Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-09-12
Dress Morally Considered.


surface, dress is the exponent of indi-
vidual character. Personal taste orders
the general outfit, so that although the
taiIors and the milliners are arbitrary,
and some of the fashions absurd. there
is never tiresome uniformity of style.
The shade and cut, the tint and trim
ming, and the tone throughout of ones
clothing are influenced by a subtle
something in himself, and no two
men or women look precisely alike.
There are people who never seem to be
we'll dressed, though they make great ef-
forts in that direction if estimated by the
money they spend. They buy expen-
sive fabrics, and have them made up in
a manner regardless of cost, and they
succeed, for all their pains only in look.
ing like walking advertisements or ami
mated lay figures. Others again, who
must count every cent and spend their
means with wise attention to economy,
manage to evoke elegance from the
simplest materials, and to look attrac-
tive and artistic in the most unpretend-
ing toilets. The dowdy inside of cloth
ing can not be concealed though the
drapery be never 80 full and flowing,
and no deformity of dress nor false ideal
of the dressmaker can entirely hide
grace and beauty if they are innate.
In an equally decided way, that which
is true of the individual is true of soci-
ETY.. The way in which set of people
dress may be taken as pretty fair test,
a moderately certain index, of their So
cial plane. When extravaganza rules
in community, and all classes are in
volved in a mad whirl of endeavor to
surpass each other in magniicence, the
community has become morally low
cred. The standard of excellence has
suffered depreciation, and the public
conscience is generally enfeebled. Pc
RODS of monetary depression succeeded
by periods of imitation are very apt to
be the birthtimes of this sort of folly
and vain parade. People who find
themselves grown suddenly rich, with
out being in themselves sufficient to en-
Joy their altered circumstances in o
quiet and unassuming way, cast about
them for something that shall be tan
gible evidence to their own conscious
ness. as we'll as to their:neighbors' eyes,
of their prosperity. A brown stone
stoop, a splendid equipage, yacht, or
fine horse, seem to the lucky Spectator
the easiest means of letting the world
see his novel state and pomp; and his
wife and daughters, equally with
himself desiring to make q show, en-
robe themselves in costly silks and vel
vets, and are dazzling to behold in
flashing diamonds and limpid pearls.
The promenade, the park, and the shops,
even the market-places and the grocer
les. have seen the incongruities of danes
in full toilet and peacock brilliancy
during the last ten years as never be-
fore in this country, and as for the
churches, they have been gorgeous as
tulip beds in bloom, with the glitter
and pretentiousness of excessive dress
1t is the pity of the thing that, of all
vices. this of useless extravaganza is
most contagious. BY an unexpiainable
freemasonry the thought of dress seems
to be communicated through feminine
natures all along the ranks. There is
no reason that can be discovered, by
any logical process of argument, why
the lady on one side the street should
be wretched and miserable because
the lady on the other side has seal-skin
cloak ard she has one of cloth. Her
black ALPACA filled her with satisfaction
was esteemed honorable as it hung in
her wardrobe-until her brothers wife
appeared in black silk, after which
event her pillow was set with thorns.
Ambition, leaping up in a quick flame,
could not and would not be contented
while sister.in-law was more sumptu-
ously attired than she. Elegant aud
refined women, superior in the truest
sense of the word, have yielded to the
temptation to dress beyond their means,
because less elegant but Weather wo
men were wearing fine clothes. Bridget
and Dinah, working for ten or twelve
dollars month have spent every penny
of their wages that they might emulate
their employers, and go Haunting in
flowers and feathers on their "Sunday
out"
Of all pathetic, pitiable things, the
effort made by the poorer classes Of
working-women to look as we'll, which,
to their mind, means as showily dressed,
as those who in better off, are the sad
dest. Shop girls who stand behind the
counter all day, manage to have the
bright tie, and the imitation jewelry, the
cheap bracelet and the brooch; though
their Undertaking may be of the thin
nest, and their shawl of the fiimsiest
description.
Many poor girls life is withered or
blasted irretrievably by the temptations
that come in her way through the in
sane desire to be SLOWLY attired. The
extravaganza of the upper classes is one
source, and fruitful one, of crime and
license in the lower classes.
We wish that our words could awaken
in the women who feed and influence
public opinion, sense of their respon-
sibility in this regard. A half dozen
ladies of position in any village could
revolutionize public sentiment in this
matter. Any six girls who should de-
termine to dress beautifully and taste
fully, but at the same time plainly,
simply, unostentatously, could set the
fashion for all the rest in their immedi.
ate vicinity.
1t would not require more courage
than women have shown themselves
capable of in other directions. to give