funeral processions which pass to the cemeteries of England day by day.
As to physicians, or men of any other calling, approving or liking the fashion, I think it is well that my countrywomen should hear the truth. To the best of my knowledge, no man approves or likes the fashion. One of these same often-quoted medical men observed to me lately that he had never met, or heard of, any man who likes the crinoline or hoop dress. Some few light young men profess that they like to see pretty girls sailing about in the way which is now “the go;” but, of men whose opinion is worth hearing, my friend had never known one whose view differed from his own.
There is something piteous, I can assure the ladies who “go sailing about” in comfortable complacency about their dress, in hearing the accounts given by their fathers, husbands, and brothers, of the defensive measures they take against the mischiefs of the prevalent fashion. Though they suppress more than they tell, they relate enough to excite an old man’s wonder at what the heads of English households will submit to in these days. They say nothing of the difficulty of finding money for the increased cost of female dress; nor, perhaps, of the grief of being subjected to hourly annoyance and inconvenience by wife, daughter, or sister, who is supposed to be bound to consider the comfort of the head of the family: but they speak out about the dangers to life and property. They have bought high fenders and fireguards for every room in the house; and they put forth their full authority on the subject of keeping the fireguards locked. As for the property endangered by skirts too large for the dwelling,—the china, the flower-stands, light tables, and whatever stands upon them,—some gentlemen are vexed, and others take it easily, when these things are smashed; but all regret the days when such property was safe from one generation to another, and when we could all walk about our own houses without thought or care. On the whole, the impression, after an hour’s conversation in the absence of ladies, is one of no little pain. Cynics may find amusement in the helplessness of husbands and fathers who would lose more than they could gain by opposition to the fashion: but men of heart,—men who have been accustomed to respect the domestic sex,—cannot but regret the levity or perverseness, or mere weakness, by which that respect, and the mutual confidence and affection of home are put to too severe a proof.
To continue the list of ladies’ reasons,—here is another of the universal pleas:
III. “I do not like to have my clothes cling about my limbs, or my skirts draggled with mud. The hoop is convenient and pleasant in saving me from this.”
As for the draggling,—it does not appear to be a law of Nature that if clothes are not lifted up, they must sweep the ground. There has been such a thing known as a dress which was light, and which neither touched the ground nor showed more than it ought. That such a thing should be said is another evidence of the skill of mortals in creating their own troubles; as if life had not natural woes enough without artificial ones of our own devising. If women had no other choice than between a dress too heavy to carry and too long to be endured, we could only pity them, and leave them to their choice of evils. As it is,—the present century having afforded specimens of every width and every length of gown and petticoat,—the defence goes for nothing, while compelling a remark which must not be suppressed, but which I will defer for the present.
As for the clinging of the clothes,—there is, under the existing fashion, only the choice between insufficient under-clothing, and that which must sit close to be of any use. In proportion to the expansion of the upper skirts must be the quantity or close fitting, or both, of the under garments.
IV. “The mode is a graceful one,—for ladies who have only to sit, stand, or move gently. They cannot be expected to order their dress by the conditions which affect the working-classes.”
Whether balloon-skirts are graceful is a matter of opinion. I know a good many persons of taste who regard them as the grossest violation of all the principles of grace and beauty exhibited in any mode of dress in our time. To say nothing of the necessity of some recognition of Use to the existence of Beauty in dress, as in furniture, the lines formed by the hoop-skirt and the upper part of the figure are pronounced by artists and other persons of educated taste ungraceful to the point of absurdity. The multiplying caricatures of the ladies of the day as extinguishers, haycocks, &c., could not have grown out of any reasonable or graceful fashion. This is, however, a matter of taste, as I said. But there is a view of it about which there can be no mistake, and no difference of opinion, viz., the outrageous selfishness involved in the two last pleas.
In answer to proof of deaths by the score, and to remonstrance about the embarrassment and inconvenience caused to almost every husband and father in the kingdom, these ladies whose letters are before me, think it enough to say that they find the hoop-skirt comfortable, and think it pretty! If their convenience is suited, no matter for the rest! I regret to say that this defence is to be found in almost every letter of the whole array on my table.
V. “The fashion is agreeable to female modesty as it conceals the state of pregnancy. For the same reason that the Empress of the French introduced it, all the young mothers in the kingdom will sustain it.”
It would be useless to preach here on false modesty, because women who are ashamed of their function of maternity, or who have any sympathy with that shame, cannot be reached by any appeal of mine. But I must not pass by the occasion of appealing to true modesty by a reference to facts which are unquestionable.
An eminent London physician writes as follows:—“I cannot express myself sufficiently strongly of this abhorrent custom,—not only dangerous as regards crinoline, but, since the introduction of hoops, positively indecent. As a friend of mine said the other day, ‘Ladies might have been
