The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-01-31
Fashion and Common Sense.
London S,andard.l


 If there is one locality more than an- other where the voice of common sense is never listened to it is in that very ex- tensive one where fashion reigns. Who ever thinks of listening to the suggestions of the former, when the decree of the latter posentate has gone iorthp Tight sleeves for the ladies, and tight con- tinuations for the gentlemen to the fashion, supposing. The advocates of common sense protest, saying, 1t is im- possible to move ope's limbs m them; cannot bend the knee heSose tho portEai, Of my fondest hopes, says one; 1 cannot get my hands to the back of my head, says another, which is far more import ant And fashion replies, cannot satisfy all tastes. My laws are mostly made Cor ths intoxicating; if you reAect you will never be satisfied. That which you complain of now is only temporary in- convenience when 1 can no longer tighten in your limbs, sleeves and leggings will take such ample proportions tha, the real sire of an arm or a leg will be a subject for divination. Fashion has no respect of person if high heels arc in troduced for the benefit of short people, low heels are never introduced at the same time for people who are already taller than they care to be. The latter must wait their turn for the opposite fashion, and then unusually short per sons must have their boots made to order if they wish to reach up to the elbow of their superior in height, or sub init to be looked upon as dwarfs by tall people, fl they prefer to keep in the fashion.
 Fashion pretends to have an eye for beauty; if this be true, she enacts at least that all her followers be modelled after the same fashion. They must have heads and faces of a uniform size and shape, that the hat or bonnet of the season may become them all, and they must have a uniform tint of complexion, that the color a Ia mode may suit 1t. Those whs study fashion in dress at the expense of their personal comfort are surely wanting in common sense, yet we most of us do 50, and 1t seems as though we like doing %. since the fashionable and uncomfortable article is preferred to the unfashionable and comfortable enc, though it may cost more than double the p1ce Of the lAxtef.
 Common sense suggests that in hot weather clothing for both sexes should be light in texture and color; but # fashion ordains that ladies' dresses be heavily trimmed, and # she refuses to give her consent to garments of sum- mezy nature being introduced for gentle men, no one has the courage to pay att tentios to personal comfort. When ladies' skirts are made % narrow as to be inconvieDt for walking, and liable to assist the weares ts an awkward fall in descending from a earrings. or when they arc wideped to ludicyous width to admit Of unmanageable crinolines, CT burdensd with useless trains, to be draggled in the streets or troddep on in the ballroom, who ever thinks of re. fusipg to obey the nonsensieal mandate Even the most obdurate end by giving in, believing that they are more ridies4 lous to hold ont, than to stand alone with commop sense. Nothing, for instance, could indicate more plainly the folly of making long -traised dresses the fashicn, than to see year or two ago how the latter vas necessarily bunched up in the mosf ungrzccful manner, or tse wearsS was compelled to have one hand always engagcd with holding up the supeSfiuo yard os tvo of stuf, making her isvasi- ably wish that artificial hands had come into fashion with the trains. to allow ol her using her nasufL ones fn some more profitable wsy.