Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1865-11-29
Fashions and Hatrimony,

TaE position taken in the Times that the
vast increase of prostitution is owing largely
to a decrease in marriages and that the de-
crease of the latter is attributable to the ex-
travagance Of women, finds Endorsement
across the ocean. A London journal says:
"One principal of the social evil is absence
of the social good. 1t is not good for man TO
be alone, and the negation Of good results in
evil. But how shall a man of decent station
and moderation means find help meet for
/ him? For such a man that social good. a
wife, is too dear-dear in the sense of expen-
sive He can not afford wife whose dress
! alone will cost him at least hundred year
She viii ruin him in clothes. She will be to
her husband as a white elephant No young
fellow, in the receipt Of not more than com
fertabe income dares to take wife What
is the consequence? Men shrink from com
aIittiug themselves to ma;r;mony THIS
dread to establish wife en- pe,manencs-
They resort to arrangements corresponding
TO those adopted by them, when, in default o
ability to keep a carsiags, they lire 4 cab, or
even take a omnibus. 4 temporary li7i59p
is the chosen alternative Of the holy, bnt in
slnpor;abie, state Of nlatrimouy The social
evil comes into competition with the socinl
good, and is preferred as the smaller evil OF
the tnwn.
Neghing is more certain than The fact that
the NEST effective agency that can be used IN
the re!urm Of the social evil is to be found il
wonca. Il rsay be now, and it viii doubt
less be Of interest to our lady readers to know
that in their adoption Of the present eztrava-
CANT fashions, tLey have a double connection
with that class Of society which the French
with polite cuphonism, call tie dsmi monde
In late session Of tie French Senate there
was discussed a petition, praying for legiSla-
tive extinction OF the social evil and during
the progress Of the debate NJ DuPin said:
ave speak Of cJurtesans who exhibit
themselves in our public places. Yes: We
behoId.then in brilliant equipages to attract
public attention. Aud what does our high
society 90? Why, Il looks on, accepts them
as its models, ard it is precisely these women
who gives these fashions TO ladies Of fashion
These are the persons whom they copy, and
such is the example given by high society
Paris sets the fashions in dress for the
world. and Paris gets its models from the
flaming courtesans OF tha luxurious modern
Babylon. Thus the fashionable world be
comes a sort Of alcmbic into which courte-
sanslIip empies itself in Paris and from
which it Pours in streams swollen by particles
Of the mass through which it passes. lis a
strange feature in ourmodern civilization that
fashion takes its hue and shapes from a class
Of abandoned women; and it viii remind
the classic student Of these ages in which
couriesanslip was not only respectable, but
a specially which included the highest wit
beauty and intelligence Of those among whom
itsfourishing existence received favorable re:
cognition. Are We not deteriorating when we
thus initiate prominent feature of what we
call barbaric ages? It is proof OF our liber
ality or our shamelessness that majority Of
our women have no higher object in life than
to wear the livery prescribed by the profit
gate dsmj monde Of AssyTian Paris? Tie
palmy days of that Greek civilization, in
which PaphiUn alters smoked on the island
of l[editerrqnean Cypress, would seen to
have reappeared in a worse from in the nine
teenth century. Then men alone tolerated
and sought the society of the priestess in We
nus temples; but now, not merely do the
men do as they did Of old, but our women
have no higher desire in life than 10 assimil-
ate exactly, in appearance at least to the
modern representatives of the ancient Cy-
prians.
That all womankind suffer themselves, and
are eager, to be dragged at the chariot wheels
of the triumphant Partisan de1ni nspde, is
not the worst part of this most shameful fact.
When one sees an extravagandy and fashion
ably dressed woman on our streets, he is war
ranted in saying There goes one in the live
~ of French prostitute, and one who by
her display is offering direct inducements to
anv number of silly and less wealthy women
to attempt the same display at the expense
even Of their virtue -
n. Dupfn, in his speech, further said,
in gpea,irg Of extavagances and fashion
"An this penetrates into the lower orders
by imitation. and passion for equality
Every woman desires to have the same dress