Oct. 16, 1885.] 



• KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



329 



unable to find any beyond that of a blind 

 3e to some invisible, absolutely occult, dictator- 

 ship of fashion. The question is not what is desirable to 

 wear, on either sanitary, economical, or artistic grounds, 

 but simjily what is worn, or what is likely to be worn 

 presently. It is not merely a game of follow my leader, 

 but the following of an absolutely unknown loader. Who 

 is the dictator or designer of those caricatures that appear 

 in the foshion-books, the ladies' newsiiaj.ers, &c. ? It is 

 an invisible, unknown ring of millinery traders, whose 

 business is simply to lead their victims on from one 

 absurdity to another, never allowing any to be permanent, 

 lest the poor sheep should fail to be fleeced at each suc- 

 ceeding season by continuing to wear the dresses or 

 bonnets of the last 



These fluctuations ;iri' 

 pretensions to a basis if] 

 reason, or any other eleiii 

 absurdity. One day i( 



I of the slightest basis or 

 i;il idiivonience, good taste, 

 capaljle of alleviating their 

 that the elegance of 



skirt is proportionate to its circumference and outward 

 projection, and complex machinery of iron hooping is 

 invented to distend it. So long as the fetish of fashion 

 maintains this decree its worshijipers are compelled to 

 admire the abomination, and actually pervert their 

 natural sense of beauty sufiiciently to do so. Presently 

 the invisible Moloch orders that skirts shall be narrowed, 

 shall be limp and clinging to the legs, shall be extended 

 behind in hideous humps and trails. Then these become 

 admired, and the proprietor of a dozen yards of humps 

 and draggle of costly material is envied by her poorer 

 sisters who cannot afford to stir up the dust or sweep the 

 mud with more than two or three yards. The " duck of 

 a bonnet" of to-day is the vulgar "fright" of next 

 season, and not the smallest approach to any rational 

 excuse can be pleaded for the change of taste. It is 

 simply morbid. What a chaos of contradictions must 

 infest and stultify the intellect of women who are 

 subjected to this continuous training in inconsistency ! 



Besides this undermining of the judgment there is the 

 degrading bondage of ever following the folly of the 

 foolish, and never daring to act independently. 



Nobody can desire more earnestly than I do to see the 

 views of John Stuart Mill concerning female suffrage 



fried out ; but I dare not advocate their adopt]' 



fearing that v 

 as changeable as their ih 

 that if they had vi^ds 

 would enslave them f^r 

 tually as milliners, (Ir.s: 

 makers, ifcc, at present sii< 

 them. If they have not 

 independence to enable t 

 becoming style of dress, 

 to it, are they likely to u 



itical propriety will be 

 t'rsonal elegance, and 

 political wire-pullers 



L the 





urijilesfur Ihe 

 have any prin 



iples 



they have no approach to ti: 

 of their taste, are tiny lll^ 

 the government of lie ii- |hi 



If they continue to defonu i lulr heads and sprain ilieir 

 ankles at the dictation of rarisiaii tiiillinevs, are we ui.t 

 justified in fearing that they may fnlldw the llmi u il inns 

 of Parisian politics, or bow dciu ii to sonir ni h, i- :mi il.i--,,u> 

 dictatorship. It would be fatal to the nation if an im- 

 portant proportion of the constituency were capable of 

 being led blindly, submissively, and unthinkingly by an 

 outside interested dictatorship, such as that which 

 governs the senseless fluctuations of fashion in female 

 dress and so easily enslaves the whole sex. 



Let not the gentlest of my " gentle readers " mis- 



understand me ; I am not railing against i retty dresses, 

 pretty bonnets, pretty ribbons, or any other really pretty 

 decorations for pretty women — and all women are pretty, 

 more or less. On the contrary, I maintain that beauty 

 being one of the natural attributes of woman, she is 

 bound to cherish and cultivate it most religiously. Due 

 and proper attention to dress is one of the domestic 

 duties of all women, especially of married women. The 

 wife who neglects her home dre.ss fails in one of lit r 

 duties to her husband. But such dress should be de- 

 signed in accordance with the fixed principles of good 

 taste and suitability to occupations and means. The 

 cheapest dress of the poorest woman may be tasteful and 

 elegant ; the dress of the kitchen, of the nursery, or the 

 drawing-room may all have these attributes combined 

 with suitability. But the fulfilment of these conditions 

 of good taste is obviously impossible if the pattern of 

 dress is compulsorily changed from season to season in 

 obedience to mere caprice, void of any element of that 

 progressive improvement which alone should be the 

 motive of every change. 



PIONEER PASSENGER RAILWAY. 



FIFTY-FIVE years have elapsed since the opening of 

 what may be regarded as the first passenger railway 

 ever constructed La this or any other country. 

 Although the Stockton and Darlington line was the 

 first railway ever constructed in England, having been 

 opened on September 27, 1825, it was primarily 

 intended and used for the transit of coal, lime, 

 and bricks from the interior to the seaboard. It 

 is true that, in the following month, a passenger 

 coach was placed on the line, drawn by one horse, 

 and performing one journey daily between the two 

 towns, travelling at the rate of about nine miles au 

 hour. The waggons containing coal and other mer- 

 chandise were drawn by a locomotive built by George 

 Stephenson, the maximum speed being from ten to 

 twelve miles an hour. The 15th of September, 1830, 

 will therefore be remembered, for all time, as the 

 day on which travelling by steam - power on a large 

 scale was inaugurated, in the opening of the Liver- 

 pool and Manchester Railway, where the complete 

 success of the locomotive steam-engine was ac- 

 complished; the "Northumbrian" engine, on that 

 occasion, with tie Duke of Wellington and other 

 ■ list iiiuiiislnd visitors in the train, attainiig a speed 

 ..1 Hill IV six miles fin hour. Following upon the 

 o| I iiln_r of the Liverpool and Mi.nchestcr line, the 

 coiisiniri ion of railways in different parts of the country 

 i;'|iiill\ sni-eeeded each other, and it is iateresting to look 

 III \sliai lias been accomplished in this branch of ent - 

 iie( i-ini^- iluring the last half-century, not only as regards 

 our own country, but also in Europe and other foreign 

 regions. Confining our notice to the United Kingdom, 

 we find, according to the last official return, brought, 

 down to the close of the year 1884, that the autli.-rised 

 c.ipllal in respect of the lines now open. .1 f r t: iVo wa-s 

 ;i,i 1 1, at |.oriod, .£742,417,327, and the a: . ' ._ 1. . f 



iMlhNax- 17,512 miles, which will shori : ;i, ,• 



inerease.l by the completion of the sr\ . r , a Inie.s 

 now in course of construction. The total outlay in the 

 construction of the lines now oi)en, down to the end of 

 last year, was £628,276,016, and the estimated further 

 expenditure during the present year is upwards of 

 £12,000,000. What may be classed as the fifteen leading 

 lines, which have from time to time ftbsorbed so many 



