Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-06-30
The Modern WOman-CareleS Moral
ity-Why Men Do Not Marry.
New York Correspondence of the CT
Tribune.l


more it, but the mode .tly-dressed wifi,
and mother is fast disappearing from
our homes. The domestic daughter
has long since become a myth, and il
her place we have a creature of hail
and humps-wasp-w WASTED, Grecian
bended, high-heeled, chignOned young
lady, who laughs loud and talks fast
and writes herself "Marie" or Julie
and who is a complete success in do
ing nothing, and knowing nothing
except the slang literature of the day.
This model of young womanhood has
a splendid wardrobe, a waist that
measures eighteen inches, and lover
with tight pantalOOns and a side
whisker, whom she marries under
the protest that if she sees some one
she likes better she need not cleave to
him any longer, knowing as well as
YOU aud l do that divorces can be OBJ
tanned without publicity. She would
not have any children for the world
can't endure the trouble-shOuld die,
etc.-the only sensible thing she was
likely to do. You can see her any
day on the side walk, or in a carriage
often at church-always at opera,
and she a representative of large
class, not wicked or Intentionally i'm
moral, but oh J so weak, with that
over-burden of dry goods, laces, jew
/ elTy, cosmetics TO crush out any bet-
/ ter principle that might assert itself.
I What woman who employs collective
/ ly a dreSSmaker, a milliner, a hair
dresser and lady's maid, by the sea-
son, can find time to think of soul
or to rescue it from overwhelming
majority of female lingerie.
Overdressing demoralizes a woman.
1t takes from her that purity of
thought and character, the high pre-
negatives of a perfect life, which is
her legitimate birthright, and she sells
it a mess of pottage. 1t opens the av-
stroying influences, and leads her by
silken tendrils over into the valley of
the shadow of death. / think of this
when l see mothers helping their
little ones into the thraldom; /
thought of it last Sunday, as I glanced
from the chapel-master, in his white
robes, to baby worshiper in blue silk.
en- pdRier, all ruffies and folds, and
Grecian bend-to the white hat with
its cluster of mature red roses-to the
small wrists clasped in jeweled bands
to the shapely baby fingers heaped
with diamonds. | looked at the soft,
pale, golden hair, arranged just like
mamma's-to the white brow on
which the lace hat so properly rested
to the clear cut features of the ma
ture, precocious face, luminous with
seven years wisdom, and I could not
reiterate the good mans assertion "Of
such is the Kingdom of Heaven 1t
seemed to me too much of the fashion
of this world (which passeth away"
/ think the reason young men do
not marry is because girls have ceased
to be domestic, and spend a great deal
of money upon dress. They y'are not
cOntented to live in quiet way, and
dress moderately; they must 90 out,
dress and ride, and frequent places of
amusement; havesuppers and boquets
and receive adulatiOn. It costs a
great deal of money, which the young
man furnishes, and he never gets
ahead enough to marry; so they re-
pent and try their luck over again.
1t is the easiest thing in the world to
do with less luxury, but it involves a
little self sacrifice and economy, and
these virtues are fast becoming eX-
otics.
Fully half of the girls who are now
filling situatiOnsin stores, offices, ETC.,
go there in the first place in order to
be able to dress better. They live in
plain, but comfortable homes, and
must help with the hOusework or the
children-their own kin; but they
hear glowing accounts of the city;
they want the finery that is denied
them, and they go from those peace
full home lives, from the kind guardi-
anship of parents, to the toll and
temptations of the ten hour system.
They go plain country girls, with
modest, blushing cheeks and smooth
shining hair. They stay there q year
or two, and their cheeks are pale and
their hair is friZZled. They have lost
the gducherie of blushing, and are
bold at repdrtee. They dress some
how; but they have Eours of despon-
dency that make th0m old. 1t is one
long struggle with labor and tempta-
tion, and how they preserve their in
tegrity, God only knows!
Now would not these girls be hap
pier as the wives of farmers or me-
GldnICS W Oulu uOJ Out WOTu Ol gen
uine love out weigh ton of admira-
ton Would not the smile of a little
child be a thousand times better than
the gaze of the Iibertine? Is it not
easier to work ones own than for
strangers to feel that you are king
in your castle, if it is only one story
cottage? 4? WOman's independence will
work her a deadlier wrong than any
bond she has ever worn. When she
steps beyond the fair threshold Of
womanly power, the archetypal home,
where God has made her supreme, to
fight the demons of political or COM
mercial life, she lays down a sceptre
to take up a chain, whose iron canker
will eat into her soul. That was a
true and beautiful reply which one Of
our strongest advocates of suffrage, in
this city, gave TO a gentleman who
called on her at her "Office. land de-
manded to know the meaning of
Woman's Rights; she looked up with
a troubled face-the face of a delicate,
thoughtful woman-from the pile of
exchanges and manuscripts which lay
before her, and answered with earnest
solemnity, al can give you its entire
definition at this moment, in two
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