Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-11-21
VOL. XVIII.
After the first salutation, she slowly
twirled herself round and sank into a
chair, exclaiming:

ming on 1T, and sacque just bound with
bias fold of the same. Yes, she had
dared. 1t was really refreshing sight,
and she looked perfectly bewitching in
the Quaker-like costume. But, then, Hes
ter Graywood is such a pretty little crea-
thing, and she knows it, so it don't require
so great courage in her to dare. Yes, she
looked charming. Yet, on a second
glance, there seemed kind of baroness
about her, as if something were wanting.
| Was this because had looked so long on
mountains of frippery that my eye and
| taste had both become corrupted? Ten
years ago we all wore such plain, single
skirts, and considered ourselves elegantly
dressed; why should they look mean and
skimpy nows
| read LOUIS note to Hester, and she
promised to join us at dinner on Thurs
day.
| t'Extremes should meet" she said.
She staid on while, and we had lit
tie talk on dress and the bondage fashion
imposes; or how the taste of the commu
nifty is corrupted by the overloaded, un-
graceful styles in vogue now, and on
many other things, such as sensible wo-
men do talk about when they get togeth-
| er.
| zone of the greatest evils of this ab-
surd overloading," said Hester, "is that
it so fearfully overworks women. We
hear great deal about the hardships of
the poor shirtmakers in eur cities; and
they are to be pitied, l know. But there
are other women to be pitied, too. Look,
for example, at my neighbor, Mrs. L.
She is fair representative of large
class, and not an exaggerated case. Her
husband is a Woodworking mechanic,
l who rnn6 liuinr nrh fn1 1ar
up something for wet day; but he can't
support wife and six children in luxury,
especially as four of them are girls. Mrs.
L. is an ambitious woman, and says she
will have her children 'decently dressed;'
that means fashionably dressed. She
can't afford to hire her sewing done; so,
in addition to all her housework, she
makes their dresses; and if you have
seen Oracle, the eldest one, you can
Judge what that implies"
"She's a very stylish-looking girl"
said.
eyes, and her mother is very proud of
her, as is natural. She is just seventeen;
and what wonderful costumes she does
bloom out in! They are all af1oat with
puffs and ruffles, quilts and frills, till
there's scarce an inch of untrimmed
space about her; and Clara and Nellie go
by to school every morning, each with an
other set of furbelowed upper skirts and
under skirts, basques and sacks; while
baby Belle-bless her dear little hearts,
all af1oat, too, with tiny ruff1es on her
tiny skirt"
"Isn't she darlingp" I cried.
| Eyes, lovely, with her blue eyes and
apple-blossom cheeks; but wouldn't she
be just as pretty in plain white dress
with bit of edging round the neck and
sleeves, if it were the fashion? And the
pretty Gracie-is the charm in her, her
lovely complexion and fine expression, or
in her furbelows and fringes?"
'In her, of course" said. "Children
and young girls are never so pleasing as
when simply dressed"
Certainly; and our taste is corrupted
| when we do not see this. But there's
| poor Mrs. T. thinks it's absolutely neces-
! sary to follow the last fashion-plate; so
she works like slave from morning till
| night, and her sewing ng-machine is often
going till after midnight. No wonder
| she looks broken down, and has neural
gia and diseased spine. She has done
| the work of two women, and it is the
hardest kind of work, too. Every inch of
all these interminable yards of hemming
and binding, gathering and fastening,
passes through her fingers, to say nothing
| VI 9HO CouIiiFiliS anu uetIHg, anu
basting and ripping. I wonder the
| a sewing woman in this city harder
worked"
''But why don't the daughters help
herr"
''Those in school haven't any time.
Oracle does all she can; but, with her
calls and callers, practicing and picnick-
ing, croqueting and coquetting, it would
be cruel to expect her to do more than
make the plainest portion of her under
clothes.
''But it's absurd" 1 said, t'for me-
chanics wife to go into such extravagan-
ces."
81 don't know as a mechanics wife
can be expected to be more sensible
than other women" said Hester dryly.
"A reform must begin somewhere else,
I fancy"
"I suppose so," I said with sigh; ;
''but the whole subject is full of difficult
| ties"
"All of which might be overcome if
women had spark of independence
Here is tangible evil for them to grapple
| with, now they have walked up to sense
of their strength and capabilities"
eyes, they may as well begin a reform
|
I said, laughing. ''But how to do it is the
question. Is there any standard by
which dress can be judged and regulat-
ed ?n
"Not nOw," said Hester; "but I be-
lleve the principles OF art, true art, might
be applied to dress as to other things;
that there is an essential, intrinsic beau
ty or ugliness in our garments, entirely
irrespective of fashion; in other words,
that it is one thing to be well dressed, and
another to be fashionably dressed"
Yes" said 1; "but what is it to be
well dressed ?"
81 can tell you what it isn't" said Hes
ter. 1t isn't to wear huge protuber-
| il you had been born with II, would have
boon considered shocking deformity. 1t
isn't to conceal all the lines of the human
| figure, or to make it one mountain of
trimming, when trimming should always
be subservient, adding grace and defining
outlines. And then, too, it must be some
thing permanent. It can't be the chang
ing thing fashionable dressing is. Art
wouldn't make balloon of us this month
and scantily draped statue the next;
she wouldn't tilt us up on heels that ago.
nize our toes, and pitch us down stairs
day, and tomorrow set us on the ground
like so many fiat-footed Indians"
''That would be a comfort" l said.
eff, when dress was made, 1t would
stay made, and look well till it was
worn out, it would lessen half our Ia
bOrs."
''Well, Hepsey, I believe the good time
is coming-the time when we shall have
a higher civilization, and break the chains
fashion fetters US with now. Then we
shall distinguish between true beauty and
deformity; and our milliners and dress
makers will be artistes, and not naodistes;
and, instead of looping and stretching us
all on one iron bed, they will study adap
tation TO age, complexion, and character,
till we come out of their hands individual
as well as comfortable and attractive
, When we think of it, isn't it strange how
it ever came about that we let ourselves
all be worried into exactly the same
shaped garments, no matter how different