The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-01-11
Cnlicn agninst Velvet.


The majority of American women ev-
cry day wear calico, and are content
with it. But velvet, soft, lustrous, luxu-
rious, excites admiration in every female
heart; and she who cannot afford to buy
it is noble if she does not envy her sister
who can. There is no natural antagon-
ism between velvet and calico. In
modest apartment, plainly curtained and
carpeted, with rush-bottom chairs, and
pleasing though not costly pictures, how
out of place would velvet robe appear.
But make the room spacious, spread the
floor with tapestry, shade the windows
with damask, illuminate the walls with
the paintings of Corregio and Titan, of
Rembrandt and Landseer, and would
not calico feel itself out of place in so
much splendor? Yet beneath shilling
prints what warm, womanly hearts are
beating, what lovely traits Of character
are developed, what sterling virtues are
illustrated, what exquisite sensibilities
respond to the touch of nature There
are thousands who hold this paper with
hands that are not very soft, and fancy
that if they could don a hundred-dollar
velvet cloak, and the empress cloth or
gros-grain below it were the every day
dress; and the hat and plume, the furs
and gems were all of a piece if the car
pet on which they tread were as soft as
the lamps are bright, and the couch as
luxurious as the rooms are spacious
such life would be all music. II was
ever lover of happy human faces says
gentle Oliver Goldsmith. If that child
Of genius and Of poverty were to walk
Broadway would he see under the os-
trich plumes and the point-lace walls
-gladp There are instances in the world,
thank God, there are lives in this great
metropolis where the finest natural abili-
tY, the highest culture, and evidences of
the free indulgence of exquisite taste
blend in unison as rare as it is delight
full. There are Maintenons who love
satins and laces, yet the heart below the
gloss is warm with love OF virtue and
pity for orphans. There are Sevignes
who scan the gay world from the loop
holes of literary leisure, and well-worn
copies of Browning and of Tennyson lie
beside the casket and the glove-box on
their dressing But these are the
rare and bright exceptions. A thousand
hearts are stung with envy because their
Thibet is not satin, because the muH of
Siberian fox that protects their hands is
not an ermine or seal. In short, those
who spend $500 year in dress look up
with admiration to those who spend
$1,000, and down with disdain on those
who are tastefully clad on less than 500.
Now the young woman who earns the
$lO0 on which she dresses we'll for year
is a more valuable member of society
than she who spends $500 in silks, grena-
dimes, lawns, laces and furs, when that
$500 comes from the fat bank account of
an indulgent father. The enterprise
that an industrious girl discovers, the
self reliance, the patience of labor, the
submission to fortune are jewels that
outsparkle garnets, or sapphires, or the
onyx stone. As rule, the velvet cloaks
do nothing for the advancement of the
race; they may feebly push out one or
two little white pawns on the chess
board of life, but the dark knight who
plays against them pounces down, and
oblivion closes over mother and child.
The girls who are to be the mothers of
the able men of 1900, are to-day earning
their calicoes and poplins by wading
through snow-drifts to cold school
houses, and explaining fractions to wood
en-headed boys they dip their pens into
ink that is icy; they churn when the
butter is long a-coming; they sweep
when their fingers are numb and red
around the broom-handle. They have
the inspiring consciousness of being
strong and competent in the labors of
life they can carry one end Of the log
in society they would bless and cheer
rather than shine, for
"'Tis only noble to be good;
Kind hearts are more than coronets
And simple faith than Norman blood"
N. Y. Tribune.