Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1869-09-28

Plain Fashions-D Reform Con-
gress of Eashior-Mercantile Integ-
rity and Uprightness.
To tie Herald Readers - Washing
ton Street, Boston, is where wealth
and style are seen. Il is the retail
mart Tor the rich only, and in order
to make il SO the prices are q third
above other streets. This drives
away the poor and midding, SO that
when persons are seen shopping along
Washington Street, they may repre-
sent quarter to half a million. But
STILL thore is no great put on Of style
in this quarter, not so much as in the
streets where the middling well off
do copgregato for trading.
In my experience and observation
the upper ten, so called, are no
whore so apish Of style as the middle
classes. And the upper are also
more easily approached, more famil-
lar and level in conduct toward tran
sient persons having business with
them or falling in their way, than
the secondary ones who have but re
Gently isen from nothing to moder-
ate opulence.
And the agents or clerks of second
class capitalists are also much moro
upstartish than those representing
the great capitalists. Well, in Wash
ington Street these rules are sound
to the letter. The Oldest and richest
mercantile houses support the more
obliging clerks, and they dress plain
er, talk more freely, and practice the
soclabllltles natural TO life unknown
to snobbishness Generally about
two thirds Of the clerks on Washing>
TO Street are women, girls rather.
Their costume is much palmer than
would be considered lady~lilze in
Lancaster, usually . short calico
dress and white collar, crinoline not
expanded and no difficulty passing
them behind the counter on account
OF dress, hair done up in simplest or
der, without head dress or ornament,
calico aprons, and no jewelry. And
such is tho uniform habit in all stores
where girls are employed, SO far as |
have seen in perhaps fifty retail
houses, including dry goods shops,
cloth and clothing stores, men and
women millinery bazAars, lace rooms,
jewelry and drug shops, shoe stores,
&c. Aud am told these lady clerks
generally receive equal wages with
men, Tea to forty dollars per week,
experience aad readiness governing
pay rates.
These female clerks are free from
six O'Clock afternoons till eight
o'clock mornings, and at the time ct
going to and returning from their
homes the streets seem to he tray
ersed and inhabited chiefly by wo-
men OF remarkably plain costume.
The Boston local papers contain
whole columns OF advertisements Tor
women 10 serve ut most kinds Of
light work, rs clerks, taiIors, print
ers, dress and skirt makers, shoo fin
ishcrs, teiegraphers, copyists great
est call for girls to run sewing ma~
chimes, binders, knitting machine
operators, besides five hundred ad-
refreshments OF girls wanted at the
factories. must therefore infer
that Boston must DC a great paradise
for women who prefer honest indus
try 10 idleness and semi-beggary
habits Of life. And must also believe
that these women who so earn their
way are far more respected, and arc
ottenor looked upon with favor for
marriage than those who are richer
but worthless for useful pursuits in
the house
This morning | read in q fashion
paper chat American women are fast
breaking away from the styles or>
iginatihg in Europe, and a call is
limited at for d fashion Congress to
preserve uniformity Of national
style and regulate the same to IN
sure practical perfection. The wri
ter atlirms that extravaganza is 60
ing out Of fashion, that health and
happiness demand the notifications
suggested by good sense and practical
lite, aad that sound patriotism and
pride OF country demand such re,
forms as will reduce importatlons.
And ho further affirms that but little
action is required, so it be taken in
high quarters, to introduce simpler
but equally satisfactory dress equip
age, at national saving of two hun
bred millions annually, or enough to
pay off the national debt in few
years, and at the same time by in
surfing large balances of exchange in
our favor, make money SO plentiful
as to beget greater national riches
than is possible by any action of
government.
But the action mentioned above
has already been anticipated, as any
one, mayisee by travelling Washisgton
Street, where [ have no doubt The
richest men and women are TO be
distinguished by their plainaess Of
costume, by which | mean cbeapness
of cloth and ornament, rs we'll as
style. And, as the fashion writer
above says, there does seem neces-
sity for uniformity of styles in dress,
the same fixed by some sort Of con
gress regarded as authority.
And the styles of city life, rs ev-
erybody knows, very soon work
their way to country towns and vii
lagos, so that even SO fur west rs
Lancaster, there viii soon be fancy
run for plain, cheap and modest
dress, at first among leading men and
women then by great and small.
Before closing my letter, 1 must
allude to one other marked feature
of modern life, in the intellectual
range: the business systems and
methods OF trade transactions have
late years become 50 plain and sim
plifed, and the foreign and strange
words dropped for words Of plain
meaning, that whatever belongs in
| the line of business life has also IN
dergone very great reform in The
! ~