The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1882-05-04
American Women as Dressers.


Mrs. Scott-Siddons is quoted as hav-
inc said: "An American servant will
tie on her veil in natty, graceful way
that an English duchess knows nothing
about Mrs. Siddons will not be
charged with an over-strained regard for
the Yankees, or a wish to favor them at
the expense of her own cOuntrywOmen.
In thus placing the servant and the
duchess in contrast she was simply
emphasizing truism which was less a
fact at the time than it is at the present
hour. For among all civilized people
the English women are the most i'll
dressed, and seem to lack the natural
gifts, self-reliance and ability of choice
and selection which are the Unborn at
tributes of American women. An
English nursery set off against a nursery
in this country may be taken as a type
in miniature of the taste in dress and all
that the term involves of the differences
which characterize the women of the two
nations. In this country little girls find
instant satisfaction and congenial en-
ployment in arranging and adjoining
their dolls apparel. Left to their own in
buttons, and hampered by little or no
pupilage from their elders, it must be
owned that the taste and ingenuity
which they display are often simply
wonderful. An English lady, who passed
thirty years of her life in her native
land, and who has lived in this
city half that time, once said: The
homes of American girls, so far
as l am familiar with them, are schools
of art in dress adornment and
whether their taste and skill are
natural gifts, or acquired by observa-
ton, do not pretend to say, but there
is nothing to compare with it in our
homes in England" Consistent with
this admission Is the almost universal
tone of the English press and of most
travellers who visit our shores from 9TH
er lands That English women study
comfort, and provide themselves with
rich fabrics and costly adOrnment in
dress is past dispute. A dOwager or
duchess arraved in gorgeous silk, satin,
or velvet attire, with the complement of
green gloves and yellow ribbons, and
shod with broad, heavy, loose-ttting
boots, is hardly a pleasant, though 1t Is
a constantly recurring, picture of taste
in dress among the wealthy classes in
English life. If the wearer has any idea
of the contrast of colOrs, any perception
of the shocking incongruities which the
tout ensemble of her costume presents
to a cultivated eve, nothing is seen of it
in the ease and self-satisfaction of her
demeanor. While the fact remains that
American women are the best dressed
ladies in the world, it is also to be re-
membered that while they, with the
vast majority of their sex, yield to the
current of prevalent fashion, it is not
blind nor slavish submissions; they
think for themselves, and stOutly, on
occasion, assert their own individuality,
and refuse TO succumb to the dictation
, of fashion, mOdiste or milliner. Their
natural or cultivated good taste, which
includes the lines of beauty, which Mr..
Beecher made himself merry over re-
! Gently, is generally all-sufficient in doubt
and emergency. Their glory is to
dress tastefully and becomingly. Their
''hallelujah'' is the acclaim Of a success
fully consummated purpose.-N j.
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