Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/222

 blouse fashion over a chiné waist-ribbon to match, with long pendant ends one side; the sleeves were a distinct novelty, being set in a number of small puffs below one big one, a chiné ribbon being knotted around the arm between each puff."

"Do you 'yearn' for a grey muslin dress?" O ye gods! One is reminded of a comic passage in the "Artemus Ward" papers, where it is related how a lady of the "Free Love" persuasion rushed at the American humorist, brandishing a cotton umbrella and crying out: "Dost thou not yearn for me?" to which adjuration Artemus replied, while he "dodged" the umbrella—"Not a yearn!"

"I should like,"—says one of the poor imbecile "dress" devotees, "the skirt finished off with a wadded hem, or perhaps a few folds of satin, but otherwise it should be left severely plain. These satin, brocade, or velvet dresses should stand or fall by their own merits, and never be over-elaborated."

True! And is it "a wadded hem" or a padded room that should "finish off" these people who spread the madness of clothes far and wide till it becomes a positively dangerous and immoral infection? One wonders! For there is no more mischievous wickedness in society to-day than the flamboyant, exuberant, wilful extravagance of women's dress. It has far exceeded the natural and pretty vanity of permissible charm, good taste and elegance. It has become a riotous waste,—an ugly disease of moral principle, ending at last in the disgrace and death of many a woman's good name.