The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-12-18
WONAN'S DH ESS.
Feminine Protest Against Mans
CrI ffcisms ON What fiae E-adies
Wear.

To the Editor of the Nashville Bannerl
What would the press of the country
and the chords of creation do for a sub
ject for their squibs and jokes if they did
not have woman's dress in which to pick
flaws? 1t is a theme that never grows
old with them. Woman's dress and wo-
mans extravaganza are constant themes
for discussion. Middle-aged men, whom
itprobably most concerns, talk of it un-
ceasingly, in every place and on every
occasion. Boys not yet in their teens
catch the refrain, and critisise, as unmer-
cifully as their tender years will permit,
the dress of their elder sisters, if they hap
pen to have them; and if not, they aim
their harmless shafts at any lady with
whom they may happen to be acquainted.
They hear their elders pirate about it
they see it in the newspapers, if they
read them, and they hear boys of equally
mature Judgment discuss it on the street
corners. 1t is no wonder that they grow
up to sheer at woman simply because she
is woman. Not until they have been
''taken down score of times by young
ladies, do they discover that women are
not so silly as they have always been led
to suppose. When the weight of years
has fallen upon man, years that ought to
have filled the mind with some more use
full subject, we still hear the old gray
beard talking Of the everlasting twomans
extravaganza. One very peculiar fea-
ture about this matter is that that there
are men who do not give their wives five
dollars a year to invest upon their ward
robe and they talk most INCREASINGLY and
are the most severe in their remarks.
Considering that they are not individu-
ally injured by "woman's extravaganza,
l should not think the subject would in
terest them in the least.
Alas for poor woman; every article
that has been invented for her use or
adopted by her has fallen under the ban
of mans displeasure. The Grecian Bend,
and who doubts but that it was hideous,
and no sensible woman ever adopted it,
furnished material for numberless squibs
and Jokes in all the daily journals, politi-
cal, agricultural and those devoted ex-
clusively to literature. All the illustra-
ted journals exercised their talent and
ingenuity in order to get up cartoon
that would fully do the subject Justice
even sensible men ON sensible papers
poured in their broadsides upon the OBJ
jectionable Bend" inlengthy editorials.
There is no doubt that there are many
fashions and customs among the women
that are deserving of all the disapproval
that can be brought to bear upon them
But how puerile and ridiculous to see one
poor little paragraph ikening the large
buckles to ''door plates, and other arti-
1an hax ka
semblance, going the rounds of the press
of the whole country, gathering volume
as it proceeds.
Ambitious editors ransack their brain
for some smile, with which to adorn the
notable subject. The oxidized jewelry,
too, has not escaped their condemnation.
What If they are made like buckets and
wheels, or even if they represented whole
farm-yard scenes, they should attract at
tention by their uniqueness, and the taste
of the wearer should be commended.
Why is it that the costumes of the men
are not soseverely and continuously criti-
cisedfs Although not allowing as wide a
scope for variety, their fashions are, some
of them, just as absurd as it is possible
for anything TO be. H .4a
See the tight pantaloons that have so
long ruled. They made a tall man lock
like heron or stork just ready for .
wade in deep water. And the business
coat, they may be convenient (woman's
excuse for many of herfashions), but
they are certainly not handsome.
On the score of extFavagance, there is
not one woman Id twelve whose actual ex-
penditure In dress is nor exceeded two or
three fold BIZ that of her husband. A
little taste and Ingenuity on her part,
often makes up, in one article, the outlay
in another, and plume or a flower often
serves season after season, and. is then
handed down to some junior member of