The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-08-11
Ghe l4irainia State cyournal.
MONDAY EvEN'G, AUG. II, 1878.
Female Dress.
From the Baltimore sun

ltIoiu tue DallliuOTe suu -
An essay has lately been published by
Miss E.. S. Phelps, of Boston, upon the
subject of "What to YEAR, applicable
particularly to female dress, in which she
arraigns the modern style of female rail-
ment as injurious to health, opposed TO
convenience, and antagonistic to all the
essential conduct of life. This lady, who
seems to have turned states evidence
against her own sex, asserts that dress is
employed by women to attract masculine
attention, and that there is moral neces-
sity for rectifying enormities which she
declares this has led to. She is very
severe upon her own sex, affirming that
the fashionable woman is offended only at
the inconvenience of an attire dictated by
corrupt French imagination, and not at all
disconnected by the plan upon which it
proceeds. Miss Phelps considers the
Bloomer style as artistic as any it would
displace. She also discusses certain OBJ
iections to reform, such as that the extrav-
agance of female dress has received too
much attention. and that love of beauty
has to be considered. She denies the ar
gument in favor of costly apparel that the
poor are aided thereby, declaring that the
bulk of the outlay misses the poor people,
and that some of the manufactures are So
deleterious to all that it is desirable
they should cease. Miss Phelps considers
that the denominating cause of these evils
OF dress is desire to attract men, and
thinks it would be better for the girl to
say roundly, "Do you love me ?' than to
WOO the man she likes by unhealthy styles
of dress.
Miss Phelps is no doubt little too SCI
we're upon her own sex. The love of
beauty may need cultivation, but it is in
itself a natural and proper sentiment.
The whole of the physical creation is
adorned in way to render it pleasing and
attractive. The flower of the field, that
blooms to-day and tomorrow is cast into
the oven, is arrayed in dress that Solo
mon in all his glory could not equal. The
fact that vast solitudes of nature, rarely
trod by the foot of man, are decked with
plants and flowers of the most beautiful
hues, and that the bottom Of the sea is lined
with shells of diversified and gorgeous col
ors, would seem to indicate, as has been
recently suggested, that the love of beauty
is divine. AT the same time it cannot be
denied that extravaganza in dress is one of
the prevailing evils of our social life. Aes.
thetic taste may be gratiied while kept
within useful and moral limits. Beauty
when least adorned" is soft adorned the
most" Absolute grace in female attire
can be attained without gaud and
extravaganza. The best bred
ladies' study simplicity in their
attire on ordinary occasions, and there is
no surer mark of vulgarlty and bad taste
than deviation from this rule. An exces.
sive passion for dress is reprehensible
enough even when there are means to graf
lily it, but it seems to pervade all classes,
without regard to means. Many act appa-
rently upon the idea that the true value of a
woman depends upon her clothing, not her
moral and religious culture, not the graces
of her mind and person, but the achieve
ments which she faunts through the streets
of the mllliner and the mantua-maker. In
contest for display of this. kind of course
only those who have great wealth can car
ry off the highest prizes. People who can,
wear five hundred dollar shawls, fifteen
hundred dollar furs, street costumes costing
thousand dollars, and two or three thou
sand dollar party dresses, must, of course
throw into the shade those who have no
means of competing with such extreme lux
ures. The masculine world are estopped by
Miss. Phelps from commenting on those
prices by the remark that they do not in
clude five hundred dollars for a pipe or
five dollars for cigar. 1t wonld be bet
ter to leave the whole field of such bar
barrie splendor to those who are able to ar-
ford it, and whose instincts teach them to
make up in show what they lack in SUBJ
stance.
There is no part of female education
which needs more attention than the
training of girls in the proper cultiva
ton ofthe love of beauty, and to repress
in their minds the vulgar osten.
tations and rivalries of dress. This is
work which can only be effectively perform.
edat home and by the mother whose love for
her offspring, if it be genuine, should make
1t her ambition to train them in virtue, gem
tleness, unselfshness and good sense, those
jewels of the heart and mind which are
more valuable than all outward adorn-
ments, and which will con uce SO much
more to the lasting happiness and welfare
OF their children and of society.