The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-08-27
BILL ARP ON THE FASHIONS.
NOT IN FAVOR OF THE BALLOON
SLEEVES.

SLEEVES.
He Appreciates a Good Figpre-OI
posed to, Mother Hubbards an,
Tight Lacing.
/ don't believe that the most sensi
BILE woman in the world can be who'll
Indifferent to the tyranny of fashion
If they don't follow it near they d.
afar off. Woman seems to be bull
that way and l reckon she can't hell
it,. The men have been fussing abou
Some say that the devil is at the bot
tom OF it, and that fashion is woman'
besetting sin and is the DEVILS traI
/ that he sets to catch them, but l dom
believe 1t. I've noticed my female
folks making these big sleeves and
know they have had no bad effect OF
them.1 They go to church all the same
and to the missionary meeting, and
the Sunday school and sing in the
choir, and are just as kind and In
| dustrious at home as they ever were,
Now the big sleeves were really right
pretty and becoming until they swelled
them out OF all reason, and now they
are horrid. For abouta year the style
of wOman's dress has been prettier
than for many years before. 1t fit her
9
form and mo yement, but this balloon
sleeve business Is deforming her some.
L don't think 1t will last long. But
will compromise on most any fashion
except hoop skirts. / never was re-
conciled to them and never will be.
] remember when they came into
fashion, and they were quite decent
and we'll behaved, but in course of
time they got bigger and more wider
and spreadier until q man dident have
much showing on q sidewalk or the
street cars, and a woman with u full
grown tilter on couldent get into a
church pew with any grace. She
couldent lean up against the counter
in q store, but had to stand off q foot
or SO to keep the tilter from rizing
from horizontal to a perpendicular
That was away back before the war
when George d. Prentice was running
The Louisville Journal, and he wrote
such q sarcastic poem about them that
the ladies got ashamed and reduced
their circumference. But they came
back again few years ago, though
not to such an eXtravagant extent.
was young man when they first come
and the rage was SO infectious and
universal that poor folks who couldent
buy them got the boys to make them
of white oak splits like they made the
cotton baskets. But they were right
cool in summer time, | reckon. They
looked very cool when there was a
breeze.
This balloon sleeve is no new thing,
though 1 don't think they were ever
quite SO large as they are now. The
prophet Ezekiel took dislike to them
about 1000 years ago, for he says,
"Wo to the women who sew pillows
to their armholes." They we're stuffed,
| reckon. But Isaiah made clear
sweep of all kinds of fashions that
prevailed among those Hebrew women.
He proclaimed curse upon - the
tinkling ornaments about their feet
and their cauls and round-tires like
the moon," and the chains and brace
lets and muffiers and bonnets and head
bands and tablets and earrings and
changeable suits of appeared and big
ornaments and rings and nose jewels
and mantles and wimples and curling
pins and glasses and hoods and wells.
Pretty hard on them, wasn't it
The poor creatures dident have much
left, not even "a dress to change in
when company camc-not a ringsnor
nOsegay.
| remember those "round-tires like
the moon," like the new moon when it
is about three days old. | wore one
when | was sweet sixteen. l was as
trim and pretty as a girl and had to
act a girls part in a play on the stage
on commencement night. | was to be
fashionable young lady and Bill
Maltbie or Jim Alexander, I've for
got which'one, was the dude. Some of
the girls made me a round-tire, which
was then called bustle. All the
women wore them, but think mine
was trife larger than the average
1t held half peck OF bran and made
my hindgear stick out a foot. AS
wriggled about with my long train
dress a rude boy slipped up behind me
and dropped quid Of tobacco on the
hustle, which caused much laughter.
That hustle was as big as a big mans
arm and tapered down at both ends,
like the horns of the moon. Some
women wore them nearly as large and
the hump behind would have made a
comfortable seat for small boy.
Sometimes the stuffing leaked and
you could track the girl all around
town by the bran she dropped. A
town hog would keep fat on it. Some
times they came united and dropped
off, which was very mortifying. One
day picked up one in the store where
I was clerking. hung it up in sight,
but never could find the owner. But
in course of time bustles went out and
when the humps came back again they
were not made by that kind OF u round
tires, but made of a stiff grass cloth
that was crimped up and gave a more
graceful slope to the dressing. 1t was
kind of dorsal epaulette and was
sometimes made of religious news
papers, such as The Christian at Work
or The Evangelist.
don't believe that the ladies lace
as much as they used to. | haven't
seen but one girl In lOpg time who
excited my fears, and | am still con-
| cerned for fear she will break in two
right at the coupling, or become un-
coupled some of these days. A good
healthy-sized waist Ia absolutely neces
sary to healthy wife, and nobody but
an idiot would marry q woman with &
dirt-dauber body. Nevertheless. like
to see women fixed up nicely with
corsets on. In fact, with anything OF
save Mother Hubbards.
Speaking about these old-timt
writer's who were 30 hard upon womeI
reminds me of a philippe of Nathanie
Ward, the author Of the first code o
Massachusetts law. He was preach
or, too, and riddled the fashionable
women of that time after this fashion
When / hear nugiperOus dam,
inquire what dress the queen fs in thi
week or what is the nudiastertial
faabion NJ the cOnrt with the desire a