The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-08-08
THE TRAGEDY OF DRESS.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Speaks of the
Crimes of Fashion.
The Destroying and Deathful Influence Of
Inordinate FashiOn-Its Victims Mas
culine as Well as Feminine
The Story As Told in Five
Short Acts.

Rev. DR.. Talmage, who is on his
round-the-world tour, chose as the sub
ject of his recent sermon through the
press: "The,Tragedy of Dress, 1.-THE text
selected being l. Peter, iii, S-4.
Whose adorning let it not be that outward
adorning Of plating the hair and OF wearing
Of gold, or of putting on Of apparel; put letH
be the hidden man OF the heart"
That we should all be clad, is proved
by the eopening of the first wardrobe OF
paradise, with it's apparel OF dark
green. That we should all, as far as
our means will allow us, be beautifully
and gracefully appareled, is proved by
the fact that God never male wave
but He gilded it with golden sunbeams
or tree, but He garlanded it with
blossoms, or Sky but He studied IL
with stars, or allowcl even the smoke
Of furnace to ascend but He columned !
and turreted and domcd, and scrolled
it into outlines of indescribable grace
I fulness. When see the apple orchards
of the spring and the pageantry OF the
the autumnal forests, come to the con-
clusion that if nature ever does join
the church, while she may be Quaker
In the silence of her worship, she never
will be Quaker in the style OF her
dress. Why the notches of fern leaf,
or the stamen of water lily? Why,
when the day departs, does it let the
folding doors of heaven stay opensolong
when it might go in so quickly? One
summer morning saw an army OF a
million spears, each one adorned with
diamond of the first water-l mean
the grass with the dew on it. When
the prodigal came home his father not
only put q coat on his back, but jewel
ry on his hand. Christ wore q beard.
Paul, the bachelor apostle, not afflicted
with any sentimen tality, admired the
arrangement of woman's hair when
he said in his epistle, ''if a woman have
long hair, it is Nglory unto her." There
will be a fashion in Heaven as on earth,
but it will be II different kind of fash
ion. 1t will decide the color of the
dress; and the population of that coun-
try, by beautiful law, will wear
white. say these things as back
ground to my sermon, to show You that
have TO prim, precise prudish, or
cast iron theories on the subject OF hui
man apparel. But the goddess OF fash
ion has set up her throne in this world,
and at the sound of the timbrels we
are a1 expected to fall down and
worship. The Old and New Testament
of her Bible are the fashion plates. Hel
affairs smoke with the sacrifice of the
bodies, minds and souls of ten Thousand
victims. In her temple four people
stand in the organ loft, and from then
there comes down a cold drizzle o
music, freezing on the ears of her wor
shippers. The goddess of fashion ha
become rival of the Lord of heavel
and earth, and it is high time that W
unlimbered our batteries against thi
idolatry. When 1 come to count tn
victims of fashion, ] find as many mas
culine as feminine. Men make an cas-
stirade against woman, as though sh
were the chief worshiper at this idolt
itrous shrine, and no doubt some men /
the more cons picuous part of the PEI
- have already cast glances at the NOR
retired part of the pew, their look
prophecy of II generous distribution
MY sermon shall be as appropriate fo
one end of the pew as for the other.
Men are as much the idolators {
fashion as women, and they sacrifice o
different part of the altar. Wit
men the fashion goes to cigars and clu
rooms and yachting parties and win
suppers. In the United States the me
chew up and smoke one hundred mi
- lion dollars worth of tobacco ever
-. year. That is their fashion. In Lo1
don, not long ago, man died VIII
't' started in life with seven hundred an
fifty thousand dollars, but he ate it a
up in gluttonies, sending his agents
d. all parts of the earth for some rar
delicacy for the palate, sometimes on
plate of food costing him three or fou
q hundred dollars. He ate up his who
fortune, and had only one guinea lef
4 with that he bought a woodcock an
had it dressed in the very best styl
ate it, gave two hours for digestion
then walked out on Westminster bride
and threw himself into the Thame
and died, doing on large seale wh'
YOU and have often seen done on
= small scale. But men do not a
stain from millinery and elabor
ton of skirt through any superiorit
of humility. 1t is only because sue
appen dages would be blockade
g., business. What would sashes al
ts, trains three and half yards long
nd in stock market? And yet men Al
the disciples of fashion just as much
IL women. Some of them wear boots
- tight that they can hardly walk in Il
ny paths of Righteousness. And there a
men who buy expensive suits of cloth
In, and never pay for them, and who /
through the streets in great stripes
color like animated checlSerboards.
say these things because want to she
YOU that am impartial in my d
course, and that both sexes, in the la
see puage of the surrogate's office, shi
i'e' "share and share alike" AS God nj
@ help me, shall show you what are &
destroying and dnathful influences
Y inordinate fashion.
The first .baleful influence notice
in fraud, illimitable and CHASTITY.
you know that Arnold of the Revol
ton proposed to sell his country in {
der to get money to support his wifi
wardrobe? / declare here before g
'too and this people that the effort to Ike
~ up expensive establishments in ii