entrusted retrenchment as it's remedy. l think both the evil itself and its remedy lie deeper Tn other causes and acts, which it would be out of place to attempt to unfold here at the festive board.
 For example 1t is quite common to assail the ladies, 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. Iwould like to break a lance with any gentleman in that quarrel will go further, and run the risk ot paradox, Tn saving that in my judgment the prevailing female costume is not only graceful, but relatively to other fashions which have pre- ceded It, convenient, and therefore justified by considerations of utility as we'll as beauty Apart from that, 1 confess 1 have been amused to observe how much of undue importance, in the great sum of our wealth, industry and com merce, has been attributed to the extra houuces and iurbelows of the ladies. IL is in truth matter which enters for a mere bagatelle into the complex question of imports and exports, and that is all. Did the silks worn by the la dies produce the failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company? Did their superhuous laces and muslins break down the Illinois Central Railroad? Did their volumnous 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 four in the United States? Was it their kid gloves and lliputan bonuets and slippers which oCCasiOned the embarrassment of the great dry goods commission houses of Boston, and the suspension of the banks of Philadelphia and New York? Absurd!
 ] confess 1t shames me, as man, 10 near so much said of the profuseness of the ladies' in view of our own way of life Most assuredly, NIT. Fitz Frvo with his champagne, his ci5 i5ars, his fast horses, his yachts, and his other fancy pastimes, has no right to complain of the fine robes the brodered kerchiefs, and the b{j0tefle of Miss Flora McFlimsey. She will discover that she Is In want of nothing to wear quite soon as he will find anything useful to do; for even she has warm wOman's heart beneath all the point lace and more antique in whose mys- terlous volume her fair form Is draped; and II be 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 fash ion at the voice of duty and of love-
 But all the folieo of all the Fitz Frivols and Flora McFIimseys in the land are as nothing in effect, on the financial condition of the United States compared, 1 will not say with a war iu the CrImea or India, for that we do not and cannot have-but as compared with d 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 tollies have had no apEreclable influence Tn producing the actual breakdown of the credit system of the United States.
 At such time as this, at any rate. when so many thousands of industrious men and women in Massachusetts are deprived of occupation and of means of support, by the eurtailmeut or sus- pension of work in the great mauuiactories of the State, although for them retrenchment Is a necessity as we'll as duty, vet It s not so for those, who, with wealth, possess assured means of subsistence. Why should they retrench, when every arJicle they consume Is of ofdiInush- ed price? It would be especially unwSe for them to do so, at a time when every item of personal expenditure which they may cut off will but serve to agravate evils bv contributing to impede the circulation of money, by mcreas- ins the superabundance of unemployed labor, and by multiplying the causes of poverty and crime, and in the long run subject them to larger expenditures of almsgivjng and taxationr. At time like this, in France for instance there would be succor to labor by great public works of the government, such as the addition ot new quadrangle to the Louvre or the Tui- iereS. We cannot in this way combat the ef- fleets of a stricture, as 1t is called, in the money market But ecan, sO far as we possess the means, continue our accustomed train Of life; perSevere in well devised and we'll directed en- terprlse; keep, 50 lar as possible our ships and our looms in action; preserve, unmovei, the great landmarks of our industrial prosperity; and stand ready to start anew when the proper time comes, as come 1t soon must, all the great movements of producton and of commerce throughout the commonwealth.