The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-01-11
How Women Should Dress.

Rev. L. B. Wilson, of Stawbridge N.
E. Church, talked 10 his congrega-
tion yesterday morning about how women
protesting to be godiy ought to dless.
In doing so he touched upon various as
poets of the female dress question. He
said that taste and adaptability had a
great deal to do with dress. Some women
may be clothed in calico at three, four,
and five cents a ya:d and look we'll and
be as godly, and often more so, than
Others who pay from s. to $40 yard
for their drapery, and yet are not happy.
70 dress after the godly fasEion does not
imply carclessness, lack Of neatness,
want Of self respect or appreciation of
the proprieties of life, but it does mean
not giving way to extravaganza and in
dulging in the taste for grandness Of
clothing ones self. He painted q
rather gloomy picture, but correct one,
of the hard worked clerks whose earn
ings required careful handling in order
for both ends to | C met without embar
rassmcnt, with wife at home who used
his salary rccklessly by buying clothes
too fine for his purse and sending in
bills that made his face long. Every
wife ought to learn how to spend
money in the right way on dress and in
the home. 1t is not uncommon for
women before marriage to take great
pains with their personal adornment, and
after they become wives neglect them
selves and the hous" This discourages
husbands, and sends them elsewhere to
look for cheerful pictures, if they can
find them. Men wear pretty much the
same sort of clothes, and at nearly the
same prices, from year to year, but the
styles in goods for women and the cost
changes every season. This means, often
times, additional expense. Men wear
little jewelry; women considerably more.
Extravaganza in women's dress is wrong
auywhcre-in the home, church or social
circle. 1t is often a woman's greatest
curse to know some other woman who is
rich. She of more limited means strives
to dress up to the mark of the richer, and
in so doing wastes money without doing
any good and separates herself from her
poorer companions. A little retreDch-
mcut here and there in dress will put
g cd papers and magazines in the library.
brighten up the house, and the cost will
not be felt. One dollar and half saved
on pair of kid gloves brings the church
paper, 81 or $6 now and then good peri
odicals. Twenty dollars for a bonnet
will educate and keep girl in India for
q year. One hundred and fifty dollars
is low estimate for expenses for an
evening outfit, which, it may be, will be
worn but half dozen times in one win
ter, and never the next, because that is
the same drtss :he had last season. will
he heard; but this amount expended in
helping the poor or educating the needy
will do an incalculablc amount of good.
Fine dressing in Church is out OF place.
In this city some OF the best women
workers in the church 60 down in the
slums and alleys aud look after the needy
and unfortunate, but their silks and
satins do not help them in what they DO.
It rather hinlers. There is something
lust a little incongruous in seeing q
finely dressed woman kneeling in the
dirt and lifting a jcweled hand in prayer
for the heather or those not so we'll oil
in the worlds goods as they. Extrava.
gancc in wearing apparel makes gulf
between the rich and the poor. The
latter draw contrasts on conditions, nurse
rescntmcuts, and the wives of the en-
ployer and employed set the men against
each other. Rich people say they want
tie poor to come into their fine churches.
They welcome them freely; but as long
as they dress as they 10 they might as
well close The doors, lock them up, and
throw the keys away. The poor will
never come IN. The contrasts are too
painful. Fine dressing feeds vanity.
silks and satns appeal 10 feminine pride
in Il wsy that calico and cottons cannot.
Humility and godliness do not grow
we'll in expensive clothes. Even if
women can afford to dress richly, it is
wrong for them to do so; because what
is spent beyond what neatness, order, the
proprieties OF life and due respect for
society require, might be used more
proftably. The poor We have always
with US. -BultimOre Ameri an.
Fashion Notes.
Rr,i6od cloth Jackets are the caprice