The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-04-19

he sure What Is
on outrage like this is to be perm'tteo'
W. love the little girls-those sweet buds
or womanhood from seven TO eleven. we
often wish that they could never grow
older. and that their bright, happy faces
could never bear the traces of the sorrows,
disappo,ntmcnts. and cares of this world.
Holding these sentiments, we cannot with
hold the expression Of our complaint against
FASHION for dressing up the heads of SO
many of these terrestrial angels in the arti-
fetal mimicry of hair-a miserable imlta-
ton, which, together with their own natu'
rally soft aud glossy ringlets, is made to ap-
pear crisp and dead IA though 1t had been
roasted in the fire. What an abominatlon !
First the natural hair Of the innocents
seems to have been wound around a poker
as hot rs it could be not to set the hair IN q
flame, and then over that is placed the
| coarse imitation, dead and lrstreIess.
We have been an humble victim, an
| amiablc acouiesccnt, in fashion-seldom
! daring to find fault with what we always
| know the ~world-and what's more i'm
| nortant. the ladics-will assuredlv adopt.
| But we cannot submit tamcly to this out
rage on innocence, beauty, grace, and
health, We will at least protest !; and we
beg mothers, as they prize these graccs, to
save these tender and sweet charges Of
theirs from this daily monstrosity. They
are so gentle, and, Ike infants, it is seldom
that they can be ungraceful if they try
They are full of health, and that precious
oil distilled by health that penctrates the
tubes of their ringlets and gives them theiI
charming glossiness should not be burned
and deadened to please fashion. To see one
of these innocents, with beaming face ano
r~osycheeks, with a mountain of sun-dricd OIL
kiln-dried hay fastened lumpily with pins,
like butchers skewers, beneath their bon
nets, is indeed an abomination.
The whole matter OF this huge burther
of wool, and flax and old rags, OF lint, OF
tow. and tree-bark and dead hair, thai
fashion piles upon young peoples heads
nav, and not Il few of the old ones, too-we,
although not faStidiouS by any means!
must pronounce without taste, without
reason. and in every sense such an unmiti
gated offence against civilization as to merit
the epithet barbarous. We can stand the
posterior promontory, the shoes with heel:
in the centre, so that, indeed. "the hollow
of the foot makes a hole in the ground
and the waving and switchy movement O
~ 1oI, ,,l flot hro,,o cp-inr of fhp arm:
which ever prompts to a military salute
all this and mole we can stand hut tho
~head-gear Of the day we are compelled to
cry out against as unbearable.
/ Yet we only now put in a plea for our
dear little friends under -. Oh take the
hay-stacks from their heads and shoulders
1t is a crying wrong done to them.
Now, sweet sixteen has notions OF her
own. and we may say IL will of her own.
Besides, she is a candidate, and has a right
in some sort to fix up her W platform
and while she does, in our opinion, greatly
mar her form by this days head-gear, she
is not exactly under her mas control, and
II she damages her prospects she must 4 X
the consequences. Therefore we venture
only to give this bit of adVice,-fur we love
them all-ard that is to free their gay heads
from the abominablc burthens which must
be as uncomfortable and unhealthy as they
are ungainly and shocking to good taste.
But mind you, fair young friends, whose
friendship and good opinion the Dispatch
twould not lose, hardly for the world itself,
we assume no authority but in humble at
titude we supplicate the queens of love and
| beauty to make themselves more beautiful
|! by a little independence in this matter!
With reference to our dear little girls, for
| them we would head an instruction. Their
| heads are not so near the grave that their
| hair should lie dead.