Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-10-19
SELECTED MISCELLANY.
DRESS ANDTSECCE

From the Advance Sheet Of the London Society.
Some very mOtherly people have pho
t0graphs taken of their children year
by year, that they may have memorials
of the various changes which annually
take place. tt would not be amiss If,
by some similar means, the changes of
fashion could he peTpetuated. It
would be very entertaining if the
monthly publications of Le Fohet or lie
Petit Courier deS Danes we're preserved,
so that the revolutions which are con-
tinually taking place in the fashion of
ladies' dresses might be noted. Photo
graphs would give such an imperfect
idea of dress, owing to the absence of
color, otherwise they WOnld supply
the want more readily than anything
else.
We have before now rallied against
the Introduction of the crinoline, and
the annOyances to which 1t led. Though
it was said IL would be laid aside, we
ventured TO doubt the assertion, and
presumed to say that it had taken too
firm a hold upon the public to be easily
discarded. The origin of the crinOline
was singular enough. It was said to
have originated at the time when the
Empress of the French was expected
to give birth to the Prince Imperial,
when, whatever others might think. she
did not consider that her Estimation"
was any establishment, and she there.
fore desired. if not altogether TO con-
ceal it, at all events to make it less ap-
parent.
Is it not singular that fashion so
universally adopted by woman of all
ages and condition, married and single.
should have had such an origin? Snre
ly one Would have predicted of il be
fOTehand that 1t would have been re-
iected with disgust and scOrn. Instead
of which 1T has been welcomed, is upi-
versally adopted. and tenaciouslv re
tanned, in spite of the remonstianees
ieers, sneeTs, and dislike which IL has
continually provoked. and notwitb-
standing the attempts made from time
to time to lay it aside or bring it into
disrepute. Our eyes have become so
accustomed to it that, when we meet
with any of those limp, stright-down
figures which are the result of IFS dis
use, We are startled and shocked, as if
some of the ''cOrps de ballet were
walking abroad at MONDAY. We are
disposed to eXclaim against them as An
infringement of the laws of decepcv.
We are indeed strange mOrtals, to be
so much the creatures of habit that. If
our eyes are accustomed to one state of
things, We are intOleTant of any other.
without any particular regard to the fit
ness and prOpriety and decOrum of that
to which we have suffered ourselves IN
become habituated. In time we might
get used TO any costume, however
short and scanty. It Is a dangerous
state of things, and we think that mod
ern society shows that it is SO.
It was Int a year ago that complaints
were lOnd against the amplitude of In
dies dresses. The extent of ground
they covered was almost fabulous. and
the consequent cost of n gown was a
seriOus item of expenditure. and alarm.
ing yOung men and old. The younp
feared an ENHANCEMENT which might
lead to matrimOny, when a lady's dress
was so costly and their means were not
great: aud their elders looked with APP
PrehensiOn upon a state of things
which, n 1t should find its-way into
their hOuses, would paralyze ali their
energies and exhaust their resources
But now the complaint is that while
the dresses are plain, almost to indie.
eenoy, in front, they have such i'm.
mense trains that they actually inter.
fere with the enjoyment of the public.
A lady who walks in the park with a
long train trailing behind her in the
dust and dirt, occupies so much space
that no one dares to follow within
three or four yards of her. Imagine.
then, what the Inconvenience must be
IN large assemblies within doors. where
space is not illimitable, and where the