Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-08-08
WHOLE NO. 14O.

display Of neat CATERS and pretty feet, and
if fashion always dictated so neat and conve-
nient o style as this, we would not rebel
against her mandates, but "presto, change"
says fashion, and we trail costly dresses
through mud and filth, with smiling faces as
if IL were pleasant to do so. We expand
our crinolne to the dimensions Of hogshead,
or stalk about looking like antiquated bean
poles, Just as our mistress dictates. We put
horrid humps on our backs, affect the Gre
clan bend or any other ridiculous fashion
without any wry faces. When say we
mean the majority Of women, though perhaps
that ought to be modified somewhat, for
doubt if the majority of women do go to all
the extremes Of fashion.
But let us count the cost of Mrs Grun-
dy's rule. It costs money. Among the rich
this matters little perhaps, though many a
husband and father has been ruined by the
extravaganza of his wife or daughters and
many prudent young man has been deferred
from matrimony by the cost Of dressing the
woman he loves. But there is some compen-
sation. II helps manufacturers, it helps the
merchant, it helps the sewing girls But
among the middle and poorer classes the cost
is serious matter. Their money is hardly
earned and ought not to be spent without
some equivalent in return.
1t costs time and strength, and this too is
a serious matter especially among that over.
tasked class Of women, farmers wives and
daughters. When the sewing machine was
invented it was thought to be perfect God
send to overtasked mothers, and so it might
and should have been, but women straight
way went to work to circumvent all the in
tended good by multiplied seams, and rufles
and tucks, until really, believe they would
have been better off to-day if the sewing ma.
chine had never been invented, for it would
not have been possible for working women to
have adopted all the superauities that now
prevail.
How many overburdened women are wear
ing out their lives in the endeavor to have
all the ct ceteras of modern wardrobe, like
their more favored sisters who can afford to
hire theirs made, and thus are depriving
themselves of all opportunities for rest, recre-
alton Or mental Improvement! How many
fashionable dress covers weary body, and
gay bonnet an empty head
We many ofus feel sorely the burdens
placed on our unresisting shoulders by our
tyrant, but we hardly know how to help our
selves. We are not prepared to be ostraciz-
cd from society and considered " nobody"
or, if VIC have independence enough to dress
ourselves as our good sense and purses die
tate, our children are not willing to be sin
gular, they want to dress I" like other folks"
SO there seems little that we can do individ-
ually to throw off our shackles. In almost
all reform there has to be some sort of an or
ganization in order to accomplish much, and
| believe the needs of to-day call for wo-
mans emancipation society. How easy it
might be to adopt some convenient, tasteful
style of dress that should not be obsolete iu
three months, if hundreds of other women,
who feel the need of it as much as ourselves,
would do the same How much easier to
reconcile our children to less elaborate and
expensive wardrObes if our neighbors' chill
dren were dressed plainly too
l believe the idea is practicable, and l
wish that some of our reformers who are la
boring for the moral, physical and intellec.
,, tual Improvement of women would give the
/, subject thoughtful attention. l believe ii
would be of more value to woman than the
right of suffrage, though do not object tc
that LAURA BRIGHAM BoYcE
Fayston, July, 1873.