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7, 1863.] satisfaction. She was obliged to let Helen lay her in her bed; and then she was soothed by Helen’s singing a hymn familiar in the household worship at home, and apt to operate like a spell in reducing passion to a calm.

weeks ago I gave in an account of the cases of death by crinoline, or hoop, which had come before coroners’ juries in the course of a few months, and I called the persistence of my countrywomen in that mode of dress, in the face of such facts, a new sort of wilful murder. That collection of facts has produced the sensation that might naturally be expected; but some of the incidents of the case could hardly, I think, have been anticipated by anybody. There has been no dispute about the facts, for the sufficient reason that they are indisputable; and almost every woman who has remarked to me on the statement has used the same word about it—that it is “appalling.” After going thus far together, the commentators on my appeal part off in various directions.

The fervent thankfulness of not a few women—ladies who dress well—has satisfied me that in the case in question there is no exaggeration in speaking of the tyranny of the leaders of fashion, and of the slavery which compliance with the mode imposes upon women. I am satisfied that the suffering undergone by many of my countrywomen, whether they wear hoops or decline to do so, is real and serious. Either way, they have much pain of mind to bear, and constant inconvenience. Those certainly suffer least who have resolution to refuse a compliance which they know to be wrong in every point of view: they have not to reproach themselves with helping to generate sin and death, and they must be conscious that they preserve for themselves that respect and confidence from men which the present generation of Englishwomen has so rashly forfeited; but they have their troubles too. The weaker majority use in regard to them the tyranny of majorities, and make them suffer for their refusal to follow the multitude in causing the evil which all admit to be “appalling.” My purpose, however, in speaking of these rational and conscientious women, was to say that I have been surprised at the number which has become known to me within a few weeks. They afford a sufficient foundation for a strong hope of present resistance, and of a not distant change of fashion. “Remember,” said a friend of mine to some little girls who were looking wistfully at other people’s hoops; “Remember, when you grow old, and hear this fashion spoken of as it will be spoken of hereafter, that neither your mamma, nor grandmamma, nor aunt, ever wore a crinoline or a hoop.” Such ladies as these naturally hail any such exposure of the mischief as my collection of coroner’s cases afforded; but there are others who are more grateful still,—the women who have sense enough to see and understand the evil, but who have not courage to discountenance it in their own practice. They trust that their chain will be broken for them, lacking as they do the spirit to break it themselves. I do not feel disposed or able to blame such women. It does require a calm and sustained courage to dress unlike other people; and all one can do in regard to the well-disposed who are weak is to pity their trouble, and help to extinguish the cause of it.

These are the two classes of commentators who are pleased and thankful. All the rest are, as far as I know, more or less displeased and vexed. Some express their feelings more, and some less, graciously; some are very amiable and cheerful: some are insolent: and all agree in offering such a defence as they can of the fashion which they admit to have murdered scores of women in the course of last year. Two or three of their pleas are urged by them all: but there are other grounds of defence remarkably characteristic of their proposers. My object now is to state these grounds of defence, in order to see what can be said on that side of the question, and to ascertain what it amounts to.

This plea appears in every one of the array of letters before me. I am told that the weight of clothes which a young growing girl puts off at night is something fearful. If such a weight were all borne by tightening the dress round the waist or haunches, the girl’s health and figure would be injured, and probably her spine would suffer. The hoop carries off the chief part of the weight; and thus, wearing it is actually a sanitary measure.

The obvious solution of such a difficulty seems to be,—not to wear heavy skirts; and to suspend such weight as there is from the shoulders, which were made to bear the burden.

This brings me to an item of the defence which is not ventured upon by many. It appears, however, in more than one letter, viz.:

Who these approving medical men are I do not know. I know several who disapprove the mode as heartily and as openly as I do. “Cool and airy.” Yes! One of the first physicians in London was seen, the other day, more disturbed and vexed than some of his friends ever saw him before. He was in great pain of mind at witnessing the havoc made by “this detestable fashion” in a home in which he was interested. The life of the lady depends on her being clothed as no woman who wears a hoop can be clothed; and she positively and obstinately refuses to leave off her hoop. What this physician thinks is conceivable enough.

On every hand, the doctors are telling us of the diseases which prevail among children, and older girls, from the deficiency of warmth under the skirts.

Country surgeons say that women and girls in every village take advantage of the hoop to hide the scantiness of their clothing. The “coolness” and “airiness” of the hooped dress is the cause of the fevers in which hundreds of sufferers are now tossing on their beds, and of some of the