Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-10-03
womAN's STYLE OF DgEss.
A Brief Review of Fashionable Fraiity
with Future Outlook.

The modern woman is the greatest in
the historic series of feminine mortality.
| 1t may be that antiquity possessed a few
| specimens OF ideal womanhood but it is
nov evident that our century can surpass
al in the general average OF womanly
worth. The modern wife surpasses in
| intellectual culture aud many-sided merit
the wife OF all the former times, and the
wife being the leading type of woman's
world, We must infer the present superiori-
ty of her half of the race. If our young
men should go on in their career of taking
up with business instead of education,
! there will soon be more truth than poetry
in the epithet of" Better Half.n The com
phment Of to-day may be the fact OF to-
morrow.
That woman may fully equal and surpass
her old rival che should hasten to amend
one error-that OF giving slaYish follow
ing to some unknown master. 1t is bad
enough to be subject to some actual, con-
crete voice or fist; but it is altogether bad
to be the perpetual slave of some person or
persona unknown and destitute of any
merit beyond that of living far away. The
education the modern girl enjoys should
be producing by this time some individual
judgment, should be offering some release
from that bondage which ignorance once
was compelled to offer to the minds that
could think.
The sisterhood is painfully subject TO
some invisible potentate. This tyrant, be
it man or woman, is supposed to live in
Paris, with branch Offices in London and
New YAkk. But while visiting those cities
the husbands, fathers OF brothers are. by
no effort, able to find the actual person and
throne Of the despot. Yet the iron scepter
Is somew here in or about some or all of
those points, and our women are paralyzed
by the name as are those officers in Il Rich
ellen" when the Cardinal draws around
Julie the circle of holy Rome. Down go
our women on their knees when Paris
speaks. and millions Of them who have
seminary diplomas in their top-drawers or
in their big trunks will cry out, "Giye
me this Partisan hat or | shall die +,
Now in all probability that wept-for
hat is the embodiment Of ugliness, but in
order TO save life, out coca the American
money and in comes the French bonnet.
60 happy is the face when this French at
fair is around it or above it or behind it,
that the JOY of the woman Is almost ale-
quate compensation for the sbsurdity of
the head gear and the loss of funds. Who
1t was in Paris that started the queer deco
ration the educated, free, independent wo-
man OF America never stops to inquire
She seems SO anxious to be the slave of
somebody that q dressmaker OF hat
twister Is called upon 10 act the part OF
slaTe-driyer, the husband having become
only the perfection of indulgence.
The attire Of men long ago settled down
into about the ultimatuIn of common sense
and remains quite stationary. Men are not
| willing for each month to bring in some
new fashion plates. In the great average
| OF masculine life one new fashion plate
each twenty years would meet all the de-
Z M rf lfn
the persons of those individuals whose
name has not yet reached the standard lex
icons, but whose tight pants, half-moon
arms, rolling walk, hsping speech, two
ounce canes and pointed shoes have reached
the streets OF the drawing-room, but away
from these few exceptions the freedom of
man from any upholstering tyrant is beau
ful to behold.
Woman is most slsvish in America, in
the land where she should be most free.
The Greek women possessed costume SO
simple and permanent that il is possible
now TO restore the Greek style for the dra-
matte ert; this art could also call up q
Latin dame or maiden; it can give us q
Cuban or Mexican girl in full dress. but
should some future dTamatist wish to tell
the folks Of the tWenty-6rst century how
/ women dressed in America while
Cleveland or Lincoln WIS President.
that student of art viii have sad time
OF it, for be would find himself among
millions of bonnets, varying from the size OF
an oyster shell to the proportions OF a coal
scuttle; he would find himself amid pile
of dresses of which some were armless,
some with arms large as coffee sack, some
with the waist near the shoulders, some
with the waist down on the hips some
with skirts ten feet long, some cat of far
up toward the knee, ike her Of the story to
whom
Along came peddler whose name was Stout
To cut on her petticoats all round about
If any element were wanting to complete
the despair of such q future cOstumer ne
could fill his cup of misery by wondering
whether the glove was six inches long or
twenty, and whether dolly-varden goods
were worn as ball dresses or as nightgowns;
and whether what were called " hustles ="
were worn under the dress or entirely on
the outside. In one particular this future
cOstumer may be congratulated. for, fix
upon what toilet he might, he could not be
much out Of the way. Should some dram
attic critic object to q costume, the stage
man would say
Dear SIR: Your structures would apply to the
forenoon OF MAY 1885 but the mode Of dress
changed thst May on the 10th at o clock, and
at Newport, R. l., the costumes changed three
times IN one afternoon of June in the same
car COstuEle u tlaHb OF Gulc&60, NiGV 10Th.
at . P D., 1880. Yours truly, $. ID.
A. D. Pho
Besides carrying Intrinsic folly within
it, this bondage 70 some foreign importer
compels woman to bestow upon her
toilet ten thousand hours of life
which might well be granted to
some other form of mental or physical
industry. When q party or q wedding
becomes visible on the horizon the ladies
who are expected must begin to canvass
the field of the possible in raiment. Many
goods must be surveyed, compared, priced,
harnonized and adapted or discarded
AS Newton looked into the depths of
heaven, as Watt studied steam, as Franklin
| inquired into electricity, IS Morse hung
over the telegraph, lovely woman gazes into
the possible dry goods for the impending
garment, and II the result is not equal to
those ends attained by Newton and Morse,
the same blessed woman has herself to
blame for the falling off of reward,
In these days of personal liberty and per
sonal opportunity, it is almost certain that
woman would gain more by letting some of
her best styles stand still for about ten years
and thus gain about ten thousand hours for
the pursuit Of other forms of power and
happiness. Her language, wit. learning, en-
thusiasm and goodness arc much more
powerful than her costume, and would
turn to an amazing advantage any mental
activity which for their sake5 might be
Withdrawn from the anxiety over the vieis-
sitnde of dress.-LDayid Swing, in The
Current.
TEA AS PREPARED IN THE EAsr-The
8unnias (Himalayan natives) drink tea
which comes from China in small packets.
made up of the large leaves, small branches,
seeds, etc, forming mass reduced to the
smallest possible size by pressure, and
rendered sometimes still more compac.. by
a slight addition of sleeps blood The
Hunnias travel great distances, living only
on tea and what the Hindus call s.estoo-
that is, -four made from roasted beans or