Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-12-12

The Iron Sway of Custom.

"ThinEest thou there sno tyranny but that of
blood and chains ?"-AnOH.
No despOt, that ever sat on an earthly
throne, no king that ever bore sway
among the sons and daughters of the hu-
man race found his mandates obeyed with
such willingness, such slavish, such igno-
bic servility, us does the power among us,
only just less than supreme, that has
only to command and most of us are
ready to bow the head and "bend the SER
vile hinges of the knee" and shame the
manhood and womanhood that should be
in us, by our manifest lack of independence
in thought and action, the power that
choose to call the iron heeled despot, fush-
ion.
Before deciding that | am using TOO
strong terms let amy one who thinks so,
look about and reflect, and the conclusion
must be reached that too strong language
cannot be employed in this connection.
What foolish what absurd, what ridicu-
lous practices and usages does not this
poeOer lead us, or driUe us intoP Reference
is here made to an incldenl-or more prop
erly, an accilent-whch occurred near
by, not many weeks in the past, and which
seems to have forced IL train of thought
which resulted in the penning of these
lines. An estimable young lady, in get
ting 6tlt of the carriage, had her foot be-
come mixed up" with her trajl, causing
her to fall headlong, and pulling her
escort across herself; receiving in the
melee. injuries which laid her up" for
some time Can the widest imagination
conceive of more 0b0n1lnHJle fashion or
style of dress than the one that brought
this lady to grief ?' Who likes itp Do
the ladies, who lower themselves in the
estimation of all sensible people, by fol-
lowing this dctestable fashion, like itP 1t
is reasonable to suppose they have, in their
manner of dress, some little regard for the
likes and dislikes of those Of the other
sex. We wonder, sometimes, if they
really think the men are pleased to see
them dragging an indefinite amount of dry
goods after them, as they walk the streets,
or 60 up and down flights of steps. lfso,
we beg them to accept the assurance that
they could not easily fall into Il greater
error, All sensible men, and women, too
for that matter, detcst and ridicule this
outlandish fashion.
The intention Of the writer, that this
article should possess the merit of brcvity
if it had none other, will prevent consid-
Grafton of many absurd and unwise, not
to say wicked, customs and practices
which prevail in community, and which
deserve to be frowned upon and out of ex-
istence. But we feel it to be duty to give
attention to one or two of them.
The practice, among ladies, OF plnohing
their waists 10 unnatural dimensions is
not, we are pleased to believe, quite as
prevalent and fashionable as formerly.
Many, who have been slaves to this
fashion, have thrown off the fetters that
bound them. They have come to see the
jnionity of the thing and risen, In the
majesty of true womanhood, against it.
Still there are many, quite too many
weak minded simpletons who conceive the
perfection of female beauty to lie in IL
small, contracted waist They cannot be
made 10 realize that in pinching the waist
they arc opening warfare on the vital
forces, in the very citadal of life. Poor
idiots! What can we do, but allow them to
90 to their own deslructionP