The Hazel Green herald., 1888-03-02

reply: why, you used TO be intimate" "
"Well, says the man, ''our friendship has
been dropped. The man has failed"
PROCLAMATION has gone forth: "Velvets
must 90 up and plain apparel must come
down." and the question is "How does the
coat titl" not WHO wears itl" The power
that bears tho tides of excited population
up and down our streets, and rocks the
world OF commerce and thrills all nations
transatlantic and cisatiantic, is clothes
u decides the last offices OF respect; and
how long the dress shall bo totally black ;
and when IL may subside into spots OF
grief on silk, calico or gingham. Men die
In good circumstances, but by reason OF
extravagant funeral expenses are we'll
nigh insolvent bnrore they get buried
Many men wou'd not die at all IL they
had to wait until they could afford IL.
Wrong fashion is productive OF most
ruinous strife. The expenditure OF many
households is adjusted by what thoir
neighbors have, not by what thoy them.
selves can afford to have: and the great
anxiety Is TO who shalt have the finest
house and the most costly equipage. The
weapons used In tho warfare of social life
are not mimic rifles and Dahlgren guns,
and Hotchkiss shells, but chairs, and mir
rors, and vases, and Gobelins and Axmin-
stcrs. Many household establishments
are like racing steamboats, propelled at the
utmost strain and risk, and just coming to
terrific explosion. ''Who cares" say
they, il we only come out ahead"
There is no one cause to-day OF more
financial embarrassment and Of more dis
honesties than this determination at all
hazards TO live as we'll as or better than
other people. There are persons who will
risk their eternity upon one pier mirror,
or who will dash out the splendors OF
Heaven to get another trinket.
MY house Is too small" "But," says
some one, ''you can not pay for a larger"
'Never mind that; my friends have bet
ter residence, and so will l." "A dress Of
that style and material must have. ! can
not afford it by great deal; but who
cares for that' My neighbor had one from
that pattern, and must have one" There
are scores Of men in the dungeons of the
pcnitentiary who risked honor, business,
every thing in the effort to shine like 9th
ers, Though the heavens fall, they must
be 'Fn the fashson."
The most famous frauds OF the day have
X.
dreds of men struggling for their COM
mercial existence. The trouble is that
some are caught and incarcerated IL their
larceny be small; il it be great they escape
and build their castles on the Rhine. Men
get into Jail, not because they steal, but
because they did not steal enough.
Again, wrong fashion makes people un-
natural and untrue. 1t is factory from
which has come forth more hollow pre-
lenses and unmeanng batteries and hy-
pocrisies than the Lowell mills ever turned
out shawls and garments. Fashion is the
greatest OF all liars.
1t has made society insincere. You know
not what to believe. When people ask you
to come you do not know whether or not
they want you to come. When they send
their regards you do not know whether it
is an expression OF their heart or an ex-
ternal civility. We have learned to take
every thing at a discount. Word is sent
"Not at home," when they are only too
lazy to dress themselves. They say "The
furnace has just gone out" when in truth
they have had no fire in it all winter.
They apologize for the unusual barren
ness of their table when they never live
any better. They decry their rnost luxuri-
GUS entertainments to win shower Of ap-
proval. They apologize for their appear
ance, as though it were unusual when al
ways at home they look just so. They
would make you believe that some nice
sketch on the wall was the work OF
mastcr-panter. at was an heirloom and |
once hung on the walls of castle, and a |
Duke gave it to their grandfather" Peo- |
Al hn NO, a.
will lie about II picture. On small in. |
come we must make the world believe we |
are affluent, and our life becomes cheat, |
u counterfeit aud u sham.
Few people are really natural and unaf- |
fected. When say this do not mean to |
slur cultured manners. 1t Is right that we |
should have moro admiration for the |
sculptured marble than for the unhewn |
block Of the quarry. From many circles in
lifo fashion has driven out vivacity and |
A frozen dignity instead
floats about the room, and iceberg grinds
against iceberg. You must not laugh |
outright; 1t is vulgar. You must smile.
You must not dash rapidly across the
room; you must glide. There is round
Df bows, and grins, and batteries, and obs
and abs, and simperlngs, and namby-
pambyism-a world Of which Is not worth
one good, round honest peal Of laughter.
From such hollow round the tortured
guest retires at the close OF the evening
md assures his host that he has enjoyed
himself. Thus social life has been comfort
'd and deformed until In some mountain
,abin, where rustics gather to the quilting
'r the appe.paring, thero is more good
,heer than In all the frescoed ice- houses Of
he metropolis. Wo want in all the higher
,ircles OF society more warmth OF heart
Ind naturalness OF behavior, aud not so
many refrigorators.
Aua,n. Uronu, fa Ia |