THE LITTLE HEALTH OF LADIES. 



359 



(or of simulating feebleness) to obtain the tender- 

 ness. The misconstruction and abuse of the be- 

 atitudes of the gospel, as manifested in the rise 

 of the mendicant order of friars, is notoriously a 

 sad chapter of history. I do not think it a less 

 sorrowful one that an analogous abuse has led to a 

 sjrt of canonization of bodily and mental feeble- 

 ness, cowardice, and helplessness, among women. 

 Can we question which is the nobler ideal — the 

 modern, nervous, pallid, tight-laced, fine Lady of 

 Little Health — or the " valiant woman " (as the 

 Vulgate calls her) of whom King Lemuel saith, 

 " She girdeth her loins with strength, and strength- 

 ened her arms. Strength and honor are her cloth- 

 ing ; and she shall rejoice in time to come ? " : 



We have now touched on the subject of dress, 

 which plays so important a part in the health of 

 women that it must here be treated somewhat at 

 length. A little girl in a London Sunday-school, 

 being asked by a visitor " why God made the 

 flowers of the field ? " replied (not unconscious 

 of the gorgeous paper poppy in her own bonnet), 

 " Please, ma'am, I suppose for patterns for arti- 

 ficial flowers." One might anticipate some an- 

 swer scarcely less wide of the mark than that of 

 this sophisticated little damsel, were the question 

 to be put to not a few grown women, " Why do 

 you wear clothes ? " Their most natural response 

 would obviously be, "To be in the fashion." When 

 we have visibly wandered a long way from the 

 path of reason, the best thing we can do is to 

 look back to the starting-point and find out, if 

 possible, where we have diverged. In the mat- 

 ter of raiment that starting-point is not hard to 

 find — indeed, to mark it is only to state a series 

 of truisms. 



Human clothing has three raisons d'etre, which, 

 in order of precedence, are these: 

 I. Health. 

 II. Decency. 



III. Beauty. 



Health demands — 



1. Maintenance of proper temperature of the 

 body by exclusion of excessive heat and cold. 



2. Protection from injury by rain, snow, dust, 

 dirt, stones to the feet, insects, etc. 



3. Preservation of liberty of action to all the 

 organs of the body and freedom from pressure. 



Decency demands — 



4. Concealment of some portions of the hu- 

 man frame. 



6. Distinction between the habiliments of men 

 and women sufficient to avert mistake. 



1 Proverbs xxxi. 



6. Fitness to the age and character of the 

 wearer. 



7. Concealment, when possible, of any dis- 

 gusting personal defect. 



Beauty demands — 



8. Truthfulness. The dress must be genuine 

 throughout, without any false pads, false hair, or 

 false anything. 



9. Graceful forms of drapery. 



10. Harmonious colors. 



11. Such moderate consistency with prevail- 

 ing modes of dress as shall produce the impres- 

 sion of sociability and suavity, and avoid that of 

 self-assertion. 



12. Individuality: the dress suiting the wear- 

 er as if it were an outer body belonging to the 

 same soul. 



(Be it noted that the fulfillment of this highest 

 condition of tasteful dress necessarily limits the 

 number of costumes which each person should 

 wear on similar occasions. No one body can be 

 adorned in several equally suitable suits of clothes, 

 any more than one soul could be fittingly housed 

 in twenty different bodies.) 



Glancing back over the above table, we find 

 this curious fact : The dress of men in all Western 

 nations meets fairly all the conditions of health 

 and decency, and fails only on the side of beauty. 

 The dress of iwmen, on the contrary, ever variable 

 as it is, persistently misses the conditions of 

 health ; frequently violates the rules of decency ; 

 instead of securing beauty, at which it aims first 

 instead of last, achieves, usually, ugliness. 



It is to be remembered for our consolation 

 and encouragement that men have arrived at 

 their present good sense in dress only within 

 two or three generations. A hundred years ago 

 the lords of creation set beauty above health or 

 convenience, just as the ladies do now, and pea- 

 cocked about in their peach blossom coats and 

 embroidered waistcoats, surmounted by wigs, for 

 whose stupendous discomfort even a seat on the 

 judicial beuch can scarcely reconcile the modern 

 Englishman. Now, when the men of every Eu- 

 ropean nation have abjured such fantastic ap- 

 parel, we naturally ask, Why have not the women 

 followed their example ? Why is the husband, 

 father, and brother, habited like a being who has 

 serious interests in life, and knows that his per- 

 sonal dignity would be forfeited were he to dress 

 himself in party-colored, be-ribboned garments, 

 and why is the wife, mother, or sister, bedizened 

 like a macaw, challenging every observer to note 

 how much of her time, thoughts, and money, must 



