Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-06-03
From the Northern Monthly for June ]
The Economy of Rroadcloth.

speak Of the retrogression of the
young men of to-day-of the husbands
of the future-of the men that are our
daughters and our sisters hopes-men,
that even they in all the enthusiasm
and glamour of young girls fancy,
cannot elevate further than s.such nice
young man, such lovely waltzer !''
Take what place you will; or more
Justly, the same arena wherein you
Judged the women-the opera and the
'ball-room-and of what is the greatest
portion of our best male society COM
posed2 Flirting, dancing, languidly
perambulating, or laughingly criticising,
there is not that within any of them to
excite the admiration of one honest or
sensible woman. .4.r 5s.
They drive those who believe in some
thing higher than joining of purses,
and linking of family names, to forswear
that higher destiny for which they were
allotted; for the divine law of marriage
insists that soonaan should obey" and
before obedience can go but one of two
precedents-respect or fear! And what
ennobling trait does the young man, or
rather the general class of the young
men of the present day possess to in
spire eitheri For the woman there is
one course single life or perjury for
perjury it is when she promises that
which she can neUer do.
This is only one, but one of the prin-
cipal causes that drive women to seek in
the need of general admiration some
recompense for that love withheld-but
which her weak, clinging nature de-
mands. -;,5
To diverge from the examination of
their characters as lovers and husbands,
what are their business capabilities
How many. fathers find the assistance
and dependence they expected from their
sons Are they not rather dead weights
placing double load on those shoul-
ders they should relieve. True, there
are young men spoken of by their elders
as promising" or as some bound to
make his mark I" but. alas they are
exceptions that make the contrast
stronger. .-e,r
How many, think you. should it be-
come necessary, would be willing to go
through the same amount of mercantile
labor, mental toll and application their
fathers conquered-eyen to reach the
same goal 2 Would they not sooner
drain the glass of Lethe, fly to the keno
table, or grasp the forger's pen, than in
steady, honorable work retrieve what
they had lost 2 .r
/ do not exalt women; but what can
YOU expect of their excellence when this
is sample of the men they must study
to please? Every paper or book one
reads, teens with articles on reform-re-
form in woman, her ways, her speech,
her dress, repeat, the degeneracy of
the age does not localize in woman, but
is the result of a general movement. To
be effectnal, reform must be thorough;
and ycu lop off but one of Satan's many
heads when you complain of the deteri-
Grafton of the female sex. What follies
of fashion that cloud woman's name,
that men have not equalled2 What in
decency of costume they have not RI
vailed and outdonei Witness the scant
PROPORTIONS of some of their habiliments!
Call for reform as loudly as you please;
but. pray, extend the invitation to the
eeutlemen of your acquaintance.
Law satire and rebuke aside, and what
is more ludicerous than the spectacle af-
forded by one of our male fashionables.
In pants that rival his natural cuticle
for tightness, amply displaying his bad
ly.formed or artifcially well-formed
limbs: coat more of the fashion of the
monkey-iackets of "Squeers' boys" q
tight stove-pipe at one extremity, and
tighter boots at the. other; his arms
dangling heIplessly at his side, or more
namely twirling his mustache. The
portrait would need no caricaturing, to
be ready for "Puncb," or "Judy."
This is the street attire, the costume
in which sthe lords of creation-meri
we calP'-lounge round hotels, and walk
to and from their offices and stores; but
behold them in the glory of full evening
dress Tor undress as they say of the Ia