Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1872-11-22

considered ourselves elegantly dressed why
should they look mean and skinny now7
l read LOUIS note TO Hester, and she
promised to join us at dinner on Thursday.
"Extremes should meet" she said.
She staid on a while, and we had little
talk on dress, and the bondage fashion impos-
es or how the taste Of the community is cor.
rupted by the over loaded, ungraceful styles
in vogue now, and on many other things,
such as sensible women do talk about when
they get together.
zone Of the greatest evils Of this absurd
overlooking" said Hester, ais that it 30 fear
fully oyerworks women. We hear great
deal about the hardships Of tho poor shirt.
makers in our cities and they are to be pit
led, 1 know. But there are other women to
be pitied too. Look, for example, at my
neighLOr, Mrs T. She lisa fair representative
Of large class, and not an exaggerated case.
Her husband is Woodworking mechanic,
who earns good living, and ought to lay up
something for wet day but he can't sup
port wife and six children in luxury, espec-
tally as four of them are girls. Mrs. T. 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 very stylsh-looking girl" /
said.
ayes and her mother is very proud Of
her, as is natural. She is jus. II, and what
wonderful costumes she does bloom out in I!
They are all aAoat with puffs and rufles,
quilts, and frills, till there's scarce an inch
of untrimmed space about her and Clara and
Nellie 60 by to school every morning, each
with another set of furbelowed upper skirts,
basques and sacks while Baby Belle--bless
her dear little heart lis all aAoat, too, with
tiny ruffies on her tiny skirt"
"Isnt she darling ?" cried.
"Yes, lovely, with her blue eyes, and APP
ple-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 we're
the fashion And the pretty Gracie--is the
charm in her, her lovely complexion and fine
expression, OF in her furbelows and fringes p
"In her Of course" said. "Children and
young girls are never so pleasing as whIn
simply dressed"
Certainly and our taste is corrupted when
we do not see this. But there's poor Mrs. 7.
thinks it's absolutely necessary to follow the
last fashion-plate; so she works like slave
from morning till night, and her sewing-ma-
chine is often going till after midnight. No
wonder she looks broken down, and has neu-
ralgia and diseased spine. She has done
the work of two women, and it is the hardest
kind of work, too. Every inch Of all those
interminable yards of hemming and binding,
gathering and fastening, passes through her
fingers, to say nothing of the continuing and
fitting, and basting and ripping l wonder
the woman is alive. don't believe there is
a sewing-woman in this city harder worked. u
but why don't the daughters help her p
Those in school haven't any time. Ora
Gle does all she can; but with her calls and
callers, practicing aud picnicing, croquetting
and coquetting, it would be cruel to expect
her to do more than make the plainest por.
ton of her under-clothes.
but it's absurd" said, "for a mechan.
les wife to 60 into such extravagances."
81 don't know as a mechanics wife can be
expected to be more sensible than other wo-
men" said Hester dryly. "a reform must
begin somewhere else, fancy"
81 suppose So" said with sigh; "but
the whole subject is full OF difficulties
"All Of which might be overcome if women
had spark of independence. Here is a tan
gible evil for them to grapple with, now they
have walked up to a sense of their strength
and capabilities"
"Yes; they may as well begin n reform
, here, as of the nation at the ballot-box,"
said, laughing. but how to do it is the
question. Is there any standard by which
dress can he judged and rcgulated?"
Not now, said Hester 'but believe
the principles OF art, true art, might be ap
piled to dress as to other things that there
is an essential, intrinsic beauty or uglines,
in our garments, entirely irrespective of fash
ION in other words, that it is one thing to b.
well dressed, and another to be fashionably
dressed"
YES" said "but what is it to be wei
dressed2'
9 81 can tell you what it isn't" said Hester
sit isn't to wear a huge protuberance oil
= your head or your back, which. if you hat
: been born with it, would have been consider
= ed a shocking deiormity. 1t isn't to concea
}, all the lines Of the human figure or to max,
: it one mountain Of trimming, when trimming
: should always be subservient, adding grace
+ and defining outlines. And then, too, it mus
c be something permanent. 1t can't be tn,
6 changing thing fashionable dressing is. Ar
wouldn't make balloon of us this month
d and scantily-draped statue the next: sh
d wouldn't tilt us up on heels that agonize GU
c toes and pitch us downstairs to-day, and to
e morrow set us on the ground like so man.
G fat-footed Indians"
) "That would be comfort" l said. III
when dress was made, it would stay made
y and look well till it was worn out, it would
| lessen half our labors."