The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-05-21
American Dress.


Prof. Schels de We're, who writes at times
very learnedly, as well as very engaging
ly, upon popular science" topics, in
dulges in the April number of Putman's
Magazine in several pages Of talk about
American dress.
The Professors European birth, and his
scientific pursuits, ought both to lend i'm
partiality to his opinions on such subject.
At any rate, our readers shall have them as
they stand:
american women, throughout the length
and breadth Of the land, are infinitely bet
ter dressed than their sisters in Europe
Go to the smallest inland town-go to coun-
try-seats remote from railway and stage
line-go even to the border States, where
civilization in its highest type comes still
in immediate contact with savage life, and
everywhere you will find persons well dress
ed and looking unmistakable ladies'. The
slender figure, no doubt, sets off the simple
dress, the small hand instinctively seeks
Jugla's gloves, and the pretty foot demands
a small, well-fitting boot but there is al
ways more or less taste to be seen in the
choice of the colors and the fit of the dress.
The bold mixtures of colors so fatal to the
attractions of English girls, the pinched
look produced by the habitual rigorous
economy of German ladies, and the care
less slovenliness SO often seen in Italian
woman, are rarely found in America. The
facilities and cheap rates of travelling ena-
BILE almost every girl in the land to visit
the larger cities OCCASIONAL, and her obser-
want eye and quick wit enable her soon to
find out what is the prevailing style, and
to acquire a general idea of what is suita-
BILE and what is becoming. The thorough
bred provincial air, which is such con-
slant source of amusement to the traveller
in the Old World, hardly exists in the
States and the inmate of a log-cabin in
the territories often looks as well-dressed
and as aristecratic in bearing as many
high and noble lady abroad.
"Hence, also, the almost marvellous facil-
ity with which the American lady adapts
herself to foreign habits and foreign styles
of dress. Many fair daughter of this
favored land was born in humble cottage,
sent to public school, and compelled to
earn her livelihood by the work of her
hand or the teaching of children. She may
have married, when she was quite young
and unused to the ways of the world, an
industrious mechanic, modest schoolmas-
ter, or youthful barrister. She has risen
with her husband from step to step, rarely
seeing the world, till one fine day she
awakes to find herself the wife Of Foreign
Minister. She crosses the. ocean, she ap-
est in the land, and as there is not a trace
Of awkwardness in her manner, so her dress
is in perfect keeping with her new station
in life, and she wears her unwonted splen-
dor with the same simple ease and perfect
grace which in Europe are deemed the pre-
cious prerogative of the high-born. Nor
must the rerers de la msdaille be forgotten
The sudden rise is not more frequent than
the sudden fall the ambassador is recalled
by new President, the millionaire sees his
wealth take wings in day of panic in
Wall street, the owner of thousands of
slaves is left penniless by Presidents
proclamation, and the wife has to lay aside
her splender, and to exchange her velvets
and her diamonds for simple calicoes and
modest ribbons.
"But, with the same innate dignity and
outward grace, she remains the lady still
in her hemely dress, and gives to the cheap
est materials and plainest forms charm
which neither poverty nor seclusion from
the great world can ever efface. This rare
gift of the American lady was most signally
exhibited during the late civil war, when
the Southern States were fer five years al
most Theoretically closed to the outer world,
and the ladies of the South were compelled,
from restitution as we'll as from sheer igno-
rance of foreign fashions, to dress as we'll
as they could. And yet English travellers
and Continental officers, who saw them
during that time, bear uniform witness to
the unmistakable caehet of good breeding
which they knew how to impress upon toll
cites, which under all other circumstances
would have appeared most odd and extra
ordinary