The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-19
L1LMs FROM OUR EpREIGN FILES.
Concerning the Relation between Dress
and Morals.
COSTUMES.

was begun, after the most approved style, by
the insertion OF letter invested with all the
honOre OF large type. Placing himself In imagi-
nation at the door of o London ballroom, the
writer proceeds to moralize on 'the disclosure
person. which IS accorded TO the eye of the
"highly favored mortal" who occupies that
position He is troubled, he frankly admits by
the fact that the prevailing lowuess OF dress is
not confined to those who ''lt the object OF the
custom be TO establish CLAIM to shape, can
best afford to comply" with it. Perhaps, If the
fashion extended only to young ladies with
good figures, "Corydon'sn Indignation might
have slumbered for an indefinite period. 1t Is
the display OF 1.-The too generous developments
of maternal Juno and the severe figure OF Dlaua
pdsSee" that has irritatel hIs moral sense. And
he has seemingly been so upset by one or two
such apparitions, that his eyesno longer serves
him to discriminate between one dress and
another. He damages HIS own case by the
assumption that they are all alike open 70 the
charge of indecency.
The leading article which followed the letter
on the next day iell INTO the very same mis-
take, and assumes with equal confidence that
all women dress exactly alike. Indeed, it even
finds an excuse for their so doing in a supposed
tyranny oil custom, No one but the systematic
writer has ever fathomed the sutferngs to
which any young lady would be exposed who
declined to have her gown cut lower than she
thought consistent with decency. "She would
be accused OF the pride which apes humility
and her aspect would have to be tried in the
hottest furnace Of jealous eyes and backblting
tongues before she could escape the charge OF
"dowdiness,' q condemnation whose terrors one
must be woman to feel" Certainly this is a
heaitrending picture, and we can only say
that, If 1t be also a true one, the courage OF u
great many of the weaker sex is positively
heroic.
Probably, if the spring weather had been more
genial, the subject might have been dropped
here. But the prevailing east wind seems 70
have suggested to our contemporaries con-
science the proprlety of making another and
bolder effort to stem the tide of improperly.
There was some encouragement in the rehec-
ton that, though we had reached the fourth
week in May 'the season when lightness and
looseness, OF apparel may be supposed more
pardonable than at other times" was still
coming, and not come; and, accordingly, the
pen OF some astute chaperone seems to have
been retained before the hot weather should
make all reform hopeless, TO comment on ''tne
feelings with which portion of manSind view
laxty OF corset and low cut dresses" The
morality of the lesson thus conveyed is not
fattering to the class Tor whose benefit it Is
designed. 1t Is assumed all through that the
only way of making impropriety distaselul to
young ladies is TO convince them that it does
not pay. This 'lavish exhibition of their per-
sonal charms" will not really bring them lone
whit nearer matrimony.n
Ii they could but listen to the talk of the Club
smokngroom, they would at once see their mis-
take, and be taught that ga man is not the more
likely to endeavor TO secure as his own the
charming creature with whom he has been
waltzlng, when he hears the free discussion of
her charms which follows the triumphant even
ing" To be discussed like race-horse" does
not really raise woman's value in the market.
And then out of the depths of lifelong eX-
perienCe this elderly Mentor proceeds to define
the exact stage in an acquaintanceship at
which that ''private view" which he defines
as 'the privilege of the initiated-of the ex.
clusives," may be prudently vouchsafed. 1t is
to be reserved, it seems, as the last weapon
with which to bring a man to proposal He,
we are told, ''who thinks that he knows most OF
the divinity, and that his knowledge s eXcu-
sive, is much nearer committing himself to the
grand step in life than he who finds that his
friends az hiOhlv ~
AS long, therefore, as mans intentions are
wholly uncertain, young ladies should en-
deavor Ito inspire respectful homage, and to
attract by coyness." II is only when they have
good reason TO believe that he is near ''com-
mitting himself" that a too low dress can be
worn with safety, and even then it must be so
managed that he shall be the only male specta-
tor. Except at this critical moment it cannot
be too much impressed on them that ian open
exhibition OF personal charms is not the way to
attract the best men" and that all they will get
from it is "the mort6catio of having exposed
themselves to no purpose"
We trust that we shall not be thought ndf-
feIent to public morality when we own ourselves
utterly uninterested in the success or failure of
this particular effort to mend the manners Of
the fashionable world. If women can only be
kept modest by being shown that it pays matri-
monially, we had just as soon they were immo-
dest. Indelicacy of Costume is chiefly objection
able in proportion as 1t implies a corresponding
indelicacy OF mind, and such method of han
ding the subject as that we have been criticizng,
only TO the external evil Supposing q young
lady to be prepared to dress indecently if she
thinks that to do so will improve her matrimo-
nal chances, in what way does society gain by
convincing her that she calculates falsely? The
way in which her gown is made will have no in
fluence upon her character, for her propricty
and her lmpropriety will be dictated by the same
motive, and will be open to the same condem'
nation.
Indeed, fashion such as that which seems to
be now becoming common has a certain adyan-
tage of its own, in that 1t affords an index to a
woman's estimate of herself. If her sole object
in life is to secure the elgibles of the day." we
cannot see that it makes the least difference to
anybody in what way she sets about it. The
end Is in itself Objectionable, and it will COM
municate its own complexion 10 whatever means
may be employed to attain it. A writer
who aims at eiecting merely external reforma-
ton may shelter himself it is true under the
respectable authority of Mrs. Hannah More,
who somewhere says that a real knowledge of
her own interests would make the most aban-
doned woman careful to shroud her beauties
from the eye of man, in the assured convection
that modesty would prove the most potent
means OF attracting him. But there has al ways
seemed to us an Irresistible force in the crit-
csm with which this argument was met, that in
that case really modest woman would be
driven TO leave off clothes altogether IT, there.
fore, our contemporary should find his labor
thrown away, we shall not be distressed by the
result.
After all, propriety OF dress is only valuable
because it is the offspring OF propriety OF mind,
and if it is to be dictated instead by a careful
calculation of chances, we can see no reason for
making any effort to retain il. If young lady
chooses to organize universal exhibition OF
herself Tor the qualification of "etflorescent
Guardsmen,n ii is entirely her own affair. No
one need look at her unless he or she likes it,
and certainly no one need initiate her. The
sacrifice VIII bring its own reward or its own
punishment, and we may safely leave the otlici