Delaware State journal and statesman., 1864-05-10
From the New York Tribune May ..


We hear with great satisfaction that those Ia
dies of our city must favored by fortune and
most eminent in social position have held one
meeting, and are soon to hold another and much
larger, with intent to initiate and ultimately ef.
feet reform in dress which shall replace osten.
tation by simplicity, display by modesty, and
expense by economy. 1t is somewhat late to
commence this movement; but then penitenoo
is seldom precocious and .sbetter late than new
er" is a maxim Of wide application. We trust
the ladies will persevere and be entirely success
ful, and that they will either themselves invest.
or persuade their husbands to invest, every dol
lar that they may thus save in the National Loan.
1t is very well to save the money; il il still bet
ter, being saved, to place II where il will instant
y and potenty strengthen the Republic in her
desperate struggle with slaveholdiug treason.
We apprehend, however. that the good effect
ed by these ladies will rather be felt in the in
huenee they exert than in the more direct re-
suits OF the movement We are a soaudulous
over-dressed people-Our women especialiy-
but this fault is more glariDg in any other class
than in that which is esteemed most fortunate.
Walk down Broadway any sunny afternoon, and
you will meet perhaps thousand women who
iook hke locomotive advertisements OF Stewards
or Lord Taylors or some other fashionable es,
tablishment for the vending of sumptuous drv-
goods but not hundred of these will belong 10
any among our wealthy old families We do
not mean TO say that the ladies of these families
have not also costly apparel and ieWelry but
they never think of adorning therswith tbe side
Walks and increasing the pedestrian ATTRACTIONS
ot broadway. But let a bankers clerk make
hit in some gold-gambliDg or stock.RamblinR
operation, and bis wife or other lady will sweep
along Broadway next week under silks and lacen
sufficient to furnish fashionable yacht with
sails and streamers; while the suddenly enrich
ed suffers or commissary's or contractors wife
and daughters require two carriages apiece to
convey them and their traps to the opera, with
servant to pick up the diamonds that have
rather been displayed on their garments than
made really conducive to their personal attrao-
lions In fact we have heard that the most
costly array Of precious stones bought in Phia-
delphia iu 1858 were ordered and paid for BY q
very common laborer Of other days, who had
suddenly aud amply enriched himself by follow
ing the Army of the Potomac, gathering up the
animal food thrown away by the soldiers, and
selling 1t for soap grease. Wishing to advertise
his accession TO the wealthy class, he knew no
better way than to cover his wife with laces and
diamonds and send her forth walking procla-
nation Of his good fortune.
This class always did and always will flourish
ana Increase in war-timeH "Their equipaQea
CLEAN like meteors; their palaces rise ike ex-
halatons," said Burke long ago. But the ex-
| trayagance in dress so prevalent among our fe-
/ helo eeiNahA mas no buCh excuse. This class
finds employment brisk and wages fair in these
times; the high prices Of food do mot aif them,
as they are subsisted by their emplt ef5 and
the sixty TO hundred dollars year taat they
receive as wages are mainly expended on Dress
In other days, they might afford to wear silks
| by ignofipg all duties save to themselves now,
they cannot; yet they do il Thus they spend in
vanites the earnings of their youthful prime,
aud are often tempted to their ruin by their pas
sion for outsbining their equals and associates.
Each of Them, while in health, ought TO have
something each year but youth and strength
wear out, leaving them still as psnnilsss, though
not so poorly dressed as when they first began
to work for wages, II, now, this class shall sec
their misiresses wearing ealicoes and delaines at
dinners and evening parties-not as a mumenia.
ry freak, but in obedience to patriotic purpose
and fixed determination-they can hardly fail
to be impressed and chastened by tue circum-
stance. They will realize that ine clothes do
not make fine ladies; that nobility Of soul
may irradiate the homeliest garb and that fru.
gality and simplicity, while they detIact nothing
from the charm Of wit or the majesty of virtue,
may illumine palace or cheer aud grace the
rudest and lowliest cottage The lesson can
hardly be lost on any but the utterly corrupted;
and we trust the ladies Of our City, while they
will sensibly contribute by the reform Ihey have
undertaken to strengthen our country for her
terrible ordeal, will also initiate rrfol IN Of man
ners not only but OF morals which will lOOg out
last the ravages, the perils aud the horrors Of
our tremendous Civil War.