Wichita eagle., 1886-11-02
MANY YEARS AGO
WOMEN DIDN'T WEAR WARM CLOTH
ING AND OFTEN CAUGHT COLDS.

ING AND OFTEN CAUGHT COLDS.
1t Was the Fashion to Go About in Low
Necked Dresses and Short Sleeves in
Winter, and Most of Them Married at
Sixteen.
have dear old friend-a genuine lady
of the old school, who has hobby. 1t is the
precocity Of the present age.
"Pray, madam, how old were you when YOU
were married!' asked her one day.
She hesitated, and the blood rose little in
her delicate old face.
"Just 49," she responded.
After awhile it all leaked out. Most Of the
girls of her day were married at 16 and II,
often at Is. All Of her sisters were married
before they were 90. Then, after little dip
lomacy, she gave some particulars of the way
they did it fifty years ago. Hygiene was not
invented then; even the name was not known.
The wonder is how any Of the children sur
vived to be women, and how any Of the
women survived at ALL Nobody but men
wore flannel; my old friend told me that
the young ladies couldn't, positively couldn't.
"Why not.7
Because they wore low-necked frocks all
the year round. In winter they wore capes
to cover their bare shoulders. OF course,
they were not strictly decollette, but the most
delicate part Of the chest and between the
shoulders was exposed The little girls wore
not only low-necked, but short-sleeved, wooden
dresses, with nothing over their poor little
chests and arms but thin muslin apron"
Poor things" said, show they must have
and cll ha nj dow
Fancy one of the little girls of to-day, clothed
in warm flannel from her neck to her heels,
with stout wooden stockings coming quite
over the knees compelled to adopt the Gus
tune of the good old days!"
Then, the babies! Bare armed and bare
neclled, too, except in the coolest weather,
when they had a thin merino sack put on
them"
poor babies said l. 1.-The general idea
seemed to be to expose The neck and arms as
much as possible, under the most adverse cir
cunstances. Wasn't there good deal of
rheumatism in the good old timer
Il am afraid must say yes" replied my
Old friend, doubtfully. Gail middle-aged
people, it seems to me, had the rheumatism
then. And they don't seem to me now," con-
tinued the dear old lady, "to have made any
change in their clothing according to varia-
tons in the weather. No dress waists for
summer were lined. The line between sum-
mer and winter clothes was rigidly drawn.
In May, ladies put away all their thick
dresses, and wore nothing but the thinnest
muslins and caS1brics until autumn. OF
course, We had cold snaps, but we managed
to shiver through them in our airy garments.
If had gone and put on a thick frock, as
my daughter does when the thermometer
gets down to so, would have been thought
crazy. Besides, they were oil packed away.
The one thing which they wore without
regard to its seasonableneSs was bonnet. \
woman in moderate circumstances fifty years
ago seldom had but one bonnet, and that she
wore until she Wore it out, summer and
winter. If the bonnet gave out in summer,
most likely she bought a straw or drawn silk
bonnet, which she wore the next winter with
out occasioning remark; and if it was winter
she bought a velvet bonnet, perhaps, and
wore it hrayely through the dog days. Dun
stable bonnets were very fashionable when l
was a girl. They were a kind of plated
straw, but they melted away if water
touched them. a rain storm death to
them. Dulstable bonnetS and percussion
caps appeared about the same time, and
good many people confused the names and
called them Dunstable caps and percussion
bonnets"
"How about the shoes: In these bad mod
EN- times any young woman appearing on the
street III cloth CATERS would be thought
lunatic Nothing is admissible except regu-
lar kid or leather walking shoe, substantially
cut and made"
I'm afraid, sighed the dear old soul, that
we didn't even always wear cloth CATERS
Many day in winter | have gone down tho
street in low cut cloth shoes and silk stock
ings. Indeed, that was considered the only
correct wear for young woman with any
preteilsiOns TO elegance"
Il have seen some of those old CATERS"
remarked, with gentle malice. They barely
came to the ankle; they were Of the thinnest
kind of cloth, and the soles were no soles at
thicker than good wrapping
paper. | would be afraid 10 go around the
corner in such Shoes"
Il am afraid we girls had good many colds
and coughs" my old friend sighed
Il should think So" replied
Then as to wraps" she continued, 1T was
the height Of every girls ambition to have
Canton Grape shawl. If q girl had one she
wore it. no matter how cold it might be- l
was pretty cold, l remember, one January
day, with nothing around me but silk shawl,
but l didn't mind it. Then we couldn't walk
fast to keep up our circulation. 1t was proper
for ladies TO walk in slow and leislIrely
That, together with the insufficient CLOTH
ing and scanty food You allowed yourselves !
must have made you rather palo and nerve
less"
We'll, It was not considered elegant" re- !
marked the Old lady, "for young girls to eat
much. \ delicate appetite was considered re-
fined and interesting. As to sleeping rooms, /
it is true that we had open freplaces, which |
afforded some ventilation. but as none of the |
windows let down from the top of course we /
couldn't have current of fresh air through |
our bedrooms We slept on feather beds. |
They lasted q long time Sometimes they |
-eTc il use fifty years. When l walked up in /
he morning | usually felt duh ard heavy. !
IN the summer we had mattresses put on top
# the feather beds. There were very few
lair mattresses i'll those days. Most Of them
we're OF corn shucks, with an occasional corn
oh thrown in."-New York Mail and Ex-
,TeSs.
i Curious Chinese Myth.
The curioUshclief exists in China that white