The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-02-21
The SensibIy-Dressed Man--The 'EWeII-
GOt-upo Woman.


The dress of men in all western ma
tions meets fairly all the conditions of
health and decency, and tail only on the
side of beauty. The dress of the woman
on the contrary, ever variable as it is,
persistently misses the condition of
health; frequently violates the rules of
decency; and instead of securing beauty,
at which it aims first instead of last.
achieves usualJy-ugliness. It is to be
remembered for our consolation and en-
couragement that men have arrived at
their present good sense in dress only
within two or three generations. A hum
dred years ago the lords of creation set
beauty above health or convenience.
just as the ladies do now, and pea
cooked about in their peach-blossom
coats and embroidered waiscoats, sur
mounted by wigs for whose stupen-
dous discomfort even a seat on the judicial
bench can scarcely reconcile the
modern EDglishman. Now, when the
men of every European nation have alb
jured such fantastic apparel, we naturally
ask, why have not the women followed
their example? Why is the husband,
father and brother habited like a being
who has serious interests in life, and
knows that his personal dignity would
be forfeited were he to dress himself in
parti-colored, be-ribbOned garments, and
why is the wife, mother or sister bediz.
ened like a macaw, challenging every
observer to note how much of her time,
thoughts and money have been spent on
this futile object? The answer is one
which is not pleasant to make, discredit-
able as it is to both sexes. The women
who set the fashions dress for admiration;
and men like women who dress to be
admired; and the admiration given and
received is very poor and unworthy
admiration, not much better than a sal
mon gives to glittering artificial fly, and
having very little more TO do with any real
ethetic gratificatiOn-as is proved too
clearly by the thoroughly un-beautiful
devices to which fashion has recourse.
It is the well-got-up woman Ito borrow
a very expressive phrase), not the really
well-dTessed woman, who receives by far
the largest homage. And now let us see
how all this concerns the health of women
how much of their petite sahte is due
to their general neglect TO make health
the first object of dress, or even an object
at all compared to fashion. Tight lacing
among habits resembles envy among the
passions. We take pride in all the rest,
even the idlest and worst, but tight
| to which no one ever confesses. A
small waist / suppose, is understood to
belong to that order of virtues which
Aristotle declares ought to be natural
and not acquired, and the most miser-
able girl who spends her days in a
machine more cruel (because more
slowly murderous) than the old " Mai
den" of Seville, yet always assures us,
smiling through her martyrdom, that her
I clothes are really hanging about her y
/ II would be waste of time to dwell on
! this supreme folly. Mrs. Haweis, in her
yerv noteworthy new book, the Art Of
/ Beauty, has given some exceedingly use
ful diagrams, showing the effects of the
practice on the internal organs and
skeleten-diagrams which earnestly re-
commend to the study of ladies who may
I feel g call I" to perform this kind of
! English suttee for a living husband. Mrs.
+ HaWeis says sensible men do not love
wasps. and have expressed to her their
= over-aIlishness when. they behold
them. Considering how effectively they
+ have managed TO express their disap-
proyal whenever women have attempted
to introduce rational attire, it is pity,
think, that they do not pronounce
a little more distinctly against this
literally mortal folly.-L Contemporary
Review,