Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-26

than four systems of dress In full sweep
among the ladies. First, there is the regu-
lar style, represented by the old-fashioned
skirt, of which the Delsarte teacher is the
| exponent; the second class are the followers
of the divided skirt; the third class con-
sists of the Zouave uniform girls, who spend
most of their time in the gymnasium, and
devote five yards of cloth to each limb, and
the fourth class is made up of the extreme
radicals, who wear no skirts and initiate
actresses by wearing tights.
The interest in yesterday s meeting was
so lively that the ladies determined to hold
another session this morning, and probe the
vexed question to the bottom Men were
to be excluded, and the meeting was to be
secret. Fully 1000 of the ''faithful"
crowded into the Temple early this morn
ing, when the doors opened, and standing
room could not be had. Mrs. Frank Stuart
Parker, of Chicago, was the speaker of the
day, and she had brought with her the latest
and most improved kind of clothes for exhi-
bition purposes.
Males in the House.
The speaker had not proceeded far in her
illustrations when it was discovered that
several of the male fraternity had managed
to slip into a quiet corner unnoticed, and
were not the least interested among those of
the audience. Immediately on the discov-
cry the programme was stopped and the
men hurriedly elected. Then the discussion
proceeded with the most intense interest.
Mrs. Parker is lady of rare culture and
attainments, and she proposed to con-
vert her audience to the radical
view of the case. She rapidly changed her
outer garments in full view of her audience,
and showed the beauty of the new system,
xf-hS hSnh ,lA - l.
school. She denounced in turn high heels,
narrow shoes, high collars, senseless gloves
and all kinds of corsets and garters, and told
the audience that it was greater sin to de-
form the body than it was to tell lie.
Dante's Divine Comedy was neither
divine nor a comedy, but an internal trag-
edy, and the same could be said of the hor-
rible style of dress among women. 1t is ab-
surd to say that a French dressmaker can
improve upon what God has created. The
speaker recommended her hearers to supply
themselves with photographs of Venus Di
Milo and Titians' figure in the picture of
Sacred and Profane Lives" and study
them till their beauty was literally felt.
After Husbands and Brothers.
Then came a long discussion, and it
seemed hard for many ladies to renounce
the garters, particularly the one honored by
Edward the Ill, of England. One lady
said it was shame that women disfgured
themselves so much as to compel their
husbands to go to see actresses in order to
behold a beautiful form. 1t was simply
disgraceful to have brothers and husbands
60 to a theater to admire the female
figure. Another lady said that the
reason why so many women are ill-natured
is because they are clothed so badly
Women were certainly superior to men, if
the doctrine of ''the survival of the ittest'
were true, for a man could not survive in
the garments that most women wear.
Altogether it was great day at Chau-
tauqua. The Knights of the Garter are on
a regular crusade for dress reform, and the
cooking school and woman suffrage are in
The background.