Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-03-17

dong. rather than it is geven to the
poure. To speke of the hor
rlble disordinate scantnesse of cloth.
ing Alas! some of them
shewen the bose and the shape of the
horrible swollen membres, that semen
like to the maladie of Hernia, IN the
wrapping of the hosen, and exc the
bnttokkes of hem behlnde, that faren
asst were the hinder part of a she ape
in the full of the none" The disgust
ing fashion of short and tight breeches
which rather exposed the wearer's
nakedness than hid it," was banished
| from France by an edict of Charles V.
The beaux of Elizabeth's reign, how
ever, differed from those of Chaucer's
and Charles times. They stuffed their
breeches with fearthers, rags, and other
light materials until they were swollen
to huge circumference, and at the
same time the ladies wore large hooped
farthingales, something like modern
crinollnes, SO that ''two lovers aside
could surely never have taken one
another by the hand" In a print by
Vertue, Lady Hunsden, leader of
fashion, heads Elizabeth's procession to
Lord Hunsden's. Her standing up
wire ruff rises above her head, her
stavs reach to her knees, and her
farthingale encloses her las in a capa-
cious tub" Disreli says:-"The
amorous Sir Walter Raleigh must have
found some of the Maids of Honour the
most lmpregnable fortlfcatlon his GAL
liant spirit ever assailed: a coup de
main was impossible" Old Stowe SAYS
of this reign, in that time he was held
the greatest gallant that had the deepest
ruff and longest rapier."
We have seen an old French print of
Adam and Eve in elaborate Eastern
costumes, robed, jewelled, and tur-
banned, although we are told our
Biblical ancestors commenced with fig
leaves and did not advance beyond
"coats of SKINS" The graceful and
Greek-like dresses of Anglo-Saxon
times continued to linger long after the
Conqueror. The conquest of France by
the English introduced French fashions.
and these and other refnements con-
tinued to come to us at intervals from
Italy and Holland also. The English
dress of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries was the most varied, the
most bizarre, and the most ridiculous.
In the reign of Charles II. the Puritans
kept watchful and bilious eye upon
every change of fashion. "When
courtiers wore monstrous wigs, they cut
their hair short; when they adopted
hats with plumes, they clapped on
round black caps, and screwed up their
pale religious faces; and when shoe
buckles were revived, they wore
strings" So cantankerous is soured
human nature.
We must not suppose that we have
arrived at the Ultima Thule of dress
yet. Possibly, judging from the trend
of fashion, in course of time things will
veer round and each sex adopt the cos
tune of the other, the men wearing
pettlcoats or kilts-which would be far
more becoming than the present scanty
Jackets and tight trousers-and the
women wearing long coats or blouses,
and breeches or Turkish trousers.
A rational dress must be one which
gives the largest freedom of the body,
is healthiest, lightest, most comfortable,
and best adapted to climate and season.
For picturesqueness perhaps the
others. For purposes of Coquetry, it
would seem that concealment is most
effective. Tacitus tells us that the beau
tiful Poppea exposed only part of her
face ito irrtate curiosity' and to
heighten by imagination the perfection
of the remainder. But whatever we
wear, or however we dress, that must
be most rational which best suits our
comfort and our circumstances, and
whether knickerbockers or skirts, is of
no lawful concern to any of the Peeping
Toms, Paul Prys, and lip-pursed Prudes
who howl at any change or recreation
in which they do not participate. They
who make the loudest outcry are proba-
bly, those whose unshapely ankles and
legs will not bear inspection, but as the
race improves in symmetry, and we'll
formed limbs become general, it is likely
that very short dresses for women, and
knee breeches, as in the graceful olden
times, for the men, will be tie universal
fashion.