Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-11-12
WOMAN AND HOME.
A DISSERTATION ON THE FOL-
LOWERS OF FASHION.

Some Women Workers In the United
states-shouId Understand Politics
Feet of Chinese women-superstitions
About birthday Stones.
While there is great deal to be said as to
the folly of following the fashions into their
extremes, and as to giving up ones time and
thoughts to such affairs, there would be
good deal more to be said il one did not fol-
low them at ALL There is not, at any rate,
much Of he sort to be said that is new, for
ever since there have been clothes at all they
have been wondered at and criticised, and
the "fashion" has been one of those potencies
that even Shakespeare recognized in making
his weak minded and his insane retain ac-
quaintance with it, 1.-THE glass of fashion"
cries Ophelia, concerning her lover II do
not like the fashion of your garments,p says
old Lear "You will say they are Persian,
but let them be changed"
Petruchio, too, knew no better weapon to
use in conquering his Katharlne's shrewish-
ness than these same fashions, showing more
knowledge of them than any modern husband
has, and tearing a passion to tatters over
poor Hates gown, although his tailor said,
"You bid me make it orderly and well, ac-
cording to the fashion and the time" To
find fault is the oldest OF all the fashions, and
the habit OF doing 50 probably occasions
many of the frequent changes that the critics
OF the fashion 50 bewail. When all is urged
against the fashions, however, antique or
modern, IL remains evident that their variety
Is in reality an attempt to find the one proper,
fit and becoming dress for humanity; that
the frequent change is an acknowledgment
OF failure; and that as fresh garments have
to be procured with the fresh season, they
may rs well he in another mode as in one
that has been tested and found to be not that
which is required.
Very possibly all this is not in the thoughts
Of the designers; they design AS an occupa-
ton, 20 produce a variation, and are quite
unconscious that they are but instruments
working out part of the scheme of civilian
ton, in the paraphernalia accompanying the
scheme being "A comfortable and suitable
dress for man and woman kind-one which
shall be all right as protection from the
weather, as allowing freedom of movement,
as combining the best OF grace and usefulness
and beauty, and the elaboration OF all this
being as prolonged a process as the elabora-
ton of all the rest OF this same scheme OF
civilization.
OF course il is not TO be supposed that the
devotees of fashion, those who spend all their
time and thought and money among the mill
liners and the fashion plates, who lie ten
nights awake carving the fashion Of a new
doublet,' are thinking anything of this ma
ture. For undoubtedly personal motives,
decoration, the desire To outstrip ones neigh
bors, the desire 10 keep up with the times,
together perhaps with the gratifying OF van
ity and the exciting of envy, all have more
share in the business than any philosophy has
To another circle Of people the whole thing
would be obnoxious were it worth while; but
as it is, and since all the rest of the world
obey, how foolish it is 10 be singularl They
follow with the crowd, not in order 10 be OBJ
served, but in order not TO be observed. II
nature had provided them with feathers, so
that dressmakers and dry goods dealers, and
new designs an6 old, could be dispensed with,
and dip in a brook, with some subsequent
preening, would answer for a toilet, they
would be tolerably content, nor even make
much stipulation as TO the color of the plum
age, better satisfied possibly with the gray OF
the dove than with the emerald sheen OF the
parrot or the scarlet splendor of the fiamin-
go. But as it has been ordained otherwise,
they wear the clothes that others do, making
no great inquiry into the matter, adopting
what is given out by those constituted as au-
thority, and thankful to slip along in the
crowd, with no questions asked.
In Paris. in Berlin, in New York, in the
farthest Aleutian island, the women who
study are dressed with sufficient propriety TO
pass, and If there is any want of chic, of
knowing how 70 wear the garments, that is
not the fault OF the method of communi-
eating the knowledge. But in Sitka, as In
Boston, London or Rome, the best dressed
woman will always be she who has not TOO
early made the new mode her own, nor
chung to 1t too late, nor been too ardent in
embracing the whole Of IL and In carrying
out its widest and most prominent whims.
And the woman who is most perfectly ar
rayed will be she whose garments and their
fashion never arrest the eye purposely, and
who II the eve by any happening, chances to
fall upon her 1t will be seen, neither defies
the fashion nor exhibits herself as It's slave,
but whose dress, totally inconspicuous, is
thoroughly faultless-the woman who obeys
the fashion, not Us matter OF display, not
altogether as a matter of dress, but as avoid
ing the vulgarity aud rudeness Of obtr7uding
her own ideas upon the public in a matter to
which she has not given the especial study
that would entitE5 hs1- to do,so.-4Ryper,s
Bazaar.