The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-02-26

taken care Of BY those who were called
poor relations. Oh, for some new Shake
speare TO arise and write the tragedy Of
human clothes!
Acr I. A plain but beautiful home. En-.
ter the newly married pair. Enter sim.
plicity of manner and behavior. Enter
a. much happiness ~ Is ever found in one
home.
ACT II. Discomfort with the humble
home. Enter Envy. Enter Jealousy. En-.
ter desire Of display.
Acr III. Enlargement Of expenses. En-.
ter all the queenly dressmakers. Enter
the French milliners.
ACT Nv. The tip-top Of society. Enter
princes and princesses Of New York life.
Enter magnificent plate and equipage.
Enter everything splendid.
Acr v. winding up the scene). En-.
ter the assignee. Enter the sheriff. En-.
ter the creditors. Enter Humili alton.
Enter the wrath of God. Enter the con.
tempt Of society. Enter death. Now let
the silk curtain drop on the stage. The
farce is ended and the lights are out.
Will you forgive me il say in tersest
shape possible, that some of the men in
this country have to forge and to perjure
and to swindle to pay for their wives
dressesi I will say it whether you for.
give me or not.
Again: extravagant costume is the foe
Of all Christian aims giving. Men and
women put SO much in personal display
that they often have nothing for God and
the cause of suffering humanity. A
Christian man cracking his Palais royal
gloves across the back by shutting up his
hand to hide the one cent he puts into
the poor box! A Christian woman at
the story of the Hottentots crying copi.
Gus tears into twenty-five dollar hand
kerchief and then giving two-cent piece
to the collection, thrusting it down under
the bills SO people will not know but it
was ten-dollar gold piece. One hundred
dollars for incense to fashion-two cents
for God! God gives us ninety cents out of
every dollar. The other ten cents, by
command of his Bible, belong to him. Is
not G Cd liberal according to this tithing
system laid down in the Old Testament
is not God liberal in giving us ninety cents
out of a dollar when he takes but ten. We
do not like that. We want to have ninety
nine cents for ourselves and one for God.
Again, extravagant costume is distrac-
ton to public worship. You know very
well there are a good many people who go
to church just as they go to the races, to
see who will come out first. Men and
women with souls to be saved passing the
hour in wondering where that man got his
cravat, or what store that woman patron-
ICES. In many of our churches the prelim.
mary exercises are taken up with the dis.
cussion of wardrobes. It is pitiable. Is it
not wonderful that the Lord does not
strike the meeting houses with lightning?
What distraction of public worship. Dying
men and women, whose bodies are soon to
be turned into dust, yet before three worlds
like peacocks. People sitting
down in pew or taking up a hymn book,
array, to sing:
Rise, nv soul, and stretch thy wings,
Thy better portion trace;
Rise from transitory things.
Toward Heaven thy native place!
adopt the Episcopalian prayer and say:
"Good Lord, deliver u.s."
Extravagant costume belittles the intel.
lect. Our minds are enlarged or they
DIV indie just in proportion to the import
tance of the subject on which we constant
ly dwell. Can you imagine anything more
dwarfing to the human intellect than the
study of dress? I see men on the street
who, judging from their elaboration,
think must have taken two hours to ar
range their apparel. After a few years Of
that kind of absorption, which one Of Nc.
Allister's magnifying glasses will be
powerful enough to make the mans char.
acter visible: What will be left of
woman's intellect after giving years and
years to the discussion of such questions?
They all land in idiocy. have seen men
at the summer watering places through
fashion the mere wreck of what they once
were. Sallow of cheek, meager Of limb,
hollow at the chest. Showing no ANNA. |
ton save in rushing across a room to pick |
up lady's fan. Simpering along the cor.
ridors the same compliments they sim.
pered twenty years ago.
Yet, my friends, have given you only |
the milder phase Of this evil. It shuts q |
great multitude out Of Heaven. The first |
peal Of thunder that shook Sinai declared,
'Thou shalt have no other gods before |
me-" and you will have to choose between |
the goddess Of fashion and the Christian |
God. There are . great many seats in |
Heaven, and they are all easy seats, but |
not one seat for the devotee Of costume. |
Heaven is for meek and quiet spirits.
Heaven is for those who think more Of
their souls than of their bodies. Why il
you, with your idolatry Of costume, should
get into Heaven, You would be
for putting French roof on the "house Of
many mansions" and you would be for in
the patterns Of Butterick's Quar-
,eriy Delineator.
Give up this idolatry Of fashion or give
up Heaven. What would you do standing
beside the Countess Of Huntington, whose
Joy it was to build chapels for the
poor, or with that Christian woman
II Boston, who fed fifteen hundred chill.
lren Of the street, at Fanueil Hall, one New
Years. Day, giving out ~ sort Of doxolo.
y at the end of the meeting, Q pair
# shoes to each one Of them; or those Dor.
cases Of modern society who have conse.
rated their needles to the Lord, and who
will get eternal reward for every stitch
hey take: Oh, men and women, give up
he idolatry Of costume. The rivalries and
The competitions Of such . life are q stu.
oendous wretchedness. You will always
Ind some ono with brighter array and
With more palatial residence and with
avender kid gloves that make tighter it.
md il you buy this thing and wear it you
viii wish you had bought something else
md worn il. And the frata of such a life