The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-09-25
Mrs. G. P. Spencer on Dress.

Sixty wears ago, Mrs Sherwood, the En-
glish authoress, deplored the rage for dress
then rising among the working and middle
classes of England. When she was young,
she said, a farmers daughter was satisfied
with a plain linsey frock with short skirts
and sleeves. a plain white apron, and a mus
lin kerchief-.but now the farmers wife
and daughters try to initiate the tinery OF
the Squire lady, the SQuires wife dresses
like the Countess, the Countess like the
Duchess, and the Duchess apes royalty it
self" In America we are all Duchesses and
Countesses, and the popular idea OF those
ladies is that they must always be dressed TO
the extreme limit Of their means, and be-
yond, if necessary.
Let nobody say that the expensive habits
of the leaders of fashion do not concern the
quiet dwellers in back country villages and
farms. These baleful examples must have
baleful influences. Not a back country
newspaper but must devote a column or two
to description of unattainable fashions for
the delight and improvement of their fair
readers" We are gravely informed in all
the unintelligible jargon of French millinery
what SIS worn." Every village girl is
thrilled to learn that wide sashes of the
richest satin are coming into favor that
:" CHateloine bags must be of the same ma
terjal DIS Une uIeSS, liz ludo du easy
Joufont effect is given by such and such ar
rangement of loops and that 'Jabot clus-
tiers of lace are worn with forked ends of
blue satin en- 1entase in each curve
Every village girl pants to have a pair of
six or twelve button kid gloves, a pair of
pink stockings, and slashed slippers, a silver
comb, a long false curl and a gold handker-
chief holder. If she cannot get the genuine
article, as ninety-seven times out Of a hun
dred she cannot, she gracefully assumes the
imitation and feels herself lust as good"
The five cent lawn is made up by the girl in
the kitchen with as much overskirt and long
dragged train, and piping and rutfing, and
In the same fantastic overdone fashion, as
far as can be guessed at, as the French or
CANDY Of the young lady in the parlor, who
in her turn studies Butterick and endeavors
to reproduce the amazing costumes ordered
by more favored parties direct from some
great Northern establishment, where finally
the management employs every energy to
initiate successfully the Partisan monstrosity
of drapery and trimming and buttons sent
over by last steamer.
We honestly believe that two-thirds of the
time OF our young women is given to
thoughts and an1ieties about dress. First,
how to get it. Second, how to make it.
Third, how to wear it. Even where they do
IlOICSOy CALI liz uuOLCS, CNtu NlICiC Ul1C1I
lives are much too narrow and secluded to
admit of their shining at seaside hops, or
mountain Springs, still they work. and
worry, and strain every nerve, to accomplish
this chief end of the day, dress-dress-
dress,-the poorest, the most frivolous, the
least satisfying of all the passions that in
wade the female breast.
A few weeks ago a young and pretty and
prettily dressed girl having nerved herself
with a glass of champagne, sprang from the
deck of a Long Island Sound steamer and
found a solution of her troubles and per-
plexities under the waters. The steamer
did not even stop to look at her-the Cap
tain's excuse being that she struck the
wheel house heavily in going over and was
probably stunned, and drowned without de-
lay. She left her poor little purse behind
her, and a letter to her lover. Her whole
story has since been ascertained, by the in
detatigable news men and read out to the
public, with the moral attached, which is
that no other motive power can send a girl
along the road to destruction with half the
force of a love of dress stimulated by vanity
and idleness.