Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-08-17
The Follies of Fashion Severe Strie-
lures on High-heeled Boots, Hair
Dyes, Naked Necks, Etc.

The Follies of Fashion-Severe STRIFE
lures on High-heelsd Boots, Hair
Dyes, Naked Neeks, Etc.
Another hurtful and rediculout
fashion is in the high heeled boots
which have again worked round from
our great grandmothers. A slight
heel is an advantage in walking. but
these high heels, with the excessive,
| ly small surface and the sharply bev-
eled sides, make walking a service Of
pain and difficulty. Besides they
destroy the shape of the leg, which is
something to be considered They
throw the weight forward and they
strain on the shin. and consequently
diminish the back muscle, the calf,
and convert the fore part into an ug
ly bow. The shape of our shoes and
boots is in itself An outrage against
common sense, but we women are
not alone in this absurdity, nor are
we TO blame, SO that as the papers
deal with our own follies specially,
we may be let off without aay per-
sonal and peculiar reproof therefor.
But what can we say of the fash
ion which dyes the hair, paints the
cheeks, blackens the eyelids with
antimony to make the orbit look
larger and the lashes longer, or that
expands the pupils with belIadonna,
no matter at what cost of complexion
or future eyesight? What, too, can
we say of the fashion which uncovers
the arms and neck in the evening,
after having clothed them through
the day in flannel or velvet, or in
warm wadded stutfs? Women, threat
ened with bronchitis or rheumatism
sit all day in warm room muffied
up to the throat in thick material !;
at night they uncover below their
shoulders, and go out in the cold win
ter air with just an opera cloak over
their shivering skins. But this is
fashion and none of US dare disobev
it; none ofus dare go out in the even
ing with dresses made after the
pattern of our morning ones, or wear
in the morning low bodices and short
sleeves, to at least equalize the risk
and inure us to the evening attire
without damage.
There is no intrinsic reason why
we should not be sitting in low bod
ices and short sleeves at this very
moment, though we will make it 10
o'clock but if we were, we should
be thought mad or bad, OF both, and
net even our staunchest friends would
stand by us. But wholly one thing
or the other would be wiser system
than the present and would be pro-
ductlve of fewer catarrhs, bronchial
affections and consumptions. All it
is sad thought which springs up
from that last word If we could
only see, as those removed from our
own sphere would see, the criminal
folly of sacrificing beautiful and
valuable lives to the fashion which
imposes naked necks as a rule for
evening costumes Many q sweet
young creature, who would have liv-
ed into happy old age as beloved
wife and happy mother, has gone to
an early grave because Of that ball
or that party at which she caught
cold from exposure. But fashion so
willed it; and neither mother nor
daughter had strength to resist her
impalpaple but absolute DEGREES.
We are prone to obey her, young
and old alike, those who have none
to show-tho delicate who have to
be kept alive by art and care-the
ugly who are too lean for any one to
find pleasure in the contemplation OF
their ankles-the wrinkled and the
gross we all parade ourselves in ev-
ming society without more disguise
than bit Of gauze or lace can give,
and only very few of US that, which,
even when we'll on into the ffties
we consider it quite superfuous fol-
anything to be gained by conceal
menL. AS to the extent to which we
cut down our bodices, that is a mat
ter too patent and too painful to be
discussed. 1t is a race among us
who shall wear the dress lowest and
show the largest expanse of shout
der. And yet we mean no harm
only to be fashionable. That is the
worst of it.
The incest women among us-pure
high-minded women, who would die
rather than be guilty of improperly
if it appeared like an improperly
to them, and whose very innocence
makes that unsuspicious of evil, yet
become accustomed as every one
must, more or less, to an obiectional
fashion, and follow it in pure SIM
plicity of nature, as a thing without
meaning or effect. Also, the incest
women among us are just those who
follow-who have not sufficient bold
ness of mind or manner to make 6
public protest against anything in
dorsed by the majority-women who
are not touched by the evil of bale
full custom and by whose own purity
is eliminated the poison of a mis-
cbievous fashion. They follow, and
their moral support holsters up TIA,
bad habit, and gives countenance t.
the bad followers thereof. But what
can we say when originality is still
censured as unwomanly, and a pub,
lie protest, be it even against evil, ii
set down as "strong minded and IN
feminine ?"-Broad1oay Magazine.
No. Humboldt describes a spot in
the Atlantic Ocean, a little to the
west of the Azores, of very great ex'