The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-03-11

w I'D SHAH ~ eLF tHS IsFCeCnGS !~II n AkRT-
ried Woman can Do 1t will, Propriety at
Home, Ought "a Single Woman be Sent
to the Penitentiary for Wearing Them
in the Streets "A Sensation in Religious
Circles>Pclitical Excitement in the Sixth
Ward-On Dts, Etc.
NEW YORK, March 4, 1882.
EDITOR CHIEF:
1t is recorded of Peter the Great that,
wishing to reform the dress and appear
ance of his people, on certain market
day he stationed his guards at the city
gates, and, as his subjects came to town,
he clipped their flowing locks and cur
tailed the skirts of their coats; and if
they resisted the Imperial ukase he
treated them to a taste of the knont.
Peter was a civil service and dress
reformer, who stood no nonsense, but
who, when he made mp his mind to do
thing, generally did it, or knew the rea-
son why he did not.
Last week, in New York, a young girl
was discovered i'll mems clothes. She
Was H1ICSGCu di&l SCIG W CAO pShitSAtI0
ary for six months. On the trial the
| girl declared that her only motive
| III adopting mans attire was that
she might find employment, and escape
the inconvenieniences to which her fe-
male dress subjected her. l am not quite
sure, but l think it was discovered on
the trial that size had in her possession
several letters from young ladies who
| had fallen in love with her; and this
was such a grave offense in the eyes Of
the sapient Justice that he sent her to
keep company with burglars and mur-
derers for six months. Six mouths in
the pen1tentiary for wearing a sack
coat, instead Of apetticoat! Six months
for wearing pair of pants, instead Of a
pair Of corsets! Six moths for wearing
stove-pipe hat, instead of Gainsboro'
1 When men and women are battling for
human liberty, and thousands are howl
ing for reform, would it not be we'll
enough to find ont if there is any con-
sttutional inhibition in regard to the cut
of our clothes, or if there is not a point
where legislative circnmscription ends
and individual liberty begins. 1t may
be very serious matter to haye one girl
! fail in love with another girl and send
her tender epistles, but it is scarcely all
1 ~
that should consign the malefactor to
the company of feions. Jennie West
brook may possibly have to serve her
time out on BlackwelPs Island, but
among thinking people, her commitment
! will be regarded as a return Of the bar
barsm which made Peter the Great cut
off the skirts and hair of his rebellion.
subjects at tie gates of Moscow.
On Wednesday woman was laid at
rest in Greenwood, about whose history
there was more romance than is usually
found in the ordinary society novel. She
was bern in England sixty years ago,
an heress III her own right to many
thousands of pounds, and the only
daughter of man of vast fortune, who
lived in almost regal magnificence in 3
| castle not far from Manchester. Young
petted, fattered and foolish, the pretty
girl grew up self-willed and proud, fol
lowed By a host of admirers, among
whom was the captain of crack in
fantry regiment qnartered in the vicinity
He became most assiduous in his atten
tions. In very short time il was evi
dent that he had distanced all competi
tors, and soon it was rumored she had
accepted the offer of his hand. 1t was
IN vain that her parents demonstrated
Deaf to all advice and bent on having
her own way she got her trousseau ready
for the wedding when, just in the nick
of time, the bold captain was detected
in forgery Oh a brother officer, and was
compelled to fly from his native land in
disgrace. He fled to India, and from
Bombay opened clandcstine cores,