The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1885-03-17
The pesollete in Fashion.

Tho Philadelphia Court Oh Common
p,aaS will bekind enough to hurry forward
;tS decision on the low.necked dress. VI
10 tbe dress will and its way into the
snnyeme Court Of Pennsylvania, and
tbat will give us respectable authority on
matter which grows in Importance
We want TO know how high We must wear
our corsage, tobe on the safe side OF the
law so that in, the event Of an aaront we
NAV maintain withsome hopeo tsuccessan
action for damages to biudup our hurts.
While this Philadelphia case is pending
Miss Florence Naryatt turns up with q
slight corsage affair Of her own, and that,
too. is to find its way into court. Before
leaving England Miss NIaryatt was badly
advised to provide herself with stun
ming evening dress, so that when she
gave her readings in the States her
upholstery would at once secure tot
her the sympathetic admiration Of
her audience. Her American mana
ger looked on an outfit little more
decOlls.s than anything heihad seen in or
binary life, and he saw that it was not
we'll. He made bold to suggest to his star
chat that sort Of thing wouldn't do at all
down in New England, and that she
would better modify that part OF her pro-
gramme.
The manager forgot that he was not
dealing with prize fighter or a rink
professor, but with proud woman Of
Britain, whose countryneu were at that
moment engaged in annlhilating the I'M
cultured sons Of the soudan. The low
heeled dress prevailed. 1t inspired with
too much awe the simple New England
people. More than that, it wasn't con
structsd to Withstand the rigors of the
fierce New England winter. Miss Maryatt
was unable or unwilling to appear And
now suit to test the proper height OF a
public performers corsage. II the courts
decide that the corsage need have any
height at all 1t will work a revolution In
society and in the dry goods trade.
On his way into Central Africa in search
OF Livingstone, Stanley halted at a rude
native village called Kisemo. Here cara
van from the east overlook him. There
was mail for him, and in tia copy of the
New York Herald. By way Of showing
the contrast Of fashions he relates that
while he was reading the account Of a
presidential levee, in which the elaborate
toilettes OF The ladies' were described in
detail, he looked up from his newspaper
and 10! there stood bevy Of the bellies Of
Kisemo, among them daughters of His
Hfghness the chief, wearing gorgeous. toll
cites Of brass wire and beads. Then the
explorer made notes Of comparison on the
fashionable toilettcs OF Washington and
the coutume de rigar OF the milder cline Of
Kisemo.
It's hard TO say what would have been
SANKEY'S emstionsin that faraway land II,
instead OF the New York Herald Of that
time, there had come to him Rarptr's
Weekly, a Journal Of Civilization, of the
date Of March IA, 1885. Wemay imagine,
however, that looking on the full page
picture OF the Inauguration ball, he would
have jotted downin his note book some
thing like this: Aheml Things seem to
be going withwhirl since lefthome So
ciety is becoming "ilash, and the demi-
nude in animate nature is getting the
bulge on the nude in art. By the ants Of
Africa 1 swear thatthe belle in the corner
hasn't left her corsage three inches high,
and the diplomatic dude who escorts her
isn't forgetting IT, as I see by the leer Of
his eye. And, by the bray Of my donkey!
none Of them have sleeves in their
dressesl N. The daughters Of the first
families Of Kisemo haven't learned the
trick ofwearing Just a little. We must
drag the car Of civilization into this be-
nighted country, or perish in the at
tempt.
This brief memorandum would, at
another time, have been elaborated into
a two column article on tie toilettes Of the
bellies Of batbarism and the bellies Of
civilization. Itmust be regretted that so
instructive lesson is forever lost to the