St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-12-21
A Revolt of Eashion.

Americans have always been more or
less victimiZed by subservience to the
arbitrary dictates of fashion that con-
tlnualIy makes Salaam toward the East,
toward Europe and the 'old world''
countries. While this habit of mind is
still characteristic of us as a people, it
Is encouraging to note that in one par
ticular revolt has begun. We refer
to the conventional European tour. For
many years, because it was sanctioned
by fashion, it was supposed by great
many persons to be the most pleasur-
able and instructive of possio trips
beyond their immediate native Dor
ders. Most heroically, therefore.
they braved the material dangers
and the eDnui of an Atlantic voy-
age, and spent months on the worn
thoroughfares of Europe, in the wake
OF hundreds of thousands that had
taken precisely the same excursion
under precisely similar auspices, with
precisely the same mistaken notion
that they were making the most profit
able expenditure of their time and
money. He who ventured to assert that
there could be found within the con-
fines of our own country beauties and
wonders eXcelling those of foreign
lands, atmospheres and environments
than any known to the other atmOs-
phere, was looked upon as an eccentric
and a possible enemy to the public
veal. People were enSlaved by the
same rules that still prescribe the cut of
their garments and the dimensions of
their carteS-de-visite. Fashion ordered
them over sea, and over sea they
fastened.
But in spite of prejudice the plain
truth has made its way. Our own coun-
try, our own continent, is no whit be-
hind the SO-called ''Old worldr in at
tractivenesS to the unbiased traveller.
There are no charms of climate, seen
cry, bloom and fruitage over sea that
California does not transcend in every
particular. The odOr of antiquity that
clusters about the pyramids of Egypt
hangs even more mySteriouSly over
more colossal pyramids in. Mexico.
There are close at hand Alps and gla-
clerS, deserts, volcanoes, canons. petri-
factions of entire forests, hot mineral
springs, cataractS, ruins of forgotten
civilizations, prehistoric dwellings still
resisting the leveling hand of time.
There are absolute projections OF
vegetation, of flower and fruit,
of landscape and of cline. Year
by year we hear less of the old
affected talk of European scenery.
He who has ''been abroad" no longer
imagInes that he wears an enviable
halo. MultitudeS who formerly thought
it necessary to spend the winter in
Italy or the South of France now re-
pair to Southern California. They are
abandoning the old conventional routes
for the unhackneyed delights of our
own Southwest. 1t is healthy revul-
sion, and one that should be encouraged
by precept and example. 1t is difficult
to imagine more melancholy spectacle
than an American wanderer through
Europe who is ignorant of his own land.
Such snobbish representatives cast dis
credit upon this nation, and it is salts
faction to note that they are yearly be-
coming fewer; and we can find word
of praise for fashion itself when we
find it, as at present, strongly setting in
direction approved by common sense,
and pointing to more valuable educa-
ton and the increase of a just national
pride