Year: 1869

From the Broadway Magazine.


| Another hurtful and ridiculous fashion is
| IN the high-heeled boots, which have again
! worked round from ourgreat- grandmothers.
| A slight heel is an advantage in walking,


but those high heels, with the excessively
| small surface and the esharply-beveled sides,


make walking service of pain end dlffi-
Guilty. Besides, they destroy the shape OF


the leg, which is something to be consider-


ed. They throw the weight forward and
| the strain on the shin, and consequently


they diminish The back muscle, the calf,
and convert the fore part into an ugly bow.
/ The shape ofour shoes and boots is III itself


an outrage against common sense; but we


women are not alone in this absnrdity, nor


are we to blame, SO that as the papers deal


with our own follies specially, we may be
| let off without any personal and peculiar
rlproof therefor.


| But what can we say of the fashion which


dyes the hair, paints the cheeks, blackens
the eyelids with antimony to make the or
| bit look larger and the lashes longer, or
| that expands the pupils with belladonna


no matter at what cost of complexion or
| future eyesight? What, too, can we say of
| the fashion which uncovers the arms and
neck in the evening, after having clothed
| them during the day in flannel or velvet,


or in warm wadded stuffs? Women threat
ened with bronchitis or rheumatism sit all
| day in a warm room muffled up to the throat
in thick materials at night they uncover be-
low their shoulders, and go out in the cold
winter air with just an opera cloak thrown


over their shivering skins. But this is fash
ion, and none of us dare disobey it; none
of US dare 60 out in the evening with dress


es made after the pattern of our morning
| IJ,t a


and short sleeves, to at least equalize the
risk and inure us to the evening attire with
out damage.


There is no intrinsic reason why we


should not be sitting in low bodices and
short sleeves at this very moment, though
we will make it ten o'clock: but if we were,


we should be thought mad or bad, or both,


and not even our staunchest friends would


stand by us. But wholly one thing or the
other would be a wiser system than the


present, and would be productive of fewer
catarrhs, bronchial affections and consump-
tions. All it is sad thought which
springs up from that last word If We
could only see, as those removed from our


own sphere would see, the criminal folly
of sacrificing beautiful and valuable lives
to the fashion which imposed naked necks
as rule for evening costumes Many
sweet young creature, who would have liv-


ed into happy old age as beloved wife
and happy mother, has gone to an early
grave because Of that ball or party at which
she caught cold from exposure But fash


ion so wiled it; and neither mother nor
daughter had strength to resist her impal-
pable but absolute decree.


We all obey her, young and old alike,
those who should keep their beauties sa-
cred, and those who have none to show
the delicate who have to be kept alive by
art and care-the lean who are too ugly for
any one to find pleasure in the contempla-
tion of their ankles the wrinkled and the
gross we all parade ourselves in evening
society without more disguise than bit of
gauze or lace can give, and only a very few
of us that, even when well on into the ff-
ties consider it quite superhuous for any
thing to be gained by concealment. As to
the extent to which we cut down our bod
ices, that is matter too patent and too
painful to be discussed. 1t is race among
us who shall wear the dress lowest and
show the largest expanseof shoulders. And
yet we mean no harm we mean only to be
fashionable. That is the worst of it.


The incest women among us pure, high
minded women who would rather die than
be guilty ofimpropriety, ifit appeared like
an improperly to them, and whose very in
nocence makes them unsuspicious of evil,
vet become accustomed, as every one must,
more or less, to an Objectionable fashion,
and follow it in pure simplicity of nature,
as a thing without meaning or effect
Also, the incest women among us are just
those who always follow-who have not
sufficient boldness Of mind Or manner to
make public protest against anything in
dorsed by the majority who are
not touched by the evil Of baleful custom,
and by whose own purity is eliminated
the poison Of naischievous fashion. They
follow, and their moral support holsters
up the bad habit, and gives countenance
to the bad followers thereof. But what
can we say when originality is still cen
sured as unwomanly, and public protest,


be it even against evil, is set down as


''strong minded and unfeminine?"