The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-06-07
Dancing and DecOllete Dress.

Terpsichore is sad sight to me not
because TerpsichOre dances. for dancing
in itself may be lis innocent as a birds
| flying; not because she love beautiful
attire, for exquisite dress is feminine
fine art, as meet for "a woman as the
| flower tint or the birds plumage. l
sigh for the sight of my pretty Terpsi-
chore because the first bloom of her ex-
quisite youth is being eXhaled and lost
forever in a feverish, false atmosphere
of being. Something of delicate sensi-
| bility, something of unconscious iDno-
cence, something of freshness of feeling,
of purity of soul, is wasted with the
fresh young bloom of her cheek i'm the
midnight revel heightened into mOrn-
ing; wasted i'm the heated dance, in the
indigestible feast, in the wild, unhealthy
excitement through which she whirls
night after night. TerpsichOre in her
tattered tarletOn dress, creeping to bed
in the gray of morning, after having
danced all night is a sad sight to see
any one who can see her as she is.
Terpsich0e's mother would be sadder
sight still, if she were not a vexatiOus
one. She brought back from Europe
the notion, which so many of our cOun
try women think it so fine to bring, that
"full dress" is necessary next to no
dress. She tells you, in a supreme tone
that admits no denial, that you would
not Be- admitted to the drawing room
of court in Europe unless i'm full
dress - viz: semi-nakedness. She
would be nothing if not European in
style. Thus, night after night, this
mother of grown-up daughters and
sons appears in crowded assemblies in
attire that would befit in outline child
of eight years of age.
Thus i'm republican Washington, i'm
glaring drawing-rOOms, we are treated
to q study of female anatomy which is
appalling. Don't jump to the conclusion
that l want ever lady to go to party
i'm stuff dress, drawn up to her ears;
nor that am so prudish as to think no
dress can be mOdestly as well rs inn
mO'iestly low. / have seen Il young
girls shoulders rise from her muslin
frOck a. uncOnsciously and as innocent
ly as the lilies i'm the garden; and l
have come upon wife and mOtherin n
public assembly so dressed for promis-
cuOus gaze that 1 have involuntarily
shut my eyes with shame.
1 never saw Lydia Thompson; but,
from what have heard of her, have
come to the conclusion that her attire
is just as modest as that of many ladies
whom | meet at fashionable parties.
They cast up their eyes in horror at the
name of poor Lydia Thompson They
go to see Lydia Thompson! No, in
deed? How could theireyes endure the
sight of that dreadful woman? Never
ertheless, they themselves offer gratis to
a promiscuOus company every evening
sight morally quite rs dreadful. The
men who pay their money to Lydia
Thompson and her troupe know that
their dress and their burlesque,
however questionable, make at once
their business and their livelihood.
They cannot make the same excuse for
their wives, sisters, and their sweet
hearts, if they see them scarcely less
mOdestIy attired in some fashionable
ballroom. Remember this: if you
ever find yourself in such place, the
best men i'm that room at heart are not
delighted with such displays. Being
men, they will look at whatever is pre-
sented to their gaze; more, many will
compliment and fiatter the very woman
whose vanity at heart they pity or
despise but it will always be with
mental reservation, "My wife should
never dress like thatW
| don't want to see my sister
dancing round dances for hours in the
arms. of man whom even | cannot
think of without horror; and if -
dances with him again Iil not go to
another German said a young man
to his mother this very winter. This
is perpetually the fact; and it is the
danger and the shame of the round
dances. Young girls, guarded from
babyhood from all contact with vice,
from all knowledge of men as they
exist in their own world of clubs and
dissipation, suddenly ''cOme OUT to
whirl night after night, and week
after week, in the arms of men whose
lightest touch is PROCLAMATION. 1t would
be long before it would dawn upon the
giIl to dream of the evil in that mans
heart; far longer to learn the evil of
his life; yet no less to her, innocent
and young, in the very association and
contact there is unconscious pollution.
There is a sacredneSs i'm the very
thought of the body which God
created to he the home of an immortal
soul. Its very beauty should he the seal
OF itshOliness. Everywhere in Scripture
its sacredness is recognized anu en-
forced. Therein we are told that the
bodies are the temples of God. Our
very dress, in its harmony and purity,
should cOnsecrate, not desecrate the
beautiful home of the soul.-Muy
Cleannaer 1,ces, IN Independent.