Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-29
WITH LANCE in REST
Bessie BrambIe Makes a Furious and
Deadly Onslaught Upon
THE GRIM OGRE OF FASHION
Who Holds Captive 50 Many Fair Ladies Of
This Land
ONE WOMAS,s OPINION OF DEcOILETn
rwn1rrnx ros rnn D1srArcH.i


quires no testimony to support. Submis-
sive to their gods of Fashion, Vanity and
Ostentation, they can be counted upon with
certainty to defend and uphold anything
and everything these social forces may de-
cree. Decollete or low-necked dresses. like
dancing or card-playing, have been de-
nounced from the pulpit with the utmost
zeal. elooueuce and fervor, times without
record, but the good folk pay little or no
heed. or Difference to the opinions and pro-
scriptions Of the Church, as thus expressed,
SO long as Fashion prescribes them as
proper. The beloved brethren might as
well talk to the wind as attempt to control
the cut of gown. 1t was tried in apostolic
times without much success, and the women
of to-day are likely much less under the
coercion of the clergy than were the priml-
Christian sisters.
The ancient Fathers prescribed that
women should not appear without wells,
and should remain shut up at home, and not
exhibit themselves to deceive the minds OF
men bv their adornments. Natural grace,
says Tertullian, must be obliterated by con-
cealment Even Clement of Alexandria
insisted that the dress of women should be
such as covered them completely, head and
face. and all because woman was said to be
s'the first deserter of the divine law" and
"persuaded him to sin whom even the devil
was not valiant enough to attack. Ihls Is
decided slap, or perhaps compliment, 10
the influence Of good Mother Eve, and
and through her to her frivolous, adorn-
ment-loving descendants.
But when the Holy Fathers have preached
/ a. xromau fhrOuOh divine In
spiration, and they still go on banging and
| braiding their hair, wearing gorgeous ap-
| parel and Jewels, and persist in appearing
in public with uncovered heads and should
ers. it is very plain that the words of the
brethren of to-day will have no effect, SO
what is the use OF their butting up against
stone wall, or rather in raising an issue
against fashion in which they are
BOUND TO BE DEFEATED.
It will surely be discouraging to the good
Presbyterians to find that Mrs. Harrison,
the wife of the Deacon President. is in favor
of decollete gowns, although, being grand
mother, she does not propose to have the ex-
treme low-cut for herself, but rather OF the
square or V-shape in front. Mrs. Harrison,
| as quoted, is decidedly not opposed to low
dresses through any Puritanic scruples
whatever, but simply for the reason that
when woman becomes grandmother she
should put away such vanities as low gowns
| and short sleeves. There is nothing prettier
| for a woman, she remarks, when beauty and
health will permit, until she has reached
the elderly dignity of grandmotherhood.
In this opinion she differs in some
degree from Queen Victoria whose dietum
is that no condition of bones, or lean scrag-
giness, or pudginess, or excessive stoutness,
| or absence OF lines of loveliness, or curves
of beauty, or age under go, is to interfere
with the court rule of full dress, which
means low neck and bare arms. Conse-
quentIy the British matron has the law
laid down for her without option.
As English. customs and French stand
| ards are the rule in American society, it
follows that the low-cut gowns will still be
the fashion of the day, especially when
they are so warmly commended and de-
Tended on the score of health and comfort
| by women who are grandmothers, and who
| bY wearing them make them fashionable,
! even at the hazard of pneumonia and expo
sure to the ridicule and laughter of the
happy souls who manage to enjoy life and
have good time regardless OF the tyrant
| Fashion.
It is true. that to strengthen their posi-
tio6 many of those SO devoted in their wor-
ship of this god of society would be
likely to support and follow its DEGREES.
even if it went to the length of dressing in
the style that was censured so forcibly by
| Pliny in the age of Tiberius and then de-
| fend it in the score of health and comfort.
No man, even in the most torrid heat OF
| summer is permitted. under the edicts OF
good form, to sit down to dinner without a
coat, and if he, under
THE PLEA OF COMFORT
| IL .-.5.G. ho,x .F H. d,.-;-.
room should turn his shirt into Y shape
SO as to be delightfully."- cool, he would be
hooted out of every house in the country as
boor--as lost 70 or. as Ignorant
of the proprieties as Hottentot. Or if So
ciety men should appear at the White House
or other fashionable receptions in low-cut
shirts and coats so as to show the beautiful
curves of their throats, and the loveliness
! of their Apollo shoulders, with bare arms to
display the magnitude and superiority OF
their striking-out muscles. there would be
howl of universal announcement from the
very women who assert they dress in such
fashion for comfort and eoolness, and who
claim, as do some of the Senators wives
! in Washington, that not one hostess in a
| hundred knows how to adjust the tempera-
ture of her drawing room to the comfort of
her guests, and hence women must wear
decollete gowns to prevent great suffering
from heat. Under such circumstances in
! society, is it not barbarous to condemn the
| poor men to wear an undershirt, and then a
"boiled shirt" on top of that, and then a
vest and ever all coat with double layer
turnover, and surmount the whole with a
| stiff linen collar and necktie. If the low
| gowns for women are essential to comfort
and conducive to health-if they are
SO enhancing to beauty and have no sug-
gestion of immodesty, as Mrs. Collum,. Of
| illinois, Mrs. Cockrell. of Missouri, and
other notable society women who have been
interviewed assert-to say nothing of the
Pittsburg ladies who believe in it so i'm
plicitly and uphold it SO strenuously-ii
they make evening receptions more COM
/ Portable, balls more endurable, and dinners
| more delightful it is certainly desirable
that the beloved brethren who on these oc-
casions are so tightly chokered up, and 50
muchly overlaid with starched linen, and 30
| enwrapped in. the sweltering tolds of full
dress, should be allowed the same latitude as
the dear sisters IF all is true as asserted
by the society sisters as to the sweetness OF
| life in q low.cut gown, ii we were q man
| and a brother, we should strike for an equal
right to wear decollete duds. As a we'll
| posted English woman with English views
on this subject, Mrs. Senator Hawley says
| an evening reception without full dress
display ''woul6 be inconceiyably dull'' and
that "the handsomest woman in the most
elegant high-necked dress would look out Of
place in room brilliantly lighted, full oi
flowers. glistening with diamonds and white
throats."
ACKNOWLEDGING BRITISH SUPREMACY.
It will be soIace to the souls of society
women in Pittsburg, as in other cities to
learn that-while some of the ladies Of the
Cabinet from away out West propose to
wear high gowns, and do what in them lies