Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-01-22
BIFURCATED FOLLY.

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Mrs. swilshelm in the Chicago Tribune.l
Our brethren of the press seem
quite startled by my assertion that
pantaloons are not the ultimatum
of dress reform. You tall men have
so long sat upon your sublime hight
of fancied superiority, and looked
down on us poor little women, led
captive by the tyranny of fashion,
that you have no doubt come to re-
gard yourselves as the models whom
all the discontented wish toimitate.
1t does not seem to have occurred
to you that you are quite as much
the slave Of fashion as we are that
French dancing masters dictate
what you shall wear, and how you
shall wear it; and that you follow
their dictation more blindly than
women do that of their Partisan
diyinities. 1t certainly is an open
question whether you do not suffer
quite as much as we do from this
folly; and | have sewed on too
many buttons to be blind to your
extreme folly. Fashion never in
vented a more unphysiological gar
ment than that which, for a quar-
ter Of a century, has been the dis
tinguishing glory of the wiser sex.
Tens of thousands of men suffer
from wearing it agonies quite as
acute as any that women infict
upon themselves by their suicidal
dress; and it is probable that doc
tors know the cause or aggravation
Of their trouble, just as they know
the cause of the ailments of women,
and feel that the patient would en-
dure any amount of suffering, and
death itself, rather than wear un-
fashionable garments.
We hear much talk of the incon-
venience of "pullbacks;" but who
ever saw a man lift anything from
the ground without taking both
hands to draw up his pantaloons, SC
as to make room for the bend of his
knees, and feeling that he risked
suspender. buttons, and accommo-
dated his motions to the fear Of
losing them? Day by day our most
sensible men get into garments
which interfere with motion in any
but an upright position, quite as
much as the most ultra "pullback'
worn by the silliest butterfly Of
fashion. They also distort the out
lines of their figure quite as much
as do women. Suppose one of them
were made with lower limbs of cy-
lindrical forml How would be feel
about it? How would be use a pair
of legs as thick at the ankle as above
the knee? Yet this is the shape
they all make themselves. They
also put on long boots and panta-
looms over them-thus conducting
the gases from the feet up around
the body, and keeping it in foul
vapor- bath. There is no more ap-
propriate covering for mans foot
and leg than a cavalry boot; but it
should be worn with knee-breeches
and the top fastened up to the belt.
PantaloonS and long boots are not
made to go together; and the pan
taloon, in any case, is an awkward
contrivance, always Topping around
the ankle, impeding locomotion and
catching dirt.
Next, consider the physiological
properties of a modern shirt, which
covers the chest with slab of linen
as impervious to light and air as a
marble headstone! Consider the
neck-band, which must not lack
more than the sixteenth of an inch
of strangling the wearer, and must
be as hard and solid as the brass
collars worn by our Saxon forefath-
ers in the British Isles, as a token
of their subieetion to their lords,
Just as their sons now wear their
counterpart in evidence of their
French dictators! Think of the
wrist bands, which more resemble
handouts than dress; and the paper
collars, with their poison-dressings,
to which sensible men have sacri-
feed their lives.
Look at the buckram pads used
to give the appearance Of unnatural
breadth to the shoulders, which pro-
iect like the roof an oyershot barn,
aud leave the sleeve hanging by the
caves, giving a painful impression
of security or invisible brackets to
support that particular archltectu-
raj designl The amount and quail
| ity of buckram masonry to keep up
this false appearance must be very
injurious to the muscles Of the
shoulder, while the fold upon fold
of cloth worked into collar aids
in the debilitating process.
Why should mans shoulders
and chest and neck be shingled any
more than a woman's waist weather
boarded? In both cases, that indis-
pensablerequisite to health and com,
fort, flexibility is sacrificed to a false
and spurious taste. The idea sug.
gested is that of a mixture, part
garment, part iron coffin, and both