The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-02
A DEFENSE OF FINE DRESS.
With Some Advice to Men Who Inconsist-
emily Object to 1t.


T. w. Higginson, in Harper's Bazaar.
1t is one great drawback of the higher educa-
ton and the higher usefulness of women that
they are expected, like the aforesaid tradesmen,
to clothe the body and feed the mind at the same
time. When the eager young girl in England
listened reverently to what Mrs. Somerville was
saying through the eartrumpet of Harriet Mar
tineau, and found that it related to the dyeing of
an old shawl, she was dismayed, but unjustly.
One may dwell among the stars or in the heights
of political economy. and still need shawls-in-
deed, the very thickes shawls. for observatories
are very chilly places. and is not political econo-
my proverbially a cold and even dismal science?
On the lower levels of the earth there must still
be clothing; and since men have utterly
renounceed their share of the task of
making their garments beautiful, it will
never do for women also to abandon
their portion of this work. 1t was not always
left exclusively to them. In visiting any col
lection of medieval armor we see that the pat
terms Of mail coats were as studiously con
sidered and as infinitely varied as those of
Worth's dresses at the present day. Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth had, it is said, four
thousand gowns; but the chances are that Sir
Walter Raleigh had a wardrobe correspondingly
extensive, and that the celebrated cloak which
he laid down for the Virgin Queen
to walk upon may in reality have been a little
out of fashion, and a willing sacrifice. Even
in the days of New England Puritanism it was
as needful to fine Jonas Fairbanks for silver lace
dlN lh6h vim " 90 <AAAOO l. IL " a 0klh
hood. In Copley's portraits we see as lavish a
skill brought to bear upon tho velvet and satins
of men as of women; and l encountered the
other day a description of the counting costume
not court custume-ofa youngster in Portland,
Me-, as lately as 1853, from which it appears
that, in addition to his laces and his satin small
clothes, he actually wore two watches, one on
each side. Thus recently have men abandoned
the realms of personal adornment
This being the case, and woman being the last
StrOn0hOld of the beautiful in cOStuma whv do
not men acquisce in it, readily yield all the
money and time needed for it, and only rebel
when the hours and the dollars end in some
thing that is intrinsically hideous after ala
dienified superiority of the husband or the
brother who first breaches the unimpor-
lance of dress, perhaps consistently forti-
flying his words by his own example, and then
turns to c~riticise his wife or daughter for being
less well dressed than some fair neighbor who
gives her whole mind to that absorbing depart
ment. Does he really suppose that a woman
can be bien mise by giving to it that three
quarters of an hour In the spring and three
quarters of an hour in the autumn which are all,
as James Parton boasts, that a man now needs
to devote to his tailorl Let the wife neglect
what has been called the gospel
of good gowns as completely as the husband
disreguards that of good hats, for instance,
and let him see how he likes it. But whether
he adopts this policy of indifference or not, let
him at least be consistent. If we hold it the
duty of intellectual women to be well-dressed
women also, let us give them full credit for
doing the double duty. If, on the other hand,
we make no such demand on them, let US omit
all the jeers at the faded water proof
of the literary woman and the dyed
and turned dress, and even the short
haircut of, let Us charitably suppose, to
save time for study or for work. In the same
way, if the husband expects his wife to be well
dressed, let him not sneer at the time merciless-
iy spent in shopping, or even groan at the bills
when the results of shopping come in. Let him