Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-31
IT'S A LOST CAUSE.
Dress Reform Has Been and
Ever Will Be Vanquished
by Dame Fashion.
APPEARANCES ARE FIRST
In the Pretty Head of the Woman of
the End of the Century.
AND GIRLS ARE NOT DYING OFF,
In Spite of the Chautauqua Verdict Against
Corsets, Etc
FAMOUS SPIRITS SLAVES TO STYLE
APPEARANCES ARE FIRST
FAMOUS SPIRITS SLAVES TO STYLE
WRITTEN FOR THE prsPArcH.i

golngs on OF the dress reformert et ali OF tine
Chautauouas on the continent will amount
to little or nothing, unless their ideas are
indorsed BY ''the fashion" After the re-
vival last year at Chautauqua, and the
growth in grace and the change of heart
there announced to have taken place, it may
have been supposed that good women would
cease to wine MP the streets with their
skirts, or carry them as an ungracetul load
in their hands.
But have they?
Not at all The train still triumphs. The
finest silks, the divinest brocades, the
richest materials of all kinds are still made
up in the style to gather up the dust, to
wipe up the tobacco juice, and to secure
good stock of disease germs at the decree of
fashion. The good old girls, who tell us
how vain are all things here below, still
come to church and PRAYER meeting in trail
ing gowns that are pronounced unhealthy,
and petticoats that are held by the reformers
10 be barbarous and destructive of all that
is beautiful in the form of q woman. These
good Christian teachers still wear the un-
holy corset-that yillainous invention
which, as we are told by Frances Willard,
sends countless lovely women to the tomb
They Forget bout Example.
Arraved in all their fripperies of high
sleeves empire waists, bell skirts, and dust
pan tails how do they expect that their
precepts as to the cultivation of simplicity
OF attire and the graces OF the soul are to
overweight the power of their example? The
teacher of Bible class of girls presented
about as amusing picture as can well be
imagined in her innocence and apparent ig-
norance of her own inconsistency. Whether
she imagined she was a creature of another
sphere, or so far removed from those she
addressed as to be an exception to her own
teachings, is hard to tell The richness of
the ridiculous situation was that she, with
diamonds in her ears, false, fluffy bangs, a
great, bent-up Leghorn hat, loaded with
ribbons and flowers, tight corsets trailing
bell skirt, high-heeled shoes, tight-fttiu
gloves, with all the flying ribbons and little
additions that 60 to the making up of great
STYLE was talking 10 her Sunday school girls
about the vanities of this world, and urging
them to give themselves over to q cultiva-
tion of the graces of meekness and quiet
spirit-to study the Bible as rule of life,
aud to make sure that to gain heaven, at
the sacrifice of earthly joys, was something
for which all should most especially strive.
Whether the demure girls under her tongue
saw the point or not is not known, but
nothing is surer than that her teaching
would be of no effect SO far as inducing them
to adjure fashion by casting off corsets,
wearing no bangs, or adorning themselves
after the manner of mere worldiings was
concerned
An Orator in Fin, Toggery.
''Great goodness, what can that creature
do for the advancement of women with such
clothes on?" said plain up-snd-down coun-
try delegate at the recent convention of the
Federation of Woman's Clubs in Chicago,
~ L. L.
silk trimmed with rich point lace, advanced
to the front of the platform and calmly
gazed upon the crowd that filled the Opera
House. The country delegate was consider
ably taken down when that beautiful gray
hailed woman in her rich attire, set of by
costly diamonds, made one of the very
best speeches of the occasion, which is
saying a good deal A woman without
corse;s, with a Dutch waist after the
Venus of Milo pattern, with her hair
combed straight back like Amelia Ed
wards, or plastered plainly down like the
yeriest Quaker, and arrayed in black al
paca gown with straight gathered-all-around
short skirt guiltless of ruffie or hounce,
could have been no more magnetic or elo-
Quent.
1t is not the dress, but the woman that is
in it, it should be remembered.
Great Women Slaves to Fashion.
In the DAYS of Elizabeth of England it
was the fashion to wear wigs The great
Queen, it is said, had eighty curled wigs to
keep her going. She wore buckram "stays"
that, compared with the flexible corsets of
to-day, would appear like suit OF armor.
Her dresses were innumerable, her rEffs
tremendous. She had love for Jewels,
but she had the heart of a king, the talents
OF great statesman, and the courage and
capacity which made her the greatest
queen OF Christendom.
Mary Stuart, too, wore the stiff stavs of
her day, but it was the axe that killed her,
and not her corsets. In spite of them, and |
the French fashions. she was strong and
vigorous, "her FRAME" says Green, "was
OF iron-she was incapable of fatigue; she
galloped 80 miles after her last defeat with
out pause, save to change horses" With
the staiwart women of England in view,
WHO from that day down have worn corsets
and still wear them, the dress-reformers
should be little more chary in denouncing
them so extremely. Corsets for a cause may
fill the grave yards, as they say, but it is
none the less certain that there are still
plenty of women left who wear them, and
strong healthy women at that. Fools there |
are always with us III galore, and those of
them who choose to lace themselves in until |
good for nothing but to be laid away in the
cold, cold ground-why the world is all the |
better without them.
Fashion Stronger Than Reason.
That the fight against fashion will be q |
losing one is the testimony OF history. An |
appeal 10 common sense goes for nothing |
where fashion is concerned. The virtue of |
self-sacrifce is hardly recognized if it in |
wolves an attire out of style. One of the |
objections urged against women nurses in |
the hospital in Washington during the Civil |
War was that many OF them were capable |
OF any heroism, save that of giving up their |
hoops. The patriotic women who rushed to |
the front to aid in nursing found the nuns |
preferred on the score OF their dress 1t is |
a matter Of comfort that there has been an |
advancement in this respect since the uni |
form OF a trained nurse is inexorably pre- |
scribed by as absolute rule, as that of uni |
form for railroad employees or fire and |
police departments
The crusade against the 'big hat" by all |
the power of the press on the continent, the |
forces OF ridicule, the appeals to conscience, |
was powerless against the mysterious god |
OF fashion which made it the style.
In Addison's day the war was waged |
against hoops without avail. The Spectator
was full OF chapters against them. Punch
polled pictures at them in vain. The world
growIed over them from end to end, but not
until decree of fashion pronounced them
old and gone out, we thev given up When
brought into vogue again by Eugenie of |
France the same howl was raised the world |
over, but with as little effect, until Sara
Bernhart brought lankness into style.
The Reason for the High Collar
Tie Princess of Wales has a lean, long,