The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-18
sPIRKT OF Tza PRzss.
E Editorial Opinions Of the Leefing Journals
upon Current Topics Go implied Every
Dav for the Evening Telegraph.
WINTER FASHIONS.

WINTER FASHIONS.
From the ~ y Tribune.
"we shall be compelled, say the authori-
ties among our milliners, ito import our
winter styles from Berlin instead of Paris.
In our admring ignorance of our wives and
daug ghteIs, we always supposed they only
submitted to the dictation of Eugenie in
their dress from the incidence induced by
od-estabished custom, and would gladly now
bestir themselves to show how much more
picturesquely their own artistic eyes and
skilful fingers could set off their beauty
Why they sbould await orders from the stout
Prussian Frauens and Frauleens as to what
hats or petticoats to wear, is inexplioable to
the dull masculine mind. But they know
best what they can do. If they write do gn
their own taste as 1lSL, doubtless,they have rea-
SOD. Far be it from us to contradict them.
But why, if we borrow our basques and
bullions from the Germans, should we not go
a little further, and look if there are none of
their customs which it would be worth while
to import Where the present American
idea of fashionable life and code Of etiquette
had its origin, it would be hard to tell; it is
probably rechGufe of the worst French aud
worst English; nothing more hopslsssly bad,
it is certain can be found in any civilized
nation under heaven. Fashionable life in
New York and the other large cities is as dis
solute and frothy as that of Paris, without
England, without its rank There
are degrees in vulgarity, and where we
pay allegiance to wealth instead of birth, and
substitute a successful pill-vender's skin
hand for an historic coat of arms as the iect
of our homage, we show that beneath the
long-known lowest deep of snobbishness
there are yet lower deeps for us to reach. BY
the fashionable we do not, of course, mean
the best and highest society of the cities;
10 in
quoth Salarino, ''as between jet and ivory, or
red wine and Rhenish." But fashion is
power the strength and firmness of whose rule
over weak minds is little understood by those
who are above it. The mandate of the woman
of ton in New York has its inhence in every
village in Nebraska, or in the harem of
Brigham himself. Half tie wretchedness,
and half the crime, too, among American
women arise from the eagerness to be in the
mode, to keep up appearances on scanty
means. Now, all the sham and plated ware
which form the regalia, as we might say, of
fashionable society, these cheap and nasty
ideas of caste, this substitution of pompous
and meaningless kootooing to each other, in
stead of the simple, genuine, yet reserved in
tercourse of more cultured people, are things
utterly foreign to us, and un-Amercan
Nervous, greedy, and fanatical we may be as
peoples but hypocritical we are not. There
is not sham or humbug among us which is
not weighed and held at its true value
Jonathan is good-humored and long-suffer-
ing: he lets even Fisk swell his little hour
upon the stage, and laughs at him. but he
holds him as a puppet after all.
Why should fashionable society belle us
then? New England social life is naturally
sincere and unpretending: the Western frank
and ruled exceptionally by common sense:
that of the South, still hospitable and gene
rous to a fault Why should we not be done
with this spurious, weak imitation of fast life
abroad which is extending its rule from our
cities, narrowing the minds and making vul-
gar the manners of our sons and daughters -!
If our women of ton must initiate foreign
manners, let them take some hints from the
social life of Berlin. Or let the reform
begin lower down. Jones, the butchers
daughter, whose father cuts up beeves
in the market, with a diamond in his
dirty shirt bosom, is going to marry Smith,
the ssddler, next week. She has been ''edu-
Gated" waltzes, reads the reviews, criticises
Nilsson. Let her be married in a muslin in
stead of silk; in her house furnishing let
simplicity, harmonizing colors, ivy growing
here and there, good print on the walls,
hint to strangers of taste and culture, and
suggest ennoblipg ideas for her own daily
life instead of tawdry carpets and cheap
brocatelle, which only suggest the larger
house over the way, of which this is mean
imitation. Let her substitute plain
good table, and real friends as fire.
quent guests, for the ordinary stingy menage
and annual snowy ball; let her be the COM
panion and teacher of her children, instead
of their sempstress; let the walk and sail with
them take the place of her daily dress parade
along the avenues and when they are grown,
let her hold her own position firmly as house
mother and leader in society, and not sur
render it tS raw, unhedged girls and boys.
American family feeling is quite as earnest
and tender in idea as that os Germany; but
the Germans carry that esrnestness and
tenderness into their social life. By as much
as it is more genuine, unconventional, and
simple than ours, it is the finer and higher in
rank. If our women must initiate imported
manners, it is worth their while to consider
these things.
A REVENUE REFORM PARTY.
From the N. Y. Sun
Some of the papers arc talking about 1