The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-05-07
Excess in Dress.


deliberately treated. Several of the essays
Incorporated in the text of the book have
been printed in Harper's Bazar, and hence
the selection of the title. The author says
in some Of his views we cannot coincide
We have selected the chapter on /" Dress
rs an excellent essay on q subject which
interests all our readers, and shall give as
many extracts as the limits of our article
will allow.
The first point to receive fair share of
condemnation is the chignon. The author
evidently is not an admirer of this adorn-
ment of the head. clair cut from the
head of Hottentet woman, brought from
remote Caffreland, purified by an elaborate
chemical process of its native foulness and
turned by ingenious machinery into the
fashionable head dress known as the chg
non, implies great commercial enterprise,
scientific skill, and mechanical ingenuity.
These are doubtless among the forces to
which civilized people owe their might and
superiority to barbariaus." Far from indi-
eating a progress in taste in the civilized
woman, it is less chaste and beautiful than
the feathers and other adornments of the
savages.
A divergence Of masculine and femenine
taste is, of late years, noticeable. eve
man has been rapidly becoming more fam
oil ,,l Go;, oil 70 mi -,
costume, until she has finally reached such
a fearful complexity Of capricious fnery,
involved form, minute detail, various color,
and accumulated material, that she appears
but confused bale of miscellaneous dry
goods, upon which nothing is clearly indi-
Gated but the mark of the high price" A
very sweeping criticism many will say, and
yet they will be compelled to admit it is not
wholly inadmissible. If the present style
of feminine dress indicates 4 refined and
cultivated taste, there is great danger that
the progress of fashion will soon result in
costumes which no one with common sense
will approve. The tendency is very plainly
in this direction.
We think with the author that not SO
much objection can be raised to the dress
Of man. With the male sex, there has
been for a series of years marked tend
ency to plainness in dress. The fanciful
and elaborate suits Of our forefathers have
given place to mere modest dress, and
taste and convenience have gained by in
creased simplicity. Among the people of
the United States where there is no caste,
there is a uniformity of dress, and laboring
their clothes from their master or mistress.
''Our working people, in indicating their
claims to social equality by putting on their
heads the stove-pipe hat and flimsy bonnet,
and clothing their bodies in tight-ftting
coats and robes, not only interfere with the
picturesque, which is of minor importance.
but make, we think, an unwise sacrifice
of comfort, convenience, and econo
my. What could be more unfaverable to
that free movement of the muscles essen
tial to those trades and occupations requir-
ing the exercise Of physical force than the
scant coat and tight-ftting trowsers now
in vogue?'
"There are no such universally we'll
dressed people in the world as the Ameri-
cans. 1t is not only that more of them
than of any other nation have good clothes
to their backs, but their garments are bet
ter made and adjusted to their persons, and
worn with an easier grace. While this
much may be allowed, it cannot be denied
that offence against taste and convenience
of dress, particularly as to time and occa-
sion, is frequent with us" The most
marked deviation from propriety in dress
is in the wearing Of finery in church. The
sanctuary is made the place where the new
est fashions are shown off.
"The hottest day Of the sacred calendar
would lose all its Significance in the mind
of one Of our DANES if unassociated with
the Inauguration of the spring fashions. ~
French or English women generally choose
their plainest dresses in which to appear at
church. "The church being the only place
on this side OF tho grave designed for the
rich and poor to meet together in equal
prestration before God, it certainly should
always be kept free from this common hui
initiation and brotherhood. 1t is so in
most Of the churches of Europe, where the
beggar in rags and Indebtedness, and the
wealthiest and most eminent, whose APP
propriate sobriety of dress leaves them
without mark of external distinction, kneel
down together, equalized by common
humiliation, before the only Superior Being.
The adoption of a more simple attire for
church, OH the part of the rich of this
country, would have the effect certainly OF
not diminishing their own personal Piety,
but probably of increasing the disposition
for religious observance on the part of the
poor There is no doubt but that many
poor people are prevented from attending
religious services for the want of means to
dress in style approximating that Of their
neighbors. The fact that one dresses in
silks, while the other can afford nothing
better than calico, raises between them
barriers of effectual separation. The con-
trast is intolerant, and sooner than become
the subject of remark Or of the public gaze,
those who cannot dress as SLOWLY as their
neighbors will stay at home.
"No observer of American manners and
customs can fail to mark the want of dis
elimination as to time and place in our
manner Of dressing. The glistening black
coat and satin waistcoat, and the silk gown
and himsey bonnet of fashion, are discerned
at once, amid the dust of railway, and the
smoke of steamer, as American national
peculiarities. Excess in DRESS as well as
excess in any other fashion, leads to vice
and with the adoption of palmer and
more becoming attire, there will be not only
an improvement of taste, but better sys-
TEN Of morals will prevail. Methodist
Not THE WIFE's FAULT.-An unsus-
pecting son of Erin, who had just arrived
in New York. went to see his sister, who
was married to Yankee. The couple
lived very happily in that city, and when