Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-12-25

AMERICAN FEMALE REFORMERs IN En-
GLAND.-Last year Miss Frances Power Cobbe
and other English ladies made vigorous effort
| to form club for both sexes: but their effort
ended with establishing a woman'S club The
American ladies will, probably, succeed no bet
ter, il SO well. To tell the truth, there is fear
| certain mlsglyng in The best English society
| when an American lady is encountered and n
sensible relief if she turns out to be like other la
dies Several prominent American women have
appeared here from time to time, who have agi-
taed for reforms among their sex with more
bravery than tact, and have been regarded as
If they have not claimed TO be-representatives
of their sex in the United States. One of these
relormers, female physician well known in
connection with the "dreSs movement" an.
peared here some two years ago at a party
given to her in a costume which she called the
American dress" the main features of which
were that the skirt reached a little below the
knees, below which were common trousers and
the body had stiff and manly aspect. Daring
the party the American lady in question took
up her position in the middle of the floor and
began to harangue the ladies on their sins of cos
tune. 80 long as she stuck TO 9eneraliteS the
proceeding seemed harmless enough whatever
might be said of its taste. But the indignant re.
former fixed upon refined and excellent young
girl of about eighteen who had the misfortune
10 be present. and who was dressed in the ordin-
airy low-bodied costume which all English ladies'
wear at evening companies. This young ladys
dress was not in the least eXtrayagant and there
was no one IN the room of more modest appear
ance. The American medical woman pointed TO
her with her finger, eXclaimlng, Gentleman and
ladies', look at that girls dress Is il decent Is
it right for women 10 expose themselves in that
way!' The poor girl almost tainted. The lady
OF the house did her best TO stop the haran9ne:
every eye in the room flashed Indignation upon
the speaker; bnt on she went, with the manner
Of a stump speaker, and was stopped only by
the breaking up of the company. What
comments have been made in circles where
this strictly true and unadorned incident
has been related, need not say. But now
there is a report that another medical lady from
America more eminent than the clothes woman
in her professionals occupying the intervals of
her practice in agitating for similar dreSs-rc-
form. Shocked at the fashions which European
ladies have Inherited from great randmothers,
who had not detected fully the creative hand of
Satan in the human form, this American lady
has started an "Anti-Low-Neck association, the
members of which are TO pledge themselves
never TO reveal square inch of cutaneous It's
| sue below the cervical junction with the supe-
rior thorax, and to refrain from going to court
| untll her majesty rescndS the rigorous rule
! which excludes high bodied dresses on state oc-
casons. How many have enrolled themselves
in this unique society cannot say Nor need
report the obvious explanations which one hears
frequently gwen Of the reasons why
American ladies are hostile to European
fashions in this particular. They are
such as explained Of old the high bodied
costume Of Margare: of Burgundy a comparison
of certain American lady to whom led to the
famous duel in which the son of confederate
diplomatist figured few years ago When the
alleged slendeiness of American ladies is not
given in explanation, the alternative is the old
one started by Mrs. Trollope's narratives of how
ladies in America tainted at the mention of
tables legs, and the engagements of other trav-
elers who tell OF statues purchased in Rome, TO
be carefully dressed in silk IN "the states" The
American dress reformeresses will not alter
European fashions in the particulars mentioned,
unless they can convert all the artists into dea-
cons; but they may succeed in giving their
countrywomen a reputation for something
worse than meagerness of form namely, for