Daily Los Angeles herald., 1878-06-01

the spread of white paper used by
newspapers has been taken up by
discussions of the politics of man,
the real ruler of the globe, woman,
has been often overlooked. OF late
there has been marked revolution
Ia the costume of the fairer sex.
The fsminineh abiliments have been
In all ages subject to the most ca
pricious changes. First we had that
of the generic grandmother, Eve.
There was little of the conventional
in either sex then. The lines writ
ten by the Twickenham poet,
nearly six thousand years ago, &C.
cording to orthodox chronology,
after this charming and capricious
creation, woman, still apply to
her; she is ''most adorned when not
adorned at all.n But, from the
somewhat retrenched fig leaf. wo-
man has advanced to an infinite
completely of body gear, "furbe-
lows and things"
The most notable fashion of late
years was an incident of that peri
odic and inevitable development
Of the sex which, under the pat
ronage of the Empress Eugene,
while Expecting" introduced the
hoop. After vigorous career the
hoop finally fell into desuetude.
Even at its best, the hoop was but
revival of fashion dating back
to Queen Anne's time, though, in
that instance, there was TO neces-
sity for 1t. In the life Of compar-
atively young man the hustle, the
hoop, the fitting hoop, the panier,
the accomplishments Of toilette
which characterized the Grecian
bend, the long train, have all sue
ceeded each other with bewildering
rapidity. Perhaps the most grace
full and interesting of all these
fashions, to the gross male sex, was
the fitting hoop. A devious wan
dering through a great city would
frequently reveal ankles Of exqui-
site proportions and tapering and
swelling development of the lower
"limbs'' which is supposed to in
dictate, par excellence, the grace of
form pre-eminently conceded to the
Caucasian race.
We are pleased to be able to
chronicle the fact that "dress re-
FORM" in the feminine toilette has
lately made very gratifying adj
vance. The style now inclines to
the short skirt for street dress. If
there is one disgusting thing in
this world it is to see dainty
women, with whom personal clean
illness is, of course, and ought to
be, q fanaticism, trailing their
skirts along the streets and drag
ging them in the filth and unutter-
able nastiness common to nearly
all American thoroughfares. The
fact that we are able to announce
this progress in the edicts of fash
ion shows that much may be hoped
for In the future. And what an il
limitable field there is for improve
ment? The fashions upon which
women pride themselves are I'M
questionably the most absurd
things in the whole range of the
personal history of mankind. A
creature OF infinite grace has
chosen to cumber herself with the
most grotesque conceits, with not
only a resultant loss Of health but
of grace as well.
In searching for the most grace
full toilette for women the inquirer
could not so amiss by adopting
either such costume as that worn
by Dido when she delighted the
eyes of the wandering Eneas, or
that worn by the traditional Rosa.
lind of the stage. Why the sex
have subjected themselves to the
disabilities Of their ordinary garb,
in Europe and America, passes all
comprehension. There is probably
no more illogical thing in the
world than woman arrayei en-
costume for q horseback ride in a
sidesaddle. The whole episode vi.
olates both the law of gravity, the
canon Of good taste and the in.
stinct Of grace, the latter SO natu.
raj to a woman. Why the softer
but the really potential sex should
submit to q variety of costumes
only calculated to diminish its
charms is mystery of mysteries
to US.
There have been revolutions in
everything but the costumes of
Cauci asian women. They have re-
mained substantially the same,
with only variations of caprice,
since the Middle Ages. The Amer
lean and French Revolutions wer e
powerful enough to break the pre-
scriptions Of cpste and the super
stition of 1.-THE right divine of
kings" but they have left the tot.
lette of women the same triplet relic
OF barbarian which existed five
hundred years ago.
Dress REFORM" in the full sig
nificance OF the term, has been i'm
peded by the fact that only the
ugly and the angular represen ta-