Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-11-11
A DEMORALIZING GARMENT.
How Women are Led Astray by the
Sealskin Sacque.
Alden in the New York Times,


The seal skin sacque, 80 popular amono
women, has long been an object of masculine
dread according to the newspaper humorists.
The comic department Of every issue of a Chi
cago, Cincinnati, or st. Louis paper never fails
TO contain some reference to the sufferings of
the man who is requested to buy a seal skin
sacque for his wife, and the western father is.
according to the same authority constantly
brought to the verge of bankruptcy through
buying seal Skin sacques for his daughters.
There Is another grave charge which NAV be
brought against the same attractive and costly
garment. 1t leads to more violations of our
revenue laws than does any other article known
TO importers. Seal skin sacoues can be bought
III Canada much more cheaper than i'm the United
states. and the dream of every enterprising
American woman is to go to Montreal to buy a
seal skin sacque, and to smuggle 1t through
the United States custOm-hOuse. The chief
statistician Of the custOm-hOuse asserts that
seventeen thousand Gin round numbers) Amerl-
can women annually visit Canada i'm order to
make this dream blessed reality. Of these two
thousand seven hundred and eighteen are de-
teCted in the possession of seal skin sacques
and are made to pay duty thereon; thirteen
openly acknowledge their possession of the
dutable garment, and. after falling to bribe the
inspectors with smiles and sweet words pay the
duty and the rest of the seventeen thousand
successfully smuggle their purchases.
Now, when we think what the act of snug
Cling seal skin sacque through the custom
house involves; the fasehoOds that must be
told and sworn to the loss of self-respect con-
sequent upon the commission of perjury and
fraud, and the terrible strain upon the temper
that results from making seal skin sacque tenn
porarily take the place of the delicate and
esOterc cambria fabrics said by experts to be
worn by ladies in the summer season. we can
comprehend that the seal skin saCQue Is fear
fully demOrallZing garment. Women who would
never think of smuggling steel rails hemp
rope. or English blankets cannot resist the
temptation to smuggle seal skin sacques and
we shall probably never know the vast extent
of the decentralization which the qualification of
this propensity entails.
These facts ought to be sufficient to cause the
moralist to look with suspicion. if not with abso-
Lutte hostility upon the seal skin sacQue but in
addition to them, recent evidence of the most
unanswerable character has forever placed the
seal skin sacque in the category of articles the
use of which is so Injurious that it should be
forbidden by law. Not long ago q Partisan
baroness was arrested for being Intoxicated in
the public street, and locked up for the night
with the mystic letters 50 ID. D." attached to her
INDUSTRIOUS name on the police sergeant's regis
ter In the morning she was taken before the
magistrate, and the beauty of her seal skin
sacque as well as the renOwn attached to her
ancient and noble name made her the object of
unusual interest to those who happened to be
present in the court room.
That the baroness was drunk at the time of
her arrest was conclusively shown. so conclu-
slvely, in fact. that She being a truthful high
minded woman, frankly admitted it. She
urged, however. in her defense eXtenuating
circumstances She depOsed that she had often
been told that moths could be kept out of fur
garments provided the garments were placed
during the summer season in q caSk which had
formerly contained alcohol. Determined to
protect her beloved seal skin sac9ue from moths
she had obtained spirit cask and kept the
precious garment in it for period
OF six months. Oae day she opened the cask
drew ont her seal skin sacque. put it on. and
went out for walk in the fashionable quarter
OF the Paiais ROYAL. The fumes of the alcohol
| had been retained by the fur of the garment:
they were set free by the heat of the sum- and
in very short time they completely intoxi-
Gated the unfortunate and innocent LADY, The
Judge. who was just man and knew that the
baroness husband was very influential in his
ward. accepted the prisoners excuse and warn
Inc her not To appear before him again lest he
should be compelled to consider her seal skin
plea an attenuated rather than an eXtenuating
one dismissed her without a fine.
1T is thus matter of judicial record that the
seal skin sacque is. In some circumstances an
Intoxicating garment. What do the excellent
women whose whole hearts are in the total
abstinence cause and who are advocating with
so much zeal the passage of prOhibitOry liquor
laws in our various states say to the revelation
OF this startling fact? Can they with any con-
sstency wear the Intoxicating sacque
while they are striving to deprive
men Of the intoxicating bowl? Were
statistics as to. the spread OF drunkenness
among the wearers of seal skin sacques to be
properly made, they would be simply appalling
AT least seven women out Of ten own seal skin
sacGues, protect them during the warm weather
from moths, and put them on again in the fall.
Some few OF these women may have strength to
resist the seductive Influence OF the alcohol in
the sealskin, but it is only too probable that the
majority of them become hopeIessly addicted to
the degrading seal skin habit. What we need is
law prohibiting the sale and use of the intoXi-
eating seal skin sacgue and there is hardly q
father or q husband in the country who will not
vote with enthusiasm for such a law