The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-08

the eyelids with a&timony to make the
orbit looked larger and the lashes longer, or
that expands the pupils with belladonna, 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
wadded stuffs Women threatened with
bronchitis or rheumatism sit all day long in a
warm room muffled up to the throat in thick
material; at night they uncover below their
shoulders, and go out in the cold winter air
with just an opera cloak thrown over their
shivering skins. But this is fashion, and
none of us dare disobey it; none of us dare
go out in the evening with dresses made after
the pattern of our morning ones, or wear in
the evening 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 all be sit
ting in low bodices and short sleeves at this
very moment, though we will make it 10
o'clock; but if were, we should be
thought mad or bad or both, and not
even our staunchest friends would stand
by us. But wholly one thing or the other
would be q wiser system than the present. and
would be productive of fewer catarrhs,
bronchial affections, and consumptions. All
it is a sad thought which springs up from that
last word If we could only see, as those
criminal folly of sacrificing beautiful and
valuable lives to the fashion which imposes
naked necks as a rule for evening costume
Many a sweet young creature, who would
have lived into happy old age as a beloved
wife and honored 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 has strength to resist her impalpable
but absolute decrees We all obey her. young
and old alike; those who should keep their
beauties sacred, and those who have none to
show-the delicate who have to be kept alive
by art and care--the lean who are too ugly
for any one to find pleasure in the contempla-
ton of their anges-the wrinkled, and the
gross; we all parade ourselves in evening
society without more disguise than bit of
| gauze or lace can give, and only very few of
| us use that, which, even when well on into the
| ffties, we consider quite superfluous for any
| thing to be gained by concealment. AS to the
extent to which we cut down our bodices,
| that is a matter too patent and too painful to
| be discussed. 1t is race among us who shall
| wear the dress the lowest and show the largest
expanse of shoulder. And yet we mean no
| harm; we mean only to be fashionable. That
1 is the worst of it.. The incest women among
Z us, pure, high-minded women, who would die
rather than be guilty of improperly if it ap-
| peared like an improperly to them, and whose
| very innocence makes them unsuspicious of
| evil, get accustomed, as every one must, more
| or less, to an Objectionable fashion, and fol-
low it in pure simplicity of nature as thing
without meaning or effect. Also, the incest
women among us are just those who always
follow-who have not sufficient boldness of
mind or manner to make public protest
against anything indorsed by the maj ajority-
women who are not touched by the evil of a
| baleful custom, and by whose own purity is
eliminated the poison of mischievous fashion.
They follow, and their moral support holsters
up the bad habit, and gives countenance to
| the bad followers thereof. But what can we
say when originality is still censured as un-
womanly, and a public protest, be it even
against evil, is set down as ''strong- minded
and unfeminihe ?"--IHe Br0adlo0y.