Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-03-18

to wearing them tight, the
bones and steels mustadiust themselves to
the various curves and depressions of the |
body, and must be felt, else the sure death |
that women so often declare would follow |
their abandonment would not be anticpat-
ed. Just SO soon rs the muscles give |
in weakness that they are no
longer adequate to the support of the body, |
it is high time that they We're given eUery |
chance to recuperate. instead of being still |
held in immovable bondage. 1t does not |
require the foresight of seer to diagnose |
a chronic case of tight lacing and Of
weighty, dragging skirts. You know that |
when the abdominal and pelvic muscles
become inert, almost wasted. that one of
the important daily functions of the body
is rarely if ever normally carried on, and
this is bat one link in the long chain that
has won the disgraceful appellation of
wOmens diseases, when it should be term
ed women's follies"
The authorities whose opinions we most
respect, because they are founded upon
observation and research. and not upon
blind and stupid prejudice, assure us that
girls come out from the trying ordeal of
co-education unscathed. In mentral cali
bre they are universally recognized the
peers of boys. Now that they are begin
ming to have equal advantages for mental
culture. is it not high time for the dawn
of their physical development? The only
pleasurable and invigoratng out-of-door
exercise that they have ever had has now
fallen into disfavor. Because the dress
was improper colds We're contracted, and
skating for girls seems doomed to be class
ed among the lost arts. | do not think
that this one healthful exercise should be
denied them until it is tried under proper
conditions. \ startling fact precludes all
gymnaStic exercises in our schools. 1t Is
that girls are so hampered in every liga-
ment, joint and muscle, that in order to
have use and command Of themselves for
the brief space of an hour. this straight
jacket. the clothing in which they are in
cased sixteen hours of the day, must be
laid aside. What if our young men found
it necessary to make an entire change in
their apparel before they could drill, play
base bull, coast or row? They would soon
find it exceedingly irksOme, and seek. rs
girls have, their level of muscular mac
tivity With the cessation of school life
ends this one hour of occasional chest in
tiating, arm-extending. back bending ex-
erCise.
If the dear girl is 50 circumstanced that
she is II victim to the epidemic rage Of
fashion, she may be called upon to strug
Gle DAYS, weeks, and even months To keep
her head above the Elizabethan ruff that
threatens to swallow her up. If that mer-
ciless dictator decree it, the tortures of the
Inquisition are laid upon her The thumb
screws are nothing to bear in totality of
results compared with the unwielding
{ I I. :. l, I,
ely pressed so snugly often that an i'm
preston of them is indented into the flesh.
And what of her hair? Why, the poor,
dear girl had Just begun to recognize her
own shadow on the sidewalk, when ST.
mon said thumbs up, and the rats, the
mice and the luxuriant braids of hair and
iute rushed to the top of her head as if a
pocket battery had been tritiing with each
This causes her no little suffering. there is
a great deal of pressure, and burning and
heat on the top Of the brain. She consults
a physician, and mamma tells him that
when she was a very young child, she
played out in the sun one dav without her
hat, that she feared then a sunstroke. and
NAV not this be the result OF that expo
sure?
Well, yes, very probable; he gives some
quieting powders, the scalp becomes ad
iusted like all else in nature to the force
of circumstances. when the last fashion
plate arrives, and with one fell swoop. at
/ the command of thumbs down, the whole
/ geological train drops from its lofty nights
and is suspended at the base of the brain
bv few securely tethered hairs. Now the
distress of the darling daughter has
/ changed base Spinal meningitis is feared,
and medical aid is speedily secured.
Mamma can assign no cause for this new
phase of suffering. unless it be, that some
years before her daughter slipped and fell
on the ice. This time the pain proves so
stubborn and severe that that most trying
suggestion had to be resorted to by the
doctor, that of laying aside sose of the
superfuous weight Of hair that caused
more than a mere surface irritation. The
causes of physical weakness are more as
siduously sought for through 4 generation
of gr.lndfathers than in the weight of false
hair. of kilt plaits. of tiounces, of bustles,
and in the pressure of corsets. Women
unable to lift a broom carry daily weights
upon their heads and backs that the hui
name society would think cruel laid upon
animals.
Time and money considered, nothing i
more important in dress than the material
of which it is made. \ substantial, plain
elegant fabric carries on the face of it
own recommendation. Like a wcll-bred
person, it is always presentable in any
place. and upon any occasiOn-while the
flimsy stuff, however much Ornamented
like the merely superficial character, shows
its origin. and the more you attempt tO
cover over its defects by gaudy eNternals
the more apparent it becomes.
Let II high and holy purpose take pos
session of the soul. and the body becomes
its willing subordinate. The world, SC
often blinded to its best interests, at last
learns to recognize the worth of the aim
the value of the mind. EXternals are lost
sight of and the individual is sought after
for what she is and does, and not for the
value of her diamonds, the rarity of hel
lace and the quality of her velvet
So long rs women are subservient to the
clothes they wear, so long will sOciality il
the main be the prattllng superficial thing
f it everywhere is. We must have something
) of the stability in our styles of dress thai
characterizes the clothes of men.
| At every national, state. and county ex
position, we must have dress department
where the best materials will be shown
and where styles from a hygienic, aesthetic
and economic point of view will be dis
J cussed; then we shall begin to have doctors
| of dress, and there will be specialists in th'
profession, those who will recommend t.
us colors and textures, those who will se'
, to it that we are so well dressed that no on
can tell what we wear and so comfortabl.
attired that self and clothes blend into ;
: harmonious whole. There will be NJ
| meteorc flashes of style then, only ligh
modification in the cut and fit, when in tn
course of human events a new garment be
; comes necessity. In that good tim
| coming, the aurora of which, it IS hoped
, is now seen above the horizon, nothing will
astonish and grieve us more than to refec
| upon the life and energy we have squan
t dered, in clinging to that worst phase o
barbarism in our dress, the trailing skirts
! But let it be known and seen that the dres
s actually ceases to come below the top of tn
boots, and that the limbs are properly ant