Year: 1870

LII Is d QucStlou nave dSkeu my
self great many times, as | have
watched the devotees throng the
crowded streets; as | have looked in
youthful faces, vainly trying the hue
of health that the great master hand
penciIled there. Fashion requires a
delicate complexion. a languid air,
and nothing will more certainly pro-
duce the desired effect than her
rounds of nightly dissipation. In
deed young ladies nowadays will do
almost anything for the sake of
complexion of a pearly whiteness,
even swallowing small doses of ar
senic as thoughtlessly as they would
sip from a glass of lemonade; any
thing to appear fashionable. We
hardly recognize the human form di-
vine in the cramped, distorted figures
that 60 up and down our public prom
enades; indeed | think God would
fail to recognize in the belle the cre-
alton of his hand, made up as she is
of rouge, and twists, and stays, and
pannier puffs. Had nature thus de-
formed her, how we would shrink
from the sight! but the goddess of
fashion can do as she pleases-can
filch from our purses, cramp our bod
les and souls. and we are her willing
subjects. We walk, talk, eat, drink,
Sleep-live within the limits of the
rules she has prescribed for us-yes,
and we die, and are buried fashion
ably.


Thousands Of dollars are sacrificed
every month, to crafty some whim Of
that model of all Americas lovely
daughters, the Empress Eugene. Is
her taste in matters Of dress better
than our own, that we should consult
it? Have we no independence? Be-
cause some old dowager says we shall
all bend la Grecian, shall we bend ?
We talk of home manutactures-had
we best not advocate home fashions
also? If a lady does not see fit to
follow every freak of style from Par
is, she is sneered at because she is
questionable; and so the majority of
our ladies must either seclude them
selves from society's walks, or else
"do in Rome as the Romans do"


How many comforts in how many
homes are sacrificed, just because the
wife aud mother dare not appear un-
fashionable; how many husbands
have been ruined because of it? Even
little children must not be dressed
for comfort, but for show; and thus
from the very cradle the health is i'm
paired, and what wonder that instead
of bright, happy, healthful children,
we see puny, 8ickly ones, who, if the
merciful God does not see fit to take
them from the evil to come, will be
curse to a generation yet unborn. As
| glance over the pages OF a fashion
magazine, | see that low bodices are
worn altogether for evening dress.
How many ladies in our land will
discountenance this? Very few of
those that crowd the drawing-rooms
of our elite, and so womanly delicacy
is sacrificed too, to a whim that came
over the water. Does not woman
stimulate man to honor or dishonor
/ by all her acts. as much in matters of
dress as in anything else? If she
shows that she cares little for true
virtue, by losing her woman's modes
/ ty, shall we reproach man because he
cares little for it? Young ladies are
not apt to think that they are educat-
/ ing this young man or that one to
life of vice or virtue; they never stop
to think how little want of delicacy
on their part will finally brand a man
a libertine. This subject admits Of
no varnish. Some belle may be hor-
ri6ed at my plain words, but | can
not help it. We can hardly distiD-
guish virtue from vice in our streets.
The fashionable belle faunts the same
snowy attire that the strange woman"
does; she barters her delicacy, the
other sells her virtue. The only diff
ference is this: one is far down the
highway to sin and crime, the other
is only entering it, only learning her
first lesson. 1t is too much to risk
health, happiness, home, virtue and
all, for the sake Of being fashionable.


If there need be some standard, then
let it be rational one. We have
fallen far enough now since the days
of Eve, and our bodies, brains and


souls are weak enough already, with
out cramping them more. A woman


need not sacrifice delicacy. or health
or home, to dress becomingly; she


may be elegantly and stylishly attir-
ed, and yet not lose one whit of all


that renders her true lady. do
not call those ladies, who are ready


to sacrifice everything for whim OF


fashion. We need to study common


sense more than fashion plates.