About "dacollity" Dress

In lliis day of so-ealled "bloomer' costumes, where the ladies abrevíate the lengtli of their skirts and are consequeutly being called down by oversensitive men and women, perhapa the article given below by Eey J. F. Cowan in tlie Golden Eule about "low-neok and short sleeves" costumes will be read with interest. Poor giris, what are tliey to do? Thev can't wear trains nor bifurcated skirts, nor bloomers, noi low-neck, nor sliort sleeves, but what some one is after them with a sharp stick, and accusing them of being hnmodest or immoral, or something bad when the girls in fact are seeking only to free themselves from the abomination of heavy and cumbersome skirts, 'to support which on their hips, as nearly all are obliged to do, lias eaused more ill health than any other one thing known. Some girls go to extremes no doubt, but as for the girls having impure thoughts or motives it is all uonsense, and for one we protest against it. All the impurity there is about it comes from those who make impurity of it by their owii thoughts. If the people were accustomed to see the costumes they would think no more about them than they do now about the ordinary street dress of ladies. It is all in custom - tbat is all there is of it. For instance our mode of dress is as ludicrous and unbecoming in the eyes of the people of the oriental nations, as their costumes are in our eyes. Any costume -that decently covers the body is what is demanded, its particular style is the result of fashion and custom, that's all. But here is the reverend gentleman's tirade on the other extreme of dress : "A 'dacollity' dress is one worn chiefly on the carpet. For the rest, it consists of a good complexion. In my research for a respectable reason for its use, I found that all the excuses not imported from Dahomey were cut as low in the neck as the dresses. The civilized theory of dress is, that it is for the benefit of the person of the wearer.' The savage idea seems to be that it is something worn for other persons lo gaze at; henee tatooing the face, or boring an owl-hole through the nose and hanging a brass ring thereon. The lownecked dress seems to be built on the savage rather than the civilized theory. If it were simply a matter of ecouomy, good looks and health, ladies might go bare-footed, instead of bare lunged, and hang their shoes around their necks. "The low-necked dress always reminds me of a peacock with its tail spread out for admiration. The presumption is against the head. I do not know what better to cali it than modesty at half-mast. Eve clothed herself with fig leaves as soon as her attention was called to the fact that a naked complexión was a little bit gauzy. Fortúnate])' there were no female dressmakers in her day, and so a whole leaf was used, possibly more. Modern dressmakers could have cut several full dress bodices out of one leaf, and had crazy-quilt patches to spare. , ' 'It is urged that deference to the tastes of the opposite sex is responsible for low-necked dresses. I wish somebody would be kind enough to refer me to the chapter and page. "Who is the Christopher Columbus entitled to the honor of the discovery of all this deference? Who will quote an interview between a fashiouable dressmaker and any of the husbauds or fathers or brothers, in deference to whose tastes the fashions are alleged to be formed? On this bassis, the low-necked dress is prima facie evidence of low-necked manhood, and it is a bid for the coarsest in a man's nature instead of the finest. I don'tlike to see him auctioned offsocheap. If treated kindly, he is capable of developing better things. "It is urged that íashion demands a low corsage in an evening dress. Let her demand. She cannot order out the militia, canshe? Fashion ia a tyrant only with the consent of cowards. Men and womeu command fashion ; the only thing fashion commands is fools. I would rather be dressed than president. "The only people who have an acknowledged right to exposé their shoulders are the Cupids and angels, who have wings on them. I am afraid wings would not flourish in company with low necked dresses. They would wilt under the stare of the fashionable libertine's eye-glass, and so would a genuiue woman. "It is true that to the pure all things are pure ; but to the pure voluptuary a decollete costume is pure sensuousness, while to tlie pure girl it is pure degredation. I do uot think it will be uecessary to start a new dress-reform magazine to advocate the position that sensible girls shall clothe tbeir anus and necks as well as they do tlieir backs and feet."