Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-12-01
SaSies' Department.
WOMAN'S DRESS AS RELATED
TO FASHION AND HEALTH.

unnealtnIul. Inc injurious fashion OF
tight-lacing does not obtain now, and
the corsets against which physicians
and all sensible people used to fulmin-
ate, with reason, serve simply the use
full purpose of sustaining and distribut-
ing the weight of the skirts Hoops,
which were at one time from their i'm
mense size perfect nuisance, are worn
small, so that they are very little in
the way, and, while rendering number
of skirts unnecessary, thus reducing the
weight about the hips, make locomotion
easy and untrammeled. There were
two things, however, in the present
style, which we utterly object to-the
hustle or pannier, and the train. The
pannier is sheer deformity-a hump
where God made hollow; and, as if
that were not enough, it is worn on the
very weakest part of the whole spinal
column, just where, when woman has
the back-ache, the pain is severest. We
protest, sn toto, against the pannier as
an outrage to taste, an insult to God,
and an injury to health. AS to the
long skirts, they are both filthy and in
convenient. In the country they are
worse than an anachronism in history,
or a solecism in grammar; but saying
that is unnecessary, since country wo-
men, as class, abjure them. Think
of taking morning ramble with two or
three yards of calico or camel's hair
trailing on the grass behind you'll
Common sense carries the day in shoes,
since they are thick-soled, low-heeled,
and form complete covering to the
foot. Pebble-goat or morocco, and not
prunella, is in vogue for the street. But
if women knew the comfort there is in
a real nice pair of French calfskin shoes
made to order, they would not deny
themselves the luxury. If before the
shoes are put on they are thoroughly
saturated with linseed oil, they can be
worn in the wet without rubbcrs and
yet keep the feet dry. We shall rejoice
when they come into general use for out
door wear
AS to the dress, there Fashion is tyra-
nical. Puffs, ruffles, folds, founce,
every variety of tortuous and agonizing
fummery is in vogue. Fashionable poor
women, who make their own dresses,
kill themselves at the sewing machine
with endless and unnecessary stitching,
and fashionable rich ones encourage
them in doing it, and moreover drag
their own lives out, in wearing what
poor sewing women have ruined their
health to make. Every woman who
reads this knows that this is not an
exaggeration. Let us reduce it to fig
ures. A plain skirt lined for winter
wear can easily be made in an afternoon ;
it weighs about two pounds. The same
material, faced but with the fashionable
founces and trimmings, will weigh at
least twice as much, and take four times
as long to make it. If the skirt is elab.
orately trimmed. the polonaise or basque
must of course correspond. There Is
another two days work on that, foul
days for the whole dress Meantime
in almost exact ratio, as more goes OF
the outside, less goes in, and gentle
man of sense, standing on Broadway
as this walking millinery sails by, say
with reason "There goes a fool, sh
doesn't know anything; there goe
another, she doesn't know anythin,
either"
Now, if woman has money to spend
and must put it in her clothes, why no
lay it out in quality of goods rathe
than in quantity, and have the tim
thus saved to devote to nobler things
1t sickens one to see the profusion q
work that is put on cheap material, an
the dowdy, shabby-genteel air of man
ladies beruffled to-death in 80 cent goods
Infinitely preferable for common veal
genuine French calico, neatly fitting
tastefully made, and becoming in color
much more healthful, too, since 1T ca
be cleansed and look, when quite wor
out, still new and fresh. Far be it frol
us to understate the Importance of tast'
full and beautiful apparel, but we woul
have the taste and the beauty displaye
in the quality, style and cut of tt
goods, rather than the abundance of i
ornamentation. Let the silk be of I'll
finest, but plainly made, the lace gen,
inc and the diamonds likewise, and /
intelligence sit enthroned on the brov
and shine in the eye. AS to the ha
and the hat, there certainly is need
reform. Not less than $40 will br
hair enough to make even a modest tou
nure, and the hat may cost anywhe
from $40 to $75, but women Of tas
and independence spend far less thu
these extravagant sums and look vel
we'll too.
AS to its influence on health, dress
scarcely less in Importance than dit
No class of people enjoy better heal
than physicians, Notwithstanding the
exposures and Irregularities, and no
pay so much regard to suitable prote
tion of the body from cold and dam
Flannel worn next the skin is the bt
covering one can possibly have. Ma
people think they cannot wear it, fire
the irritation it produces. But if tn
would persevere, the difficulties won
vanish
AS the weather changes, let the THO
ness Of the flannel change. The Chi
csc are more sensible than we are
II