The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-09-14
A WOMAN ON THE PASSIONS.

Mrs. Lydia Maria Child is by no means
childish in this talk to her countrywo-
men about the Fashions. Would that at
lie st those addressed-sensible women
might resist the not only expensive but
often dangerous worship of the tyrant:
Sensible women must resist, as far as
they can, the expensive despotism of that
invisible tyrant called Fashion. What
enormous taxes it imposes upon us -
taxes to q 1.-THE of which we would not
submit for moment from any other
ruler. What mysterious AID omnipo-
tent power it is. Suddenly there goes
forth an edict, nobody knows from whom,
that everybody must wear trailing gar
ments and straightway the filthy streets
are swept with silk and satin. Some
French mantua-DIaker whose fortune de-
ponds upon stimulating the rivalry of
wealthy idlers, invents some new cut of
a sleeve, or some new adjustment of trim
ming, which vanity Immediately adopts,
as public advertisement that she is rich
enough to change her dress with every
passing within. Then the mystic saying
goes round the world, "They dress SO,
this season." Who they are, nobody
knows; but the voice must be obeyed,
without regard to climate or convenience,
or becomingness to individual faces or
figures
millincr of the Empress Eugene
places grape leaf on the head of her
imperial mistress, and calls it bonnet;
it forms pretty ornament for her tresses,
and, as utility is no object to her who
coils along through life in chariot, such
Il nlh fp hno oil n11reh fONs
her But because she wears it, straight
way every farmers wife in New England
feels compelled to walk through wind
and dust, heat and cold, with grape leaf
on her head. Seven or eight years ago
bonnets were hung on the back Of the
and slipped down on the shoulders, in
stead OF being peached on the forehead
and tipped over the nose, as they now
are. At that time bride
in the vicinity of Boston, left her
fathers house soon after the marriage GER
emory, and rode seven or eight miles in
winter evening to the dwelling OF her
husband. She became so silent during
the latter part Of the ride that the bride.
groom was alarmed and there being no
house in sight, he drove as rapidly as
| possible. Arrived at his own door, he
lifted corpse from the sleigh. Her
bridal bonnet had afforded no protection
from the severe cold and her brain was
frozen.
We langL at Chinese women for de-
forming their feet and rendering them
useless by the fashion of casing them in
baby shoes; yet in this enlightened
country, girls are ..straining the muscles
of their feet beyond repair, and losing
the power of walking with firm, elastic
tread, because it is the fashion to topple
about on high-heeled shoes. In this
country it is peculiarly remarkable that
we submit so tamely to such perpetual
and vexatious interference with our free
will and our daily convenience. We
scorn the idea of having our affairs regu-
lated by any other involuntary taxation
to the DEATH But we empty our purses,
and waste our time and our faculties, and
tumble over crinoline traps, and freeze
our brains, because Fashion, in the per-
son Of some Partisan modiste, proclaims,
"They do 80 this season"