Smyrna times., 1873-03-05
Simplicity in Dress.

The truth Is, we have tar too many subdi-
visions OF attire about US to manage them pro-
perly. Ii we had but half the hounces and
furbelows, and upper and under and middle
skirts, and aprons and sashes and "cOat. tails
and festoons, we should just have half the
difficulty in combining and arranging effects.
1t Is easier to drive two horses than six. as
poor Ph8tOn could have told Us when he up |
set the chariot of the sun. He was an ignorant |
driver, and so is a woman in the matter of |
dress. We ought never to admit an addition
to our already unmanageahle team without
sufficient reason. We might dispense with
halt our complicated folds, our whalebones,
our scrunched toes, our immOvable arms and
many other misereS, and look less like mere
blocks tor showing off clothes, and more like
human beings: but We can't bear to let the
houSemad or the crossing g-sweeper think we
have got slxpence IN our pockets when it can
be hung or piled on our backs, and we go
atout like the celebrated camel who finally col
lapsed under a straw.
Nevertheless, when I hint at simplicity of
attire, am not looking back longingly to the
latter end OF the last century, and wishing to
see men and women make themselves the guys
I had almost said the revolving guys-that
the victims of Jacques Louis David's classic
mama did when they tried to be imitation
Greeks. When pink tights are made to emu
: late bare legs and gowns are worn as loosely
over the tights as our very first parents could
: have desired, the result can only be indecent,
{ and not picturesque or beautiful-for no gene
II ratinns of care have made the British body
Is perfect like the Greeks and when men take
u to wearing their hair plated and cOmbed atte
Apollo, and india-rubber combinations, (abou
D as much like the Greeks as muslin flowers ar,
= like real ones, the result can only be caleC
III funny, and nothing else while the more deco
y rous votaries, who make a compromise between
~ goddess and mortal, such as the dress GU
Is grandmOthers wore, can at best look only lik
" resuscitated victims of the auto da fe-luckles
er women who, having been tied up in sacks an
Is flung into the river, have saved themselves b
40 kicking out the sack bottom, Tan appearanc
" ~ rather favored by the classic cheUeluT
y, which was eminently damp-lOoking,) and al
III on their way home to be dried.
Gu Let Us have no burlesque parodies of class
irs simplicity; but let US curb our Unsuitable pa
IIS sion for sticking everything We can procure
nc feathers and Hounces, beads, birds nests, tab
-. tinsel and tail-all over US, anywhere, like wi
are Indians or TerebPla. Alas how like we are
not the Terebea Perhaps you ask what IS t
Terebella? The Terebella is little creatu
'We 'me that lives IN the sea, to whose tender DO
iny Nature has allotted no protective covering, a
uIIi which cleverly sets itself to supply the wa
s"; with taste a out as faStidious as that sho
ni lnI by our own fair countrywomen. 1t collie
rror r.noo;,v onJ ot,o,, ii 49, E,,l ;I,,on,
ring tor some of ;ts n,ost amb;,;o,,. ornamor
.ha' being more costly than it can afford, b,
ner, naturally led to its own destruction Moth
no comes amiss to it. Sand, shells, pieces
: d straw, sticks or stones, atoms of seawe
ecu every kind of debris within its reach, good, b
, tne or Indifferent, it will collect and stick u
lay' itself, agglutinated together by secretion
nge among marine animals takes the place
,ays: 70 add a heavy oh;onon nabiJa ~ ;ts r
net moro ;nconvan;ent than sorr;coobIo ..f,or o
nus a human fashion! When its laborious co;
L aVes finished, it thrusts out its triumphant head
nave % rejoices This little creature is one of
oG anG annelids, and the pretty name of Tereb
mile ha ont of racn On ~ 'lr Gnooa'
e he w W " P y" ''iO. N'o "'