The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-04-03
Nudity Denounced.

A powerful demonstration has at last
been made in New York against the
semi-nudity of society women. This
crusade originated in the Protestant
Episcopal Church, Rev. DIR. Dix having
opened the attack in a sermon which
he preached on the anniversary of the
House Of Mercy, an Episcopal institu-
tion for tie reformation of fallen wo
men. He dwelt upon the great fact
that the body when baptized became
the Tempe of the Holy Ghost and
then sterny denounced the pagan wo-
men who call themselves Christians.
when women,' he said, 'betray the
beauty of holiness in this unseemly
competition with the abandoned classes,
there is a peril in the social atmosphere
deadlier than pestilence or plague.
The CHurclman, a periodical repre-
senting High Church Episcopalianism,
says:
Should a party of the demi-monde
surreptitiously capture a 'box' at the
Metropolitan, clad or unclad like hun
dreds of society's foremost ladies, every
one knows that a sensitive and very vir-
tuous indignation would demand their
expulsion. But one may very innocent
ly ask where is the difference? In both
instances there is the same outrage
against modesty and purity. 1t will not
do to urge that the society lady is not
guilty of wanton behavior, while her
fallen sisters frankly avow their profit
gate purposes. the people are scanda-
lized in both instances, and the scandal
is clearly the greater when charged to
reputable women for all the world un-
derstands the moral value of the shame
less woman, while it is sorely perplexed
at the reputable imitator. The old ques-
ton of religious art is involved, and the
aesthetics of dress are limited by moral
determinations. There is a physical
and also a spiritual beauty-a beauty of
the form and flesh and beauty of holi-
Z z7..c, pS1SiTla ,sflse12qv DEVELOPS the
other. Christian womanhood can oc-
cupy no equivocal attitude when such
profound principles are at stake. The
people have long suffered from the
moral perversity of the modes and fash
ions. For years woman's dress has fairly
reeked with mann4shness. Then set in
the insufferable epidemic of artistic nu-
dity, a glove fitting attire which is little
better than frank disclosure of the per-
son and figure. And now follows the
literal baroness of decolleteism-which
makes every fashionable assembly a
moral offence and stumbling block. We
have nothing to do with those candid
Pagans who attire themselves literally
in the service of the world, the flesh and
the devil. But with Christian women
the question changes, and we are justi-
fed in demanding a practical recogni-
tion of St. Paul's injunction concerning
the costume and presence of a baptised
woman. Were it a matter of health SIM
ply, it would be less serious. If wo-
man chooses deliberately to expose her
vita, organs to the risks of pneumonia
and other ailments, she may pay the
penalties, for medical men do not hesi-
tate to charge many sudden deaths and
shattered constitutions to this criminall-
ty of woman's fashionable attire. But
there is further mischief, and it is moral.
For such women, perhaps, unwittingly,
are degrading and hazarding the moral
sensibillties of their attendants and as
sociates. The lust of the eye and the
lust of the flesh keep step and march
together. :.
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher says: 4
regard this question of undress among
women in society as a voluptuous prac-
tice, for which in America there is no
possible excuse, but every mortal con-
sideration against it will not enter in
to the nude in art; but regarding the
nude in actual society-in life-there
ought not to be two opinions about it.
To remedy the shocking state of things
in this respect something may be done
within Christian families, but l am in
despair of producing any moral impress
sion within the realm of fashion. have
come to regard fashion as without com.
mon sense, without moral sense, and
without any sense of good taste. All
preaching is thrown away upon fashion
as much as it would be in the lunatie
asylum. The woman who will go into
public with arms, neck and bosom bare
would 60 into it naked as far as any
sense of shame or decency is concerned
She has none of these virtuous qualities
and is lost to all those modest sensibil
tiles which characterize the true Chris
tian woman. In their semi-nude ap
parel they know that they must temp
men to sin and thus the woman of fash
ion acts as the recruiting sergeant TO
the dens of vice. This is the nobl
work she is engaged in! She may no
have looked upon it in that light her
self, but that is the practical result Q
her conduct
Mr.. P. V. Hickey, editor of tn
CakzOkc Re0lea0, the ablest Catholl
periodical in the country, says: 'Onl
one defence of this female nakednes
has ever been offered, and that is yer
superficial one, namely, to the 'pur
all things are pure. fear very muc
the men of this age are not SO very pun
as to see only purity in the indecent e'
posures of low-necked dresses. Or
literature is full of warnings against tn
cause of impurity and sin. When youn
females dress immodestly, our books te
them they are guilty of scandal, IL
they cause the ruin of many souls. He
is what one authority says in speakir
of women who dress immOdeStlY: sYC