The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-04-15
SENSIBLE FASHIONS.

Howard Glyndon, writing to the New
York Mail, says:
Charles Mackay, it is, believe, who
has written poem about red and white
petticoats.
with her red, her ilaring petsicoat,
She's not the girl for me-"
is the way in which he winds up one OF
his verses If he is still alive, it would
be clever tease TO inveigle him into
visiting New York and walking down
Broadway on cloudy day, when every
other grip you meet is holding the
folds of her dress gathered to the right
side, in her right hand, so as to display
considerable of the red flannel petticoat
beneath. But, on the other hand, as the
poet goes on to indicate his preference by
saying
"With her white, her modest petticoat,
Oh, she's the girl for me''
we could balm his aching heart by
showing him an equal number of en-
broidered, stiffiy starched and nicely
ironed white muslin petticoats, peeping
out from under uplifted folds of black.
brown and gray dresses, seemingly for
the express purpose of getting splashed
with mud by passing stages and carriages.
Charles Mackay to the contrary, this
is simply abominable. 1t seems to me
that ladies should have some higher OBJ
ject in life than to make walking adver-
tisements of themselves for the benefit
of their laundresses, and certainly there
are nObler ambitions than that of soiling
one or two white petticoats every day.
We are all quite willing to believe that
they can afford to do this, and invest
small fortunes in their weekly washing
bills without having our attention called
so often to the fact that they do run up
such bills, by seeing those splashed white
petticoats on the streets. There is per-
haps no innovation of the present season
SO utterly in bad taste as white skirts out
of doors. Perhaps the very wisest, most
tasteful decree that the Empress Eugene
ever gave to the fashionable world was
when she made war upon the white pet
ticoats for walking. In her time white
petticoat was never seen out of doors
among the CONNIE il faut. With her
downfall an attempt is again made to in
troduce this dirty, disagrecable, and in
short utterly odious custom.
Gray stockings are the only sort fit for
muddy or wet days. White ones out in
the wind and slush are as odious as the
white skirts. There is very fine and
soft wool stocking, of a peculiarly pretty
gray tint, called "clergyman's gray"
now manufactured, and expressly for
wearing on the street on dirty days.
With these stockings and well made,
well-ftting, thick-soled boots lady need
not publicly belle herself on wet days,
but may still feel lady-like in spite of
raised skirts, mud splashes, and slush to
tramp through.
And if she will, let her wear red
petticoat for walking During the preva-
lence of the nasty wet weather, which
we may make up our minds to, mostly,
for the next two months), Charles
Mackay to the contrary. Although if
she has fnely-developed sense of pro
priety in colors, she will probably shun
the glare of scarlet and appreciate the
deep, grave dark-blue, that modest, wo-
manly, and virginia. hue that is often
found in the draperies of Madonnas by
the old masters. A few blue petticoats
among all those red ones would have a
pretty effect.