The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-08-20

to cut down on our home news for Ada
Rehan's points, but We can't leave out
local hangings to make way for any more
Fuller"
infatuated. blinded and reckless the de-
partments Of New York kept on. Moth lng
could stay the inundation Of petticca at
Some few women OF mature development
got together and devised female dress
without skirts. They tried TO stem the
tide with trousers and leggings. II only
maddened the skirt debau, hes
found grave conclave Of men at the
Manhattan club. judges. legislators and
bankers. seriously discussing crinoline.
i looked at the papers on the reading
room table. II was n tinted heap of skirts.
women H. all attitudes exhibiting their
limbs partly enswathed in fimy folds.
Art, science. society, drama, literature
economies and trade all gone into a Wild
skirt dance.
was in the den OF wealthy New
Yorker about a week ago. He has an
income OF about thirty thousand dollars.
and he has furnished magnificent bache-
Tor quarters in a small apartment house
up town. What struck me in the place
was the effeminate air OF luxury and
the unconscious betrayal OF his degene-
rated tastes. He had gorgeous array
- t6Aio oi the wal liDfn QlUeTent WO-
men. He had dancing slippers on the
mantel from contributing coryphees; one
or two OF them were stained by the wine
his boon companions had drunk out of
them. In one corner was a wire form
over which modistes III their dresses.
The curtains fell in pillows OF lace like
beauty's train and were caught up
by the belts which misses wear. Hand
some pictures Of salacious order were
festooned by suggestive drapery, as II
art had gone into skirts. He had collec-
tions Of tortoise shell combs; there were
open parasos and rumpled ladies' gloves
and bon bon boxes on the dressing case
ard saucy Gypsy hats tackled to the wall
peivading everything.
You couldn't stay in the place long
without being enervated wondered how
it affected the young man who lived in
II.
But this sort Of thing Is much more
common in the metropolis than men and
women who live I'm ruder air have any
idea OF. A kind OF yoluptuous palsy
attacks the sensibilities. which are fed
continually on Illusion. These young men
lose the yiriie sense. They become what
Shakespeare calls 'chamberers." II is
wholly an aesthetic break down and Is
far more piiable and dangerous to the
community than that natural masculine
violence which expends itself in passion.
and then returns to a normal condition.
Women have a great deal to answer
for in the encouragement Of this SEN
suousness. Fashion insists upon their be-
ing voluptuous sirens. It's makes the plea
OF society that dress is 10 hide the ma
kedness lie. for II takes every means
10 expose that nakedness. Behind all
the newspaper pictures Of female dress
is the modiste's crafty exposure Of the
form IN all its curves and particulars
through the dress. Some OF the devices
by which they have marked and en-
HANGED the peculiarities Of the female
form are never dwelt upon by the chat
tering women who write about these
things. But the fact is, so much thought
and time and money are spent on height
ening the seductiveness OF women on pa
rade that the thing becomes a great COM