American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1877-11-17
Proper Clothing.

1nere IS scarcely any reader VINO Will
admit that she is not properly clothed
and in her right mind, though she may
be found in zero weather with no thick
er appareling than she wore during the
cool days of fall and summer; and at
the same time she will perhaps boast
that she has never given in to wearing
flannel underclothing, and that cotton
stockings answer her purpose year in
and year out. She may, however, wear
the finest of laces and the costliest silks,
and yet, without her outfit of under-fs.n-
nels for the winter, the early fall, and
the changeable spring of our climate,
we shall deny that she has proper cloth
ing. We are aware that our women
dress more warmly than their ancestors
of fifty years ago, and that there has
been marked Improvement in this re-
spect, yet the reform has not perfected
itself. We are told that our grand
mothers lived to ripper old age and en-
joyed more robust health than the pres:
ent generation, though they did not
swathe themselves with layers of wool,
like mummy, and were unacquainted
with certain garments that we consider
indispensable. But perhaps if
our progenitors had adopted
the custom of wearing more and
warmer clothing, their posterity would
have inherited as tough constitutions
and as firm health. In this day no one
is excusable who allows herself to 90 in
sufficiently clad while she has the means
to provide raiment, even though she
should be obliged to curtail her luxuries
for the purpose, to forego certain fallals
and superfiuities. She is not only wrong
ing herself and shortening her days by
a scanty supply of clothing, but in weak
ening her own system by her folly she
Injuries her child no less. There are
certain foolish folks who object to adj
ditional underwear because it increases
the size; who prefer to pass the season
in a semi-congealed state, alternating
with the fever of influenza, hugging the
stove, and making bugaboo of fresh
air; who ignore the fact that genial
temperature of the surface of the body
keeping the extremities warm prevents
the blood rushing to the head and dis
colOring the face, disturbing the natural
shading of the rose-leaf cheek, and Civ
ing the nose a rubicund hue-that, in
brief, to be warmly clad insures a
longer lease of youth and beauty.
Many of us who really believe in
the regimen of proper clothing hesitate
to make a change till the cold weather
has fairly set in, when it is the early
frosts which give the greatest shock to
the system, following so soon after the
summers heat; and how few of US pay
attention to the alterations of the sum-
mer weather enough to regulate ou1
toilettes to correspond! We fancy that
it is scarcely worth while to vary our at
tire on account of sea-turn, when to-
morrow will make amends for to-days's
chill. We think we are growing tough,
when we are in reality catching cold
There are few things in which people
imagine they can economic so well as
In under-clothing; every one must have
her best suit, her Sunday bonnet, and
her much-buttoned society de-
mands it of her; but who will know
whether her underwear is wool or cot
ton, of the poorest or of the bestP And
she is often foolish enough to postpone
proper clothing till a more convenient
season rather than resign button from
her gloves or flower from her bonnet
Hampers BGz ~.