The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1870-10-20
A LITTLE SERMON FOR YOUNG
LADIES.
WILL IT BE Needed !

! avail duSuO W GALL pdtC VIC iOiiico vi
fashionable costume, to which our women
of health, comfort and a true conception
of the beautiful, we say let US hear it.
The emInently sensible DIR. Die Lewis
preached the following sermon through
The Boston Congregattonalist. His words
are not whit too strong. We wish
parents, brothers and husbands would
combine all the forces of persuasion, in
fuene, ridicuie and force if required, to
induce a change in the dress of women.
| The abuse of themselves in these things
is shameful Says DR. Lewis:
Now, ladies, will preach to you just
little sermon, about an inch long. L
| don't often preach, but In this case none
| but sermon will do.
| First. You are perfect idiots to 60 On
| In this way. Your bodies are the most
| beautiful ofGod' creations. In the Con-
tinental galleries always saw groups of
people gathered about the pictures of
women. Lit is not passion. the gazers
were just as likely to be women as men.
it was because of the wondrous beauty of
woman's body.
Now stand with me at my shop win
dow, and see a lady pass. There goes
onel Now ism t that pretty looking OBJ
ject? A big hump, three big Jumps, a
wilderness of crimps and frills, a-hauling
up of the dress here and there, an cnor-
nous, hideous mass of false hair or bark
piled on the top of her head. surmounted
by little fat, ornamented by bits Of
lace, BIRDS tails, Sc. The shop window
tells us all day long of the paddings,
whalebone and steel springs, which oc-
cupy most of the space without that out
side ring.
In the name of all the simple senti-
ments which cluster about home. [
would ask, how is a man going to fall in
love with such piece of compound
doubled and twisted touch-me-not artifi-
ciallty, as you see in that Wiggling curl
esity
Secondly. With that wasp waist
squeezing your lungs, stomach, liver and
other vital organs into one half their
usual size, and with that long tail drag
ging on the ground, how can any man of
sense, who knows that life is made up of
| use, of service, of work how can he take
such partner? He must be desperate
indeed to unite himself for life with such
fettered, balfbreathing ornament
Thirdly. Your bad dress and lack of
crercise lead to bad health, and men
wisely fear that instead of a helpmate
they would get an invalid to take care
| of This bad health in you, just as in
men. makes the mind as we'll as the body
fuddled and effeminate.
You have no power, no magnetism
know you giggle freely and use big adj
iectiyes, such as Splendid" lawful, !"
but, then, this don't deceive us, we see
through it all. You are superficial, af-
fected. silly. You have none of that
womanly strength and warmth which are
so assuring and attractive to man. Why,
you have become so childish and weak
minded that you refuse to wear decent
names even, and insist upon baby names.
Instead of Margaret, Helen, and Eliza
beth, you affect Lizzie, Nellie and Mag
gle. When your brothers were babies,
you called them Bobby, Dickey and
Johnny, but when they grow up to man
hood, no more of that silly trash, if you
please. But | know a woman of %
years, and she Is as big as my t~o grand
mothers put together, who Insists upon
/ being called Kitty, and her real name is
l-Gatharae, and although her brain is big
enough to conduct affairs of state, she
does nothing but giggle, cover up her
! face with her far, and eXclain once in
| four mlnutes-'Don' {, now, you arc real
! mean"
How can a man propose life partner
| ship to such a silly goose? Ally dear
| girls, you must, If you would get has
bands, and decent ones, dress in plain,
neat, becoming garments, and talk like
! sensible earnest sisters.
You say that the most sensible men
are crazy after those butterflies of fash
ion. L beg your pardon; it is not so.
| Occasionally, a man of brilliant success
may marry a silly, weak woman, but to
say, as | have heard women say. hun
/ dred times, that the most sensible men
! choose women without sense, is simply
absurd Nineteen times in twenty, sen
| slble men choose. sensible wonen. |
grant you that, In company, they are
/ likely to chat and toy with those over
dressed and forward creatures but they
| don't ask them to go to the altar with
them.
Fourthy. Among the young men in
matrimonial markets, only very small
number are independently rich, and, in
America, such very rarely make good
| husbands But the number Of those who
are just beginning in life, who are filed
with noble ambition, who have ia.
ture, is very large. These are worth
having. But such will not ask you to
join them, while they see you so idle,
silly, and so gorgeously attired. Let us
see that you are industrious, economical,
with EabitS that secure health and
strength, that your life is earnest and
real, that you would be willing to begin
at the beginning in life with the man you
would consent to marry, then marriage
will become the rule, and not the ex.