The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-07-14
The Uses OF Fashion.

Perhaps some husbands complaint
dare say very unjustly-of the amount
of time women now give to dress, but
what if everything was left to each ones
caprice? They must be glad that the
law of fashion, which settles many
questions for them, gives them leisure
for anything else.
Not that dress is anything less than
one of the great interests of woman's
life. And Justly so. 1t is the language
by which she expresses her neatness,
taste, judgment, character, not for the
sake of exhibition, but for the realiza-
ton of her own ideal.
What grotesque appearance would
any assembly of men and women pre-
sent, did no fashion prevail. Fancy a
church filled with worshippers dressed
in all imaginable colors and cut. Who
could keep q countenance BETTING that
sacred place? Who could so restrain
his wandering and wondering eyes as to
give attention to the preacher? And
then the dress of the preacher himself
might be the most laughable caricature
there.
1t was precisely to guard against this
that clerical officiating robes were at
first introduced. In reading the Old
Testament, perhaps we think that a
great deal of unnecessary pains were
taken to prescribe the pattern of the
priests dress. But we find like min
ute care in the old pagan temples, and
in the ancient services of the Roman
Catholic Church. In times when the
worshipers were half dressed in skins Of
wild beasts, and many not dressed at
all, the decency of public worship re-
quired all this attention to robes, but
any change of officiating garments is
less needed now.
Fashion is great saving of time, and
in the main a great educator of taste.
But it is our most tyrannical master. A
gentleman's stove-funnel hat is hard on
his pate, and is TANNED down over his
eyes perhaps half dozen times a day.
All the hat-makers in the world have
long been trying to get up something
better. But not one Of them can COM
mand those associations of gentility
which gives prominence TO the dress
Of the head.
AS to a lady's skirt, dozen things
might be said against it. 1t is un-
healthy, expensive, interferes with
walking, and sweeps the dust. But
what of all that q? We have associations
of womanly modesty and propriety with
the garment which will probably per-
petuate it forever.
To tell the truth, think the autocrat
fashion is here in the right. The skirt
just hints at the lower limbs, but con-
ceals them. Bloomerism seems to me
to be prosaic, bold and impudent tell.
tale. | have sometimes thought that
the long trains now in vogue came in as
protest against it. While | see the
inconvenience of the train, like the
protest.
The traveller returning from Europe
sees that sameness of dress is an Ameri
can defect. With us, all men dress
alike and all women dress alike. The
barber wears a neck-tie and frock coat
like that of the bishop, and Bridget
apes all the ribbons and flowers of hel
mistress. A Frenchman and English
man, accustomed to see a style appro
pirate to each station, when he come,
here takes every barber for gentle
man, and every Bridget for lady, and
then goes home and tells how vulgarly
gentlemen and ladies behave in America
1t is a clear case of optical delusion
In the habit of forming his opinion o.
persons by their outside appearance, he
does not note those other indication:
which tell us at once of ones grade o
culture and good breeding. Wher
Charles Dickens was first in America he
was surprised that the man who came
to measure him for pair of shoes wore
kid gloves. If he had not known thi:
mans business, | suppose that Dicken:
would not have doubted that the kid
gloves marked one of our most cult
waited gentlemen.
How it would add to picturesouenes:
if each class had its appropriate dress
| think it was step in the right direc
ton to put policemen in uniform. Why
should not each railway company uni
form all its officials ? | was sorry when
clergymen gave up their distinctive
dress. | went this summer TO an Ole
School Presbyterian Church, and in the
pulpit were two young ministers who
wore turned.down collars and fancy
neck ties and white vests. An un
affected prayer from the one and az
earnest sermon from the other made
me almost forget the incongruity anC
yet the service seemed shorn of some
effect through their want of Difference
to professional propriety.
On the whole, | think We need no
rail at fashion. We owe much TO it
Probably its sway has always been a
imperial as it is now. 1t is curious
however, that we are quite ignorant o
many details of the dress of the an
clients. Such vast number of mud
statues have come down to us, that w
know more about the bodies of mel
and women of old times than about tn
garments that covered them.
CoTToN ACREAGE AND CRoP.-The re
turns already received by the Depart
ment of Agriculture from three hun
dred counties representing the mos