The Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1870-1875, 1870-12-10
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1870,
short md Long StFeet Dresses.

Gail Hamilton writes in the Har-
per's Bd=ar:
Ely swiftly round, ye wheel of time.
and bring the day when society shall
have settled upon some general street
dress, simple, graceful, convenient
and unengaging, and shall leave to in
dividual taste only choice of material
color, and subordinate details. Then
you shall not have to alter EXCEPT to
freshen. Then you shall he pointed
or rounded or squared according TO
your liking, and shall stay so. Then
you shall not spend your time in
pulling OH last year 5 satin, or your
money in putting on this years velvet.
but satln-to borrow PHnch'S wit
shall be sat in till it is frayed out Of
existence.
But even as things are we are very
comfortable. l have thought, indeed,
that we are veTging toward the mil
lennlum of dress. Barring the excess
OF trimming, 1t seems to me there
never could nave been q time when
dress was more favorable to women
than it is now. With rubber boots
and water proof for storms, with light,
picturesque hats, with small short
skirts, and sleeved over garments,
and breath permitting bodiees, and
styles so various that scarcely any,
thing is strikingly Questionable,
what doth hinder that q woman
should eat and drink. and walk and
be merry? Newspaper people, indeed,
talk OF dress reform; but there
shall no reform be given them save
the gradual reform / have suggested,
and that will come imperceptibly,
and only as we slowly gain more cul-
tivatiOn and a higher and finer life.
Our dress now is fully up to our social
life.
''And here come the eostumers,
and faunt long skirts in our faces
once more. Do 1 blame the costu-
Gers? Not l. They have their liv-
ing to get, and must invent or select
continually. But if the women of this
country, having once tasted the free
dom of short dresses, shall be mean
spirited enough to 60 into long ones
again at the dictate of any costumer
under the sun, they have themselves
and nobody else to blame. A pretty
thing it will be for them to talk abeut
making laws, If they have not sense
enough and spirit to keep out of the
mudl A fine thing to be republican
sovereign when you have not inde-
pendence enough to resist the fat, of a
foreign tyrant as to the cut of your
gownl For here is no question of
thinking about yeur dress. You can
walk just as well with three dounces
as with none; but long dress inter-
feres with the energies, the activities,
the safety and the health of every
day. A long dress in the street means
ineonvenience, untidiuess, discomfort.
waste, Incidence, repression, cramped
muscles, subordinatira and slavery.
If women relnvest themselves In
trailing skirts, they deserve all the
evils which may befall them. IF Wo-
men Felinquish their short suits, may
their husbands iyrannize over them
and abuse them foFeYerl May the
Women's rights women be forever
forced to see men legislate and women
sit still May the anti-Women's rights
women be forced to vote at the polls
and to serve in the jury-box! May
husbands ever control all the incomes
of their wives, and may wives
be forever disabled from disposing
of their own property May the
courts always have the power of dis
possessing a mother of her child. and
imposing upon it a guardianship for
eIgn 10 her will May Bridget in the
kitchen forever prick the pies with
her hair-pin, and John Chinaman
moisten the pie crust from his mouth
May Mr.. Thomas Mast portray
the Coming Woman doing general
Homework, and Dr. n athan Allen
continue to publish In tie religious
newspapers cheerful statistical articles
on the decrease of the population in
New England May Laura ever be
obliged to pave the way to Frcderick's
purse with toothsome vianls, and
never know what It is to be joint SOW
ereign of sthe Wemanis kingdom, and
never know that there is any woman g
kiDgdoml May sewing machines be
broken past remedy, and r1fhes come
In like a food, and men wear seven
rufiles to one shirt and the bosom fac
tories stop work, and all the laundries
dry up! May women receive one
quarter the wages of men and do twice
the work, and kid gloves go up to five
dollars a pair, and tear out on the
back Of the hand the first tifie they
are put on:
I'm short, may women be held
subject race when they shall have pro-
Vided themselves one, and be OPP
pressed and spoiled eveTmore; for
they will certainly deserve it if they
90 back to the leeks aud onions Of
Egypt after having eaten the mama
and quails Of the promised land.