The New York herald., 1875-09-26
DIR. MARY WALKER ON DRESS.

y Dr. Mary Walker, of Bloomer fashion, has been lee
turing in San Francisco, and the CdH says that DIR.
Walker opened her lecture with some rite but pleas
anty narrated anecdotes Of how the world ressts
ideas which dsagreeably in contact with custom
and established beliefs Continuing in this strain she
proceeded to give her why she chooses
dress generally secuted by and not much ap-
proved by men, unless for themselves She contended
in the first instance, that not dressed as
comfortably men and that there is why
they should not be- All women of natural feelings
desire to get married. The present style
Of dress, by its expensiveness, is him
drance to marriage. Some women do not get
married, and there are few women, the way in which
they dressed that able to suficency for
their necessities Womans style of dress units her
for business. There is not woman in a thousand
but Is uncomfortable every OF her dressical
existence If she night be allowed the phrase. There
is such weight dragging upon women in the ordinary
style Of clothing; even If the clothing do not touch
the floor, there is weight that no power
We may talk of having the clothes all suspended
from tho shoulder, but forget that all over the
system the weight is felt; that have nerves. with
sensations Of pain closely distributed that part
OF the body can be touched with pin and not be
afflicted with suffering Yet all the nerves
suffer when the clothes are suspended from the
shoulder. When Professionally she had to cut
a felon a mans finger, the man had invariably
tainted away; sometimes she had cut two on a womans
finger, and the woman had never WINGED. This
comes OF men Delng brought up Win the Ieenng
that they TO have neither pains aches while
woman is Injured to suffering The nerves Of a woman
suffer much from the weight OF clothing In anatomy
similar, in physiological structure different woman
suffers more than man. and the dragging Of OF
long clothes Injuries her thousandfold more than
man. besides inurng her in every other respect that il
would man, and there Is not man to be found who
has seen brought up TO dress in the ordinary that
would submit TO the way in which women dress for one
week. They would wrthe in II, they would fight, they
would the risk Of their lives they would lose their
limbs, they would do anything in tho world before
they would submit TO the terrible tyranny that women
are submitting to all over the country every day
of their lives. One reason Is, that the women are
good deal like slaves. They have always been com
PEELED to submit to this dresscal slavery and although
they have thousand aches and pains and agones, yet
they know so little Of the human system and OF cause
and effect that they cannot tell the why's and the
wherefores OF IT, and suppose that because they are
women they must necessarily submit to- all these
wrongs and outrages Woman's style Of dress DR..
Walker further described as a criminal absurdity
thing senseless and hurtful, and having recouned
some Of her own adventures In tho costume of which
she approves she remarked that always has main
tanned her right 10 dress she pleased as long as no
man bought her clothes, and If any man did buy her
clothes she would never allow him TO dictate how they
should be made Women have some rights ana one Oh
them is TO dress they like, and, although II might
are sensbly deccnty dressed Look at the condition
Of society The wealthy this terrible dress, and
80 the middle class and the lower class and the very
lowest glass must initiate. 1t has always been SO, and
IL must always be So
This rage for dress is terrible temptation for those
that poor and she who had dressed hygenicay for
more than twenty years, and had travelled all over
Europe and this country, could say that the world
would never be better, morally, until women dress
better. IL costs much TO dress a woman; II takes
neary all the time she has got to make clothes and
the rest OF the time to them, in such way that
she Is unified for thing in this life; woman, in
fact is untitled by her dress for all the maternal duties
ofIife Sho had principle IN what she was saying, and
any 10 offer her 81 900 900 to dress in the
ordinary way she would refuse TO do IT, DIT walker
charged TO The account OF extravaganza Dress post
ponements Of marriages until are wealthy or com
fortably situated, and also much immortality, and In
closing she gave utterance TO some very plain and d.
advice to parents tho rearing Of their children
and tha equipment Of them for life men and women