The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-03-04
I.m.n. protest. n. strife with many

VINO, at leVee IN Enhaueipuih iaSs
winter, went up TO a so.called lady, and,
because Of her sparse and incompe-
tent apparel, ordered her either to
leave the house or habilitate herself imme-
diately. 1t is high time that our good and
sensible women make vehement protest
against fashionable indecency. aud, IL the
women of the household do not realize the
deplorable extremes of much of the female
costume, that husbands implead their
wives on this subject, and that fathers pro-
hibit their daughters. The evil is terrific
and overshadowing,
suppose that the American stage is re-
sponsible for much of this. l do not go to
theaters, so must take the evidence of the
actors and managers of theaters, such as
Mr.. John Gilbert, Mr.. A. NJ. Palmer and
Mr.. Daniel E. Bandmann. They have re-
Gently told us that the crime of undress Is
blasting the thester, which by many is
considered a school of moral, and, indeed g,
superior to the church and forerunner of
the millennium.
Mr.. Palmer SAYS: me
The bulk of the performances on the stage
10 degrad ng and pernic!ous. The managers
strive tn come just as near the line as posi-
Bile without fagrautly breaking the law.
There never have been costumes worn on a
stage OF this city either in a theater, hall or
"dve," so improper as those that ciothe
some of the chorus in recent comic opera
productions
He saws in regard to female performers
1t is not question whether they can sing,
but just how little they will consent to wear.
Mr.. Bandmann, who has been twenty
nine years on the sage and before almost
all nationalities, says:
unhesitatingly state that the taste OF the
present theater- gong people of America as
a b ody is of coarse and vulgar nature.
The Hindoo would turn with disgust at such
exhibitions, which are sought after and APP
plauded on the stage of this country Our
shop windows are fun of, and the walls COW
cred with show cards and posters which
should be a disgrace to an enlightened coun-
try and an insult to the eye OF a cultured
community.
Mr.. Gilbert says:
Such exhibition is a disastrous one to the
morals of the community. Are these
proper pictures TO ru: out Tor the public to
look at to say nothing of the propriety OF
females appearing in public dressed like
that? 1t is shameful
| must take the testimony of the friends
OF the theater and the confirmation which
| see on the board fences and in the show
windows containing pictures of the way
actresses dress. | suppose that these rep
reservations Of the play house costume are
true, for if they are not true, then these
highly moral and religious theaters are
swindling the public by inducing the peo-
-, Al, Of
lar nudity which they do not fulfill. Now
all this familiarizes the public with such
improprietes Of costume and depresseS the
public conscience as to what is allowable
and right.
The parlor and drawing-room are now
running a race with the theater and opera
boutfe. They are now nearly neck and
neck in the race, the latter a little ahead,
but the parlor and. drawing room are
gaining on the others, and the probability
is they will soon be even and pass the
stand 50 nearly at the same time that one
half of pandemoniun will clap it's hands
beca use opera boufTe has beaten and the
other half because the dra wing-room has
beaten. Let printing press and platform
hurl red hot anathema at the boldness Of
much of womanly attire. | charge Chris
tian women neither by style of dress nor
adjustment of apparel to become ad-
min istrative of evil. Show me the
fashion plates of any age between this and
the time of Louis XVI. of France and
Henry VIII. of England, and will tell you
the type of morals or immorals Of that age
or that year. No exception to it. Modest
apparel means a righteous people. Inn
modest apparel always means a contain.
mated and depraved society.
1t is not only such boldness that is to be
reprehended, but extravaganza of costume.
This latter is the cause of fraud unlimitable
and CHASTITY. Do you know that Arnold of
the revolution proposed to sell his country
in order to get money to support his home
wardrobe? | declare here before God and
this people that the effort to keep up ex-
pensive establishments in this country is
sending more business men to temporal
perdition than all other causes combined.
1t was this that sent prominent business
men to the watering of stocks, and life in
insurance presidents to perjured state
ments about their assets, and some of them
to the penitentiary; and has completely
should 60 to these famous defaultings to
show what men will do in order to keep up
great home style and expensive wardrobe,
when you and | know scores of men who
are put to their wits end and are dashed
from January to December in the attempt!
Our Washington politicians may theorize
until the expiration of their terms of office
as to the best way of improving our none
tary condition in this country. 1t Will be
of no use, and things will be no better un
til we learn to put on our heads and backs
and feet and HANDS no more than we can
pay for.
There are clerks in stores and banks on
limited salaries, who, in the vain attempt
to keep the wardrobe of til II tami!y as
snowy as other folks wardrobes, are dying
of muffs, and diamonds, and cameis'-hair
shawls and high hats, and they have moth
ing left except what they give to cigars
and wine suppers, and they die before their
time, and they will expect US ministers to
preach about them as though they were the
victims of early piety; and after high
class funeral with silver handles at the
side of their coffin of extraordinary bright
ness, it will be found out that the under
taker is cheated out of his legitimate ex.
penses! Do not send to me to preach the
funeral sermon of man who dies like that
l will blurt out the whole truth, and tell
that he was strangled to death by his wife's
ribbons. The country is dressed to death.
You are not surprised to find that the put.
ting up of one public building in New Y ork
cost millions of dollars more than it ought
to have cost, when you find that the m an
who gave out the contracts paid more tn an