The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-08-10
THE IDOL OF FASHION
REV. Or. TALMAGE DEPICTS THE
TRAGEDY OF DRESS.

TRAGEDY OF DRESS.
He Says the Goddess OF Fashion Has lse-
come Rival of the Lord OF Heaven and
Earth-An Eloquent Discourse on the
Evils Of Dress.
BROOKLYN, Aug. b.-Rev. Dr. Tai
mage, who is now in Melbourne on his
hound the world tour, has chosen as the
subject of his sermon today through the
press "The Tragedy of Dress" the text
selected being Peter iii, 8, 4, Whose
adjoining let 1t not be that outward
adjoining of plating the hair and the
wearing of gold or Of putting on of ap-
karol. but let it be the hidden man Of
hho heart.
That we should all be clad is proved
by tho opening of the first wardrobe in
paradise, with its apparel of dark green.
4 hat we should all, as far as our means
allow us, be beautifully and gracefully
4pparolod is proved by the fact that God
never made wave but he gilded it with
.,olden sunbeams, or tree but he gar
landed it with blossoms, or sky but he
studded it with stars, or allowed even the
iriol.o of furnace to ascend but he
columned and turreted and domed and
crollod it into outlines Of indescribable
,,racefulness. When see the apple or
h,hards of the spring and the pageantry
t,f tho autumnal forests, l come to the
conclusion that, If nature does ever join
the church, while she may be Quaker
in the silence of her worship, she never
will be Quaker in the style Of her
lress. 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 open SO long
when it might go in SO quickly?
One summer morning l saw an army
of million spears, each one adorned
with a diamond of the~frst water-I
lmoan tho grass, with tne dew on it.
When the prodigal came home, his ia.
lt.cr not only put coat on his back,
but jcwelry on his hand. Christ wore
II beard. Paul, the bachelor apostle, not
afflicted with any sentimentality, adj
Imired the arrangement of a woman's
hair when he said in his epistle, "If a
woman have long hair, it is a glory I'M
to her. !"
There will be a fashion in heaven as
on earth, but it will be different kind
of fashion. 1t will decide the color of
the Gress, and the population of that
country, by beautiful law, will wear
white. l say these things as back
ground to my sermon to show you that
/ have no prim, precise, prudish or cast
iron theories on the subject of human
apparel But the goddess of fashion has
set up her throne In this world, and at
the sound of tho timbrels we are all ex-
,pacted to fall down and worship. The
Old and New Testament of her Bible are
the fashion plates. Her affairs smoke
with the sacrifice Of the bodies, minds
Iand souls of 10000 victims. In her
temple four people stand in the organ
loft, and from them there comes down
a cold drizzle of music, freezing on the
icars Of her worshipers. This goddess
. Iof fashion has become rival Of the
Lord of heaven and earth, and it is high
limo that we unlimbered our batteries
against this idolatry. When come to
count the victims Of fashion, find as
many masculine as feminine. Men make
an easy TRADE against woman, as though
lshe were the chief worshiper at this
idClatrous shrine, and no doubt some
men in the more conspicuous part Of the
pew have already cast glanoes at the
more retired part Of the pew, their look
ID prophecy Of generous distribution.
Ny sermon shall be as appropriate for
Ole end Of the pew as for the other.
Men are as much the idolators of fash
ion as women, but they sacrifice on 4
different part of the altar. With men
THE fashion goes to cigars and clubrooms
and yachting parties and wine suppers.
In the United States the men chew up
aud smoke 800, 900, 900 worth Of to-
lsacco every year. That is their fashion.
In London not long ago a man died who
started in life with $3.50, 900, but he ate
lit all up in gluttonies, sending his
agents to all parts Of the earth for some
hare delicacy for the palate, sometimes
one plate Of food costing him $500 OF
$400. He ate up his whole fortune and
had only guinea left With that he
bought woodcock and had it dressed
in tho very best style, ate 1t, gave two
hours for digestion, then walked out on
Westminster bridge and threw himself
into the Thames and died, doing on q
large scale That you and I have often
Eeen done on small scale. But men dc
hot abstain from millinery and elabora.
ton Of skirt through any superiority Of
humility 1t is only because such ap.
pendagcs would be a blockade to bust.
hess. What would sashes and trains u
yards long do in stock market? And
yet men are the disciples of fashion
! gust as much as women. Some Of them
wear boots SO tight they can hardly
! walk in the paths Of righteousness. And
there are mel who buy expensive suits
bf clothes and never pay for them, and
who go through the streets in great
! stripes of color like animated checker.
| boards. l say these things because
want to show you that am impartial
| I'm my discourse, and that both sexes,
II the language of the surrogate's office,
I lail share and share alike" As God
.ay help me, ] shall show you what are
destroying and beautiful influences
If inor,linate fashion.
The first baleful influence / notice il
fn fraud, illimitable and ghastly. Dc
you know that Arnold Of the Revolu
fion proposed to sell his country in or.
llcr TO st money to support his wife't
wardrobe? | declare here before God
pld this people that the effort to keeI
Up expensive establishments in this
country is sending more business mer
to temporal perdition than all Other
causes combined. What was 1t that sent
Gilman to the penitentiary, and Phila
delphia Morton to the watering Of stocks,
and the lifo insurance presidents to per
jured statements about their assets, anG
has completely upset our American
finances? What was it that overthrow
- United States secretary at Washing
ton, the crash of whose fall shook tn
continent? But why should go to thes