440 
Annual Report of the 
dred years ago: “As to the firste sinne in superfluitie of clothing 
whiche that maketh it so dere to the harme of the peple, not only 
the coste of the embrowding, the desguising, endenting, or barring, 
ounding, paling, winding or bending, and serablable wast of cloth 
in vanitee; but ther is also the costlewe furring in hir gounes, so 
muche pounsoning of chesel to maken holes, so rnoche dagging of 
sheres, with the superfluitee in length of the foresaide gounes, trail¬ 
ing in dong and in the myre, on hors and eke on foot, as well of 
man as of woman, that all thilke trailing is veraily (as in effect) 
wasted, consumed, threadbare and rotten with dong, rather than it 
is yeven to the poure, to gret damage of the foresayd poure folk, and 
that in sundry wise: this is to sayn, the more that cloth is wasted, 
the more must it cost to the poure peple for the scarceness; and 
furthermore, if so be that they wolden geve svviche pounsonedand 
dagged clothing to the poure peple, it is not convenient to were for 
hir estate, ne suffi saint to bote hir necessitee to kepe hem fro the 
distemperance of the firmament.” 
Women have been slower than men to accept the sober laws of 
taste falling to them as high and holy beings. It is now two hun¬ 
dred years since men, Englishmen, went abroad in all the colors of 
the rainbow. The male court butterfly was pinned up in our his¬ 
toric cabinet about the time of the Charleses, by the unsympa¬ 
thetic bayonet of the Puritan. 
Not only does every European capital present more or less of 
this spectacle, not even the peasant may work the fields, without, 
as she stoops to her task, dropping her half yard of calico, or serge, 
or drugget into the dirt at her feet. Custom has left her none of 
the amenities, nothing of the gentleness, no share of the respect of 
her sex; it is only faithful in transmitting to her this tj’ranny of 
dress. Having lost every one of the pleasant fruits of her bondage, 
she yet dare not touch or alter those conventional skirts, which, 
with no added decency, bring onty weariness and filth. Chief 
among the annoyances of railroad travel is dust. A bright inven¬ 
tor conceived the idea of dropping on either side of the car a cur¬ 
tain or panel that should hold the dust under the vehicle, allowing 
its escape only at the rear. Looking around for a name under 
which to christen his invention, with a happy insight into anal¬ 
ogies, he termed it Salisbury’s Petticoat Duster. 
Simplicity of parts, ease of construction and adjustment, would 
