North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1867-04-24

|
ed down to us as a masculine, slOvenly
woman, had great ambition to shine ir
court as leader Of fashions. But
that for all her rings, her rutfs, and pow
ders, and her three thousand dresses, laadt
to order by court mantau-makers, Queen
Elizabeth, nerer had a beau, and died
what none Of you wish to do-an old
maid! We are following close upcn'the
threshold of royal munifccnce and court
ly splendor.
Since the commencement Of the war and
the flush of prosperity which raised sc
many to wealth and power, there seems tc
have been no limit set to feminine extrav.
agance, either in the quality or quantity oi
toilette appendages. Not many weeks ago
an English lady Of rank communicated
this striking paragraph to London Soci-
ety." magazine in that metropolis. She
says, / had heard Of the lavish display
of American women in public, and array
ed myself accordingly in court dress, dia-
monds and all. But when entered, was
so dazzled with their brilliancy that was
glad to creep into a corner, out of sight.
For after all my pains | was as Quaker
beside hem."-lndeed, to read over the
daily reporters list in their sycophantic
description of the dresses of persons of
distinction at Washington receptions or
New York soirees, one mi ght smile, if
smiling were admissible upon solemn oc-
casions, at our pretense of republican SIM
plicity, which we are so fond of setting
forth to the eyes of French and English
aristocracy. Travellers abroad agree that
| .hof A Of of
court etiquette, is amply atoned for in what
they have of its ignoble and cheap imita-
tions of its tnery. AT home our churches
are bazaars of floating gossamer, and he
must be person of liberal education, in
deed, who can tell from the pulpit to the
door, the worshipper from the exhibitor.
Ecclesiastical discipline has long since
ceased its interference with this greatest of
social sins: the I" dear creatures have un-
bounded liberty for conquest in the spirit
ual as well as in the fashionable world. The
gorgeous ritualism of the High Church has
its counterpart in the throngs of dazzling
women, who kneel in rigid routine at its
affairs, and Adam Bede and Dinah Morris,
should they be let down ON Wesleyan
chapel in populous town, would find sad
degeneration from the times when women
were forbidden to wear laces and ear rings
in the house of God. The effect of this
prevailing spendthriftness is everywhere
apparent. More money goes out for
French millinery and dress goods than
comes in for our commodities of exchange.
Constant paying out and little taking in,
acts upon the currency. We arraign Con-
gress and find fault with Providence, and
blame monopolies. The country and indi-
viduals 60 deeper and deeper in debt and
yet, we have money to soften the
palms of the Russian bear, who wants to
give us his possessions in Russian America
for alliance in any future war! We have
money for the Cretans money for the
Freedmen's Bureau in fact, money for
everything but to pay our honest debts,
which, by wise provision OF Congress,
we can liquidate after the first of June!-
Meanwhile the papers are filled with ro-
mantle frauds and embezzlements, suicides,
thefts, murders and robberies, atrocious
enough to rival our recollections of the
Forty Thieves. These have but one his
tory. That Of some ambitious, mistaken
individual, who, in his pursuit of fashion
able follies and his headlong chase to over
reach his neighbors, has over-reached only
himself and his good name. Society feels
every such blow; however obscure the
man, it recoils upon the masses, and it
needs but handful of Ketchums, urged
on by extravagant domestic relations, to
bankrupt nation. Do you think me Sc
we're upon my sex? l speak truthfully
for the love l bear them.
Will you believe me that one million,
twelve thousand and FIVE hundred dollars
have already gone out of the United States
for those creeping denominations called
chignons, which deform and desecrate fem
inine loneliness, and render still more
hideous the ugly! This is single in
stance of the tyranny Of fashion over wo-
men which might be multiplied indefinite
ly by others, at figures still more exorbitant.
We are afraid of singularity and we rear
our children in the same way; to fear
what shall be said about an uncouth gar
ment, more than sOiled name or scared
conscience. How many families, in what
we call " Society,"" in the great Eastern
commercial cities, do you suppose are able
to bear this unceasing pressure of domestic
extravaganza Not one IN ten! If the
man~gine mamma has daughters it is we'll
understood that Clementina must be dis
posed of in the marriage lottery before
Delpa Rippa can enter the charmed circle
of our set" So Clementina is the bearer
of all the finery. She has tbs piano, and
the parlor, and the gas-light: everything
is too fine for the boys, who are not allow
ed the house except in the apartments of
Bridget Subterrancan. They 60 off to the
brilliantly-ighted saloons because they
have no homes in the houses of christian
mothers. Every year elegant structures
are torn down and rooted up to make room
for something more imposing. Churches
rival each other in artistic display and
transparent articles to keep alive the no.
teriety of their preachers. And if by any
chance it fails or wanes, there is the bril-
liant resort of writing novel for the
Ledger, to restore popularity! 1t is not
what shall hear at church, but what shall
,rear? And the snowy devotee of fashion
in the house of God chills the soul who
feels the need of spiritual atmosphere in
which to worship. Added to this, there
are women everywhere, whose constant
complaint is, that they have nothing fit to
wear to church. At the theatre they might
somewhere creep in unnoticed, and if the
play were absorbing, remain SO. At
church it is quite another thing where the
habit of overlooking the wardrobe of your
neighbor is SO very general, in our sex,
that you cannot accuse me of ill-nature in
recurring to it. had once domestic
who was a constant attendant upon evening
meetings, used often to ask her the text
but she never could recall it. But if the
congregation had been inspected by COM
mittee of diligence, that committee could
not have described their dresses more ac-
curately than she. The old saying is
Like mistress, like maid," but of course
this is not applicable to myself.
To proceed. The extravaganza of Amer-
lean Society, in its ideas, moral, social and
esthetical, is one of the greatest perils of
the nation. We speak only Of our lavish
expenditures of money in domestic life
Ila;S oil kno,x loads - ariaaa Ioads