News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-04-03

Women who wear Gecollete gowns
(says the Washington Post) comproise
three classes, but one of which is justi-
fed and wears it with propriety. The
woman ''to the manner bo H." educated
to it, taught the propriety of such ex
posture along with her catechism, wears
this dress, as soldier does his uniform,
as a matter of form, of duty, of neces-
sity, and of habit. Such women wear
this exposeful garment with no more
notion of indelicacy than is entertained
by the dusky belle of the Sandwich
Islands, when she makes her debut in
string of beads, a cotton apron, and
mixing anklets. The second-class,
not so we'll warranted in following the
fashion, are the women not educated
to it, ladies whose early life and train
ing were not in decollete circles, but
who, instead, have imbibed much of
the stern puritanism, or prudishness,
or provincialism, if you will, of ortho
dox teaching, of modest example, and
of rural simplicity.
The woman whose sudden rise of
position tempts her into an accus-
toned barring of neck and arms against
her conscience, commits all impro-
priety. The third-class are vain
women, the silly and coquettish
women, the women who have perfect
figures and uniformed intellects.
These are women who have, in the
eagerness for admiration, disgraced
the social regaia and made it re-
proach. The important thing is not
how the body, but how the mind is
clothed. When high-cut mind goes
out il company with low-cut dress
the world does not concern itself with
the robe. But a decollete spirit will
permeate an assembly, 'hough its neck
band tickles its ears and its wrist-frills
mask the hand.
Some interesting remarks were re-
Gently made to HE New York Epoch
by Miss Ida Van Etten, president of
the Working Women's Society. Miss
Van Etten is trying to organize asso-
Citations among workingwomen, SINH
lar to the trade unions of working
men. She says fifty that SIZE believes
most of the charitable work doce for
workingwomen is positively harmful.
"What they need above all things" she
said, sis good wages for good work.
Charity, for the most part, simply en-
ables them to exc out an existence on
poor wages. In the less skilled
branches of labor espec ally-sewing,
etc.-wages constantly tend to reach
the starvation ONT. Instead of re-
tarding, there is great deal of charity
that simply accelera es that process.
Suppose that you provide a lot of
homes for workingwomen where they
can live without paying rent.
What is the result? They can afford
to WORK cheaper than women who have
to pay rent. and sooner or later, by the
pressure of compe ition, they are
forced to do it. Then wages come
down a peg and your well-meant
charity results in widening the domain
of poverty. The problem is a hard
one, but it is certain that charity will
not solve 1t. Organization is at least
worth trying, Notwithstanding the OBJ
stacles i'll the way of it. 1t cannot be
denied that organization has done
much to keep up wages among work
ingmen. Why shouldn't it do some
thing for the workingwomen? / hope
to see the day when women who ply
needle and thread for their daily bread
will be banded together into crganiza-
tons to resist starvation wages.