Year: 1877

backs are both graceful and convenient,
where they are not plainly pinned back
so tight as to distress the wearer. Then
in a moment they cease to be pretty
and look like-the old scratch.


We lay it down as a truth which de-
fies contradiction that, for the first time
in twenty years, fashion in dress is such
that woman may dress herself in an
entirely healthy and convenient manner
and at the same time be dressed quite
in the mode But women usually run
things into the ground, and although it
is now possible to be both fashionable
and comfortable, woman may pinion
her elbows back, and strap her knees to-
gether, and choke herself till she is gag
ged and bucked like deserter in the
late war, if she wishes. That many
women do enjoy making themselves thus
wretched is fact.


Some Of them pleat their dress skirts
down to the knees, all tight and fast,
like silk-worm in his shell.


Il wouldn't like ma to know it, said
a young lady confdentially; "but I
swore coming out of church to-day
actually did. My new silk dress skirt
is pleated clear down to my knees. 1t
goes up to my ears in the neck, and
when [ get my gold beads on they boost
my chin up in the air, and | can't turn
my head at all. 1t was so hot to-day
that nearly roasted with my dress so
tight and sticking so close to me- When
[ stood up after church to 60 home /
couldn't get my dress skirt down again.
| wiggled and pulled at it, but it would
not come down, and / got so worried
with the heat and all that it was quite
dreadful, and before l thought!'-


What did you say?"


Il said damn" said the young lady
She emphasized it as though she would
like to say it again.


The young lady's attire was in the
extreme of the mode, but it violated
the very first canon Of taste in dress in
several particulars. That sacred canon
is this: Nothing which looks uncom-
Portable or unclean can ever be in good
taste. A high-necked dress is stylish
but when it gets so high that it is evi.
IDENTIFY painful to the wearer, then at
becomes painful to everybody else.-
When it gets SO high that it seems as il
it would choke a woman and saw hel
ears off, and half melt her in hot wealth
er, it cannot possibly be pretty. Pin.
backs are likewise convenient and grace.
full, but when they plainly, and to the
eye of every looker-on, pinion wo-
mans knees, then they become painful
ly ridiculous. The extreme of any
fashion is never in good taste.


Another part of the fashionable wo
mans attire, which she runs literally in
to the ground, are those nasty, ragged
street-trains, which seem to be getting
longer, dirtier, and raggeder than ever
A train to lady's robe is graceful anc
pretty in its proper place, but nature
and revelation alike indicate that its
proper place is in the house, not on the
street. A sight more revolving to per
son Of cleanly instincts, or fouler de-
vice for smearing lady's petticoats
and soiling her dainty hose, and the del
icate skin of her ankles, cannot be i'm
agined. One may see any day on the
street expensive silk and grenadint
dress-skirts worn into ribbons almost
with the vile rags and threads
dragging after them, whirling up al
ever step tornado Of dust and cigal
stumps. Clean people shudder at 'em
men hate 'em, step on 'em, and swea
at 'em, If women can't afford but on,
best dress, why can't they loop it up OF
the street. The conundrum is com
mended especially to ladies with dirt.
and ragged trains.


Then again, there are the new-fashion
ed corsets, made very long-half as lonl
again as they used to be-and rounded
in front to fit the form, and hold a wo
man up instead of squeezing her down
Grouty and the doctor have been abus
ing corsets for the last thousand years
But if corset is the new-fashioned
long bodied kind, and is not worn tight
it may be really help to delicate ladies
and those inclined to embonpoint, Grou
ty and the doctor to the contrary not
withstanding.


Civilization has certainly arrived a
that point where a lady may be botl
comfortably and fashionably dressed
She has but to lop off one or two pain
full absurdities that have crept in, anG
the thing is done. By purchasing tn,
very best articles she can afford, anG
those articles which will attract thu
least possible attention, lady of very
moderate means can always look wei
dressed as long as the present fashions
continue Then when the beautiful Prin
cess dress comes in, long may it wave
and long may it stay. Fashion in wo
mans dress will then be essentially les'
elaborate than it has been in twent!
years, and for beauty and for use mor'
adapted to the needs both of fashionable
ladies and of the large and constant!
increasing class of working women ant
business women. In word, it will b.
as near perfection as it is possible for ;
woman's dress in this age of the worl(
to be.


"Humph," says old Grouty. "Hov
about tying their petticoat strings tigh
enough around their waists to cut then
in two? I've been preaching for twent!
years to make women suspend their gar
ments over their shoulders, as man O
any other sensible human being woult
do. I've never yet succeeded in singh
instance of persuading woman to aban
don her pestiferous petticoat-strings.
can't even make my own girls do it
They'd turn into yellow, cross, wrinkled
up invalids, old before their time, ant
thed die thousand deaths; but they
still hang to their beloved petticoat
strings"


"And there, Grouty, you are NOR
than half right"


"Humph,' says old Grouty.


The Princess Of ROumania.