INTRODUCTORY. 15 
hours decorate her person with the victims of her 
wicked and barbarous cruelty. 
And, as Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe well remarks in a 
recent contribution to one of the scientific maga- 
zines, this most culpable fashion, involving a wanton 
destruction of life utterly appalling in its extent, is 
not confined to the women of the higher classes 
alone. “The difference,” to quote his own words, 
“between the factory-girl and the high-born lady is 
only one of degree, the former paying as many half- 
pence for the starling’s wing in its natural state as 
the latter does in shillings for the same article, dyed 
or gilt out of recognition as it may be.” One of the 
most striking and contemptible features in the present 
fashion of dress is its tendency to servile imitation, a 
tendency which induces women to voluntarily inflict 
upon themselves severe physical discomfort, or even 
acute and prolonged suffering, merely because a few 
recognised ‘“‘leaders” are foolish enough to set the 
example. And if these “leaders,” in their unceasing 
attempts to introduce some novelty into the all- 
absorbing study of personal decoration, appear in 
public tricked out with these blood-stained orna- 
ments, hundreds of thousands of others, from the 
highest class to the lowest, will follow in their foot- 
steps. Nor, the mischief once done, can they quell 
the spirit which they have raised. ‘Throughout the 
length and breadth of the land their vanity bears 
its inevitable fruit. Like some vast network, its 
ramifications spread far beyond their reach; and, 
though they themselves, the original and responsible 
Cc 
