The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-07-17
English Women.

London Correspondence of N Y. Eve. Post
: Did | not read lately in the Evenin:
Post some remarks by an Englishman oil
/. the taste in dress of American ladies, Il
the slight disparagement thereof If
did, allow me to reply.
| have no means of judging of the
taste Of English ladies at balls or in pri
waite assemblies they certainly appear
we'll at theatres and in Hyde Park.
find that the ladies of every country, the
refined and the cultivated, who enjoy the
facilities afforded by wealth or rank,
dress pretty much alike. The fashions
are despOtic, and seem to convert every
woman able to follow them into a model
of greater or less elegance and attractive
ness. Nationality, as far as can see,
makes but little difference. The effect Of
an immediate and wide dissemination of
a fashion, coupled with the tyranny and
! invention of milliners, renders women,
in d measure, cosmopolites IN the matter
of taste. Ii, accordingly, there IS to be
any decision as to taste on national
grounds, | think that the test must be
1 sought for in the lower classes that is to
say, among those who, having few re-
sources, make the most OF them, and i'm
press you with their taste IN doing So
Judged by this rule the English, in my
opinion, rank much below the French or
the Americans. If French woman in
an ordinary position in life follows the
fashion, she will adapt it to her person
50 as to appear well III it. To a more
limited extent the American women will
do the same thing. The English women
make a great failure of it. Take, as
Shaks peare says, the commodity of hair.
The present fashion of wearing the hair
is, at best, graceless one, but on the
head of an English woman it is a mon
strous absurdity Frills and other ex-
travagant arrangements remind one
setting aside the restrictions of sex-now
OF IN Achilles with flowing name, and
again Of befeathered Indian chieftain.
English women, in adopting a fashion, |
seem to have no idea of proportion, no
conception of that harmony of parts
which, as an essential principle Of taste, |
makes n bad fashion tolerable. a YER |
diet, accordingly, on national taste
should be made up out of facts derived |
from observation of the masses.
| will give few facts indicative of |
taste in another direction.
\ gentleman in clerical costume, ac-
by his wife, got into the COM
partment of railroad car in which | |
was journeying between two remote
towns. Al one of the stations where we
stopped he bought metaphysical book
(the title Of which | could read) and de
voted himself to It's perusal. This couple
scarcely spoke ten words for five hours
Once, i'll order to read a newspaper, he
passed the book over to his wife, which
she took and read until he was ready to
resume it. About midway OF the Jour
ney the lady opened an elegant handling,
and taking from flask, treated herself
10 its contents, which, from the strong
Ddor that filled the compartment, l knew
70 be excellent gin.
The following day at n hotel | saw a
ady at dinner call for wine-glass of
brandy, which she poured into her coffee
noticed the circumstances, because the
class was a pretty large one.
Another day had to start early in the
morning for one of the suburban districts
While standing at the station-buffet and
aking cup OF coffee, well dressed
nan and woman approached the counter
md called for gin and rum respectively,
which was duly imbibed.
Passing along the streets and looking
through the doors of the bar rooms
bounding in the thoroughfares Of Lon
Ion, always see women standing at the
ounter The habit of drinking here by t
women is certainly striking to a stranger. l
Perhaps the climate warrants it. | have
lot yet seen one intoxicated person.
Whatever may be the beauty of some !,
english women, others are the ugliest |;
If, as materiaiists say,
labits generate bodily imperfections, 7
his peculiar ueliness is due to gross !
astes. think there is a good deal Of :
ruth in the theory. May not this ugli- :
ess, and likewise the taciturnity of the :
english, be ascribed, the former to the
arniverous appetite which Taine speci- !;
les, and the latter to the soporific etfcts
f beer?