The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-02-21


the money come from that is spent in dress
know precious few girls that are able out o
their own pockets to dress themselves ex
pect the young men wish that there were
more of them. Nearly every woman, married
or single, is clothed by her husband OF
father. That's where the money comes from.
The men furnish it. And auhy do they do it
It's all nonsense to say that the women
make them do it-unless mans boosted su-
periority, and strength of judgment and will,
is all nonsense too. It's because they like
it-because men that are ever so careless
about their own personal appearance, take
pride and pleasure in seeing their wives and
daughters cut dash, and in the fine show
they make on the street, at parties at church,
and in public generally. It's because they
fancy it enhances their own import
ance, I suppose. Why no man likes to
have his wife or daughter just grown up
and going into society, outshone in ap-
pearance by other mems wives and daughters.
Show me man who likes to be seen on the
street or at concert with badly dressed
girl. They take it as q reflection on them
selves, and imagine all the time that their
acquaintance are laughing at them, and say
iDg-'Who is that guy that So-and-So is
with '--or- 9 Did ye.. evar aAA- sueh a fright
I wonder where M picked her dpY'
believe that ninety-nine men out of hun
dred are weak and vain enough to prefer
walking up Charles street, if put to the
choice, with woman that's homely and dis
agreeable, but dressed superbly and in the
fashion, to walking with girl that's pretty
and clever, but arrayed in neat mousseline
and pair of leather shoes"
There is an evident self-contradiction in this
attempt to shift the responsibility-but let
that pass. According to this lady, nearly all
the ladies who " cut a dash" and make fine
show" on the street, are simply SO many adj
vertisements to announce the social impor-
lance and the pecuniary "stiffness" of their
husbands or fathers. 1t is as though each of
these yicariously vain and gaudy ambulators
should wear on her shoulders, and over her
Grecian curvature, instead of velvets, satins,
or silks, polychromatic hand-bills, such as
showmen glory in, inscribed all over with
these phases repeated in many colors: "Shad-
scale Grab, No. =, capital $500, 600
Great Shakes and no mistakel" or "Shike-
poke Snapper, No -, Big Business on
the sly-Income, $4,000, Internal Revenue
dodged-Somebody, worth shucks, you betl"
But this won't do either as defense or an
explanation. The assertion is too sweeping.
The men who could be mean and sordid, or
weak and silly, enough to make their wives
or daughters perform the part of frames to
hang advertisements on, must constitute a
very exceptional class; nor can they be of
such stuff, morally or intellectually, privately
or socially, as to WELD a commanding infu-
ence over the female world And now we
come to the more general plea, implied rather
than expressed, that women are just what
men choose to make them, and that if
men wanted them TO be different in
relation to dress, they would be different.
This will not do either. Society cannot
afford to dismiss women from the pale of
free agency and moral accountability.
The church cannot afford to do il. The pope
is right to charge home to the women of |
Paris, without allowing them to find shelter |
under masculine encouragement, conniyance,
or dictation, the extravagant style of female |
dress now prevailing there, and thence diff
fused throughout the civilized world. There |
are some good features about the Mahome-
tan religion-its strict incubation of temper |
ance and honesty, for example. But its doc
trine that women are deplete of souls either
to be saved or damned, in other words, are |
morally irresponsible, is perfectly abhorrent
to the spirit of modern civilization, |
to say nothing of the spirit of |
Christianity. And yet it is to this doctrine /
that the plea under consideration appeals, if |
it means anything whatever; and it is to this
doctrine that the tribunal of public opinion
must come if it admits the suficiency of this
plea. This is, however, an impossibility in
the present organization of society, which
recognizes as a fundamental principle the
moral equality of women. Some, indeed,
have boosted, as the peculiar glory of our
that it has raised women to a
position of freedom and influence which they
never attained in any previous age.-A F~.i-
would say, perhaps, that it is owing to the
liberty and power which these frail
,IedtureS nave sOucuOW StrdilBely pCSSeSSeO |
among Christians, that they have INDUCED In
extravaganza, and drawn the mas
,uline world after them. And there would be
It least half truth under the Ottoman sar-
,asm. Women have their own way, as they
never had before. But they are not sover-
eign over the tastes and habits of men. On
he other hand, men are not sovereign over
he tastes and habits of women. The two
sexes interchange influences in about equal
degrees. 1t is just as true to say that men
ire what women choose to make them, as to
say that women are what men choose to make
hem. The truth lies between the two pro-
positions; and it follows that the work of
averting social perils BODIED by the desperate
luxury and extravaganza which grow apace, is
one that lies between the two sexes. There
,an be 10 assured success without their
hearty cooperation.
The editor of the CRESCENT has been favored
With beautiful melody entitled " Friendshin - |