The record-union., 1894-01-16
REAL MODESTY.
A Woman Tells What It is and What
1t is Not.
Scathing Rebuke to the Followers of
Some of the Fashions of
the Day.

Some of the Fashions of
the Day.
Contributed to the RECoRD-UNION by Lady
Cook, nee tennessee C. Clafln.l
One by one the old-world virtues are
disappearing. Time was when chlvalry
was the crown of man and modesty the
diadem of woman. Chivalry has given
place to selfshness and modesty to chic.
Not that those splendid qualities can ever
die, for there are, and always will be,
noble men and pure women, but their
diminution is serious and Of evil augury.
The past has only produced one other
people resembling ourselves-austere,
brave, masterful, enterprising at nome
and abroad, colonizing and roadmaking
all the world over, skillful in peace and
matchless in war. The Romans were the
English of ancient times; the English
are modern Romans.
But it is to be noted among the first
signs of the decline Of Rome that her
women, so famous for their virtue, had
become demoraliZed. The national fiber
had relaxed. Simplicity of life and man
ners made way for luxury. For duty
luptuous pleasure after pleasure had
palIed upon the jaded tastes until at
length honor and decency were obliter-
ated and nameIess horrors were OF daily
and common occurrence. ST. Paul gave
forcible evidence OF contemporary man
ners when he represented his fellow
citizens as being ''given over to unclean-
ness" If history has any value, it is by
placing before us the wisdom and errors
of the past, that we may adopt the one
and reject the other. And ii mOdeSty
was cause of national decadence, then it
would undoubtedly be the same again.
But it may be said, what is modesty?
[ will endeavor to point out what it is
and what it is not.
Words have varying values. They may
stand for certain ideas to-day, and for
their opposites in the future or in the
past. Their Specification is modified by
the development OF intellect. of custom
and sentiment. Originally "modesty,"
borrowed from the French modesto"
and from the Latin 'Inodestia," meant
simply in measure-therefore, modera-
ton or temperance as opposed to excess.
Gradually it has become more refined
and spiritualized, so that while it may in
some cases be still used in its vulgar and
primary sense, it now denotes purity of
thought and feeling. The truly modest,
therefore, are alone "the pure IN heart"
and the nearer they approach to pertec-
ton, the greater is the measure OF their
modesty. Such blessed ones become
centres of purifying influences, and, like
the fountains OF Sahara, they cleanse and
refresh the stained and weary waytarers,
and create IN the desert vast oaSeS of
verdure and beauty.
Prudishness is not modesty, for has
not someone rightly said 1.-THE overnice
are those OF nasty ideaS?" Chastity is
Il -t,A x1tNn
are not so from choice. a person may
be both prudish and chaste, and yet not
truly modest. The downcast eye, the
quiet demeanOr, the maiden-lille reserve,
may often be its external counterfeits;
the mere coating OF a "whited sepul-
chre." Concealment is not modesty,
else would the Turkish women be the
most modest, whereas they are the most
depraved. Eve did not make the fig-leaf
apron until she lost her innocence, thus
her covering was her badge Of guilt.
Purity has nothing to conceal. Modesty,
like love, ''thinketh no evil,' but, un-
like love, it also subdues evil thought in
others.
once observed some young women ar
irving unexpectedly in a gallery upon a
group Of nude" statues. They gave one
good look, then screamed and fed as if
pursued by satyrs. The immodesty that
alarmed them was not in the statues, but
in their own impure minds. 1t was an
observation of the great F1axman that
1.-The students, in entering the academy
where they studied from the nude figure,
seemed to hang up their passions with
their hats" Their familiarity with nat
ural beauty led them only to inform their
minds and to purify their tastes. When
Mr.. Wallace, the great naturalist, was
travelling on the Amazon, he attended in
a remote place at dance given by the
native Indians. All the guests, men and
women, except himself, were perfectly
nude. He says the master of the cere-
monies performed his duties with grave
dignity, and the decorum of all present
compared favorably with that Of the most
polished assembly in a London ball
room. These poor creatures went to
dance and not to tiirt. They had never
even heard of 'HOni soft qui NAL
pense."
We pride ourselves on being more
modest than these. Are we really so?
1t seems to me that naked Indian,
thinking no guile. is more blameless than
a civilized belle who bares herself so far
as public opinion will concede; who con-
ceals only that she may excite; who dis
plays to the very point of expectancy.
The sister of St. Gregory of Nyssa was
afflicted with cancer III the breast, but
could not bear that a surgeon should see
il, and was rewarded for her modesty by
a miraculous cure" (Mr. Leckv in
European Moras.'') Miracles nova
days are quite OF another sort; we gem
crate impurity and are accounted pure.
Witness fashionable party; white arms
are flashing above the shoulders. The
"modesty bits" of our great-grandmoth-
ers are absent. and the necks and bosoms
of all are as bare as were those of the
courtesans OF Charles II. Even the back
is displayed about almost to the waist by
a gigantic V. Is it the initial of virtue or
of vice? We do not pity the old cam
paigners, the veterans of twenty seasons.
But the young and innocent girls of II,
who have Just left the schoolroom, whose
passions are fresh and their irnaglnations
strong-for these we tremble. How many
OF these Will escape such an ordeal un-
scathed? And with what object have
they been commanded to expose their
budding charms to the critical eyes of bold
and observant men? viii it enhance a
maiden's modesty. or is it the first easy
step to Avernus?
Awarded Highest +